Chapter 1

A. Background of the
Study
B. Objectives
Group 6 named Simper Fidelis aims in doing this research is the following statement:

Deepen our understanding of the structural conditions and the changes that are needed in
making and enacting of public policy to address these conditions;
Help identify strategies and opportunities for promoting gender equity within key
institutions, policy-making processes, non-governmental policy actors and the social
discourses within which public policy is framed;
Help specify the changes that are needed in mens gender practices and identities that will
serve to promote gender equity within public policy towards the goal of preventing
violence against women.
Define gender needs in the phase of politics.

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There is, Pateman has influentially proposed something about the discipline of the
politics and the orthodox understanding of the subject matter of political inquiry that makes it
particularly resistant to feminist argument. She claims that the power of men over women is
excluded from scrutiny and deemed irrelevant to political life and democracy by the patriarchal
construction of the categories with the political the political theorist work (Pateman 1989: 13-
14). Joni Lovenduski makes a similar claim. The dominant conception of political studies is
bound to exclude women, she tells us, largely because women do not usually dispose of public
power, belongs to the political elites or hold influential positions in government institutions
(Lovenduski 1981: 88).

What is intriguing here is that Lovenduski and Pateman make the same claimin
regard to the orthodox study of politics even though they significantly
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http://ke.boell.org/sites/default/files/uploads/2014/01/background_paper_on_engendering_politic
al_leadership_and_accountability_in_nigeria_.pdf

https://books.google.com.ph/books?hl=en&lr=&id=lfMdAAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PT8&dq=ge
nder+political+background&ots=jknarX9DS5&sig=hTq1e-
A7LNIRXxyKvmcRP3PcK8c&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=gender%20political%20background
&f=false

http://www.wikigender.org/images//f/f9/Gender_analysis_of_women's_political_participation_in
_7_South-East_Asian_countries.pdf
 Contemporary notions of democracy provide that every citizen has the right to seek public
office and participate in the process of decision making. However, in practice many social interests
are not represented, as only a small proportion of the population seeks elective office and even
fewer are elected. This includes women and the people living with disability, who quantitatively
are the most under-represented as candidates in elections.

Various economic, political, social and systemic practices narrow the field of potential
female candidates. Systemic factors such as the type of electoral system adopts; (the First-Past-
The-Post system) and the nature of the party system affect mens and womens access to political
life. Party politics is still virtually an exclusive affair of men as only very few women were elected
into offices of political parties. The party machineries are male dominated. Womens wings of
parties have been abolished but have been quickly replaced by the position of Woman Leader.

Male dominated political culture and values are one of the reasons for gender imbalance in
elective offices. The situation has been further aggravated by the growth of corruption, criminal
activity and violence perpetuated by the major political parties. There is a widespread incidence
of violence against women and women are victims of different forms of discrimination and
religious fundamentalism. Women hold a secondary position except as voters. Indigene-ship has
been used as a weapon to exclude women from political participation. Women who are married to
men who are not indigene of their local government or state suffer systematic discrimination. They
are told to return to their maiden local government to contest for elective positions. At the same
time their marriage to men from other local government has alienated them from their families of
birth.

Electoral finance is an increasing obstacle to the achievement of gender equality in the

electoral process. This is partly because women have traditionally been relegated to the private,
domestic sphere, and thus have neither the personal financial resources nor the moneyed networks
to allow them to compete effectively in increasingly expensive electoral politics. The cost of
contesting a party nomination was disadvantageous to women, who on the average had less access
to financial resources than men (Brodie 1991:7).

There is always a clear preference of male aspirants over female aspirants by party machinery, and
the electorate. Other experiences include insincere negotiations for consensus in favor of male
aspirants or sheer pressure from family engineered by external forces to compel potential female
aspirants to step down in favor of male aspirants. Among the hypotheses given as to why women
are eliminated in the primary process or if they succeed, later on as candidates, is that they usually
cannot compete with male aspirants or candidates in terms of vote buying.

The process for the selection of candidates is not always an open democratic process where
the merits of male and female aspirants are determined by the party members. The men who fund
the parties or Godfathers see themselves as the owners of the parties and therefore control and
dominate others including the party leadership. Even when women win the party nomination
exercise they still have several hurdles to cross within and outside the party. According to Ibrahim
and Salihu (2004)1 several labels (anti party people, cultural deviant, use of invectives and insults)
are used as strategies to exclude them from participating and once a negative label has been
successfully imposed on an aspirant, it is easy to exclude the labelled person irrespective of the
formal rules and procedures established, because the persons legitimacy has been eroded.

Political Parties are critical in determining who runs for elective positions, yet women are
not found in decision making organs of parties. The more popular position for women is that of
Woman leader which has little or no powers. Women are often marginalized and excluded at the
Political primaries level by neglecting delegates votes or cancelling primaries completely and
presenting a consensus candidate. Although many of the political parties have waived the payment
of high nomination fees for women, they hardly make it through the primaries.

The state has therefore not shown sufficient commitment both in terms of providing the
appropriate legal framework, accountable institutions and the capacity for gender planning and
budgeting. It had not accepted affirmative action for bridging gender gaps, had not engendered
party and election guidelines despite the existence of a National Gender Policy and the ratification
of CEDAW since 1985.

Few women are card carrying members of political parties and their recreation activities
were tied to their reproductive activities and were home based limiting skill building, mentoring
and constituency building. Male politicians in comparison were more involved in political
associations and recreation clubs and spent more time outside the home networking with other
men. Traditional Rulers and Religious Leaders have a lot of influence over who contests and wins
elections particularly at the local government level.

Gender politics of policy research is one component of the overall UN multi-country study
methodology. The gender politics of policy research can be conducted on its own or with the other
components for a more comprehensive picture of the social structures and the underlying norms,
attitudes and behaviors related to mens use of violence against women.

The framework for the gender politics of policy research component was developed in
consultation with a range of actors and experts in the field during a regional research meeting in
Bangkok (69 July 2010).

As discussed in the conceptual framework document, there is now a substantial body of

work on various aspects of mens gender identities and practices, and there is a growing focus on
how the patriarchal system as well as the power and privileges of individual men work to the
detriment of womenbut also, in certain specific instances, to the detriment of some men.

The ways in which violence supports patriarchythose structures and institutions created
to sustain and recreate mens dominance and power over womenhave long been documented by
feminist scholarship and activism. More recently, research studies and program interventions have
sought to better understand and address the connections between masculinities and the nature and
impacts of violence that supports patriarchy. This work has variously drawn on tools and literature
from psychology and sociology to conceptualize the masculinity of violence, with the intention of
developing strategies for working with men and women to prevent violence against women.
 In recognizing that there is not a singular masculinity but rather multiple forms of
masculine expression and practices that can and do change over time, the masculinities work with
men has expanded to also look at how men can choose non-violent, gender equitable ways to be a
man. By doing so, men are thus challenging the hegemonic practices of masculinity. To support
men in challenging hegemonic masculinity, much of the focus of the masculinities work with men
has been on the internal and interpersonal dimensions of mens experience of the gender order.
Through education campaigns and intensive group discussions, this work has sought to address
mens individual internalization of gender norms and how this plays out in their attitudes and
violent behaviors. It is these attitudes and behaviors that constitute the primary focus of the
quantitative and qualitative components of the UN multi-country study methodology.

At the same time as examining the internal and interpersonal dimensions of mens
experience of the gender order, it is also important to consider the institutional and ideological
dimensions of its workings. To prevent violence against women, it is essential to understand the
ways in which gendered violence is reproduced by the policies and cultures of political, economic
and social institutions and legitimized by ideologies that sanction hierarchies, based not only on
gender but other axes of inequality, including sexuality, class, race, ethnicity, caste, religion/faith
and age. This institutional and ideological focus serves to emphasize that violence is not simply
the behavior of individuals but is structured by and within unequal social relations as a tool of
oppression. Therefore, it is worthwhile to explore not only individual mens experiences and
perpetration of violence but also the broader environment of policies, institutional cultures and
ideologies that enable violence to occur.

It could be useful to explore mens roles within the context of policy and policy-making.
As the policy makers and power holders in societies across the region, elite men are a critical
constituency for driving policy changes. As the managers and staff of political, economic and
social institutions, men can assume an essential role in ensuring that progressive policies are
enforced. As gendered beings, men can also benefit from changes in the gender order, alongside
women, because violence harms some men at the same time as it oppresses women. Many men
experience oppression on the basis of class exploitation, racism, homophobia and caste and/or
faith-based discrimination, thus they share a common interest with women in demanding policies
for greater social justice, including gender justice.

To generate this greater understanding of the policies, institutional cultures and ideologies
that create an environment in which there is gender equity and equality of men and women in the
governmental politics.