The political scene occupied with the heritage of the past requests much more efforts from women and women’s groups than only participation of women in post-war elections. This is the only possibility that the public request for equal opportunities for women in politics might break through patriarchal and traditional autism.
The key-problem is not any more the women’s right to vote and to be elected, but to open the question about the public presentation of women as an interest group in Bosnian-Herzegovinain society. Women do have different interests and needs from men and their individual entrance into the political scene does not automatically mean that women’s interests are actively advocated for. The platform of women’s politics is based on the support of women’s political rights and the liberation of the female sex from discrimination.
The public requests are articulated through three principles which open the way to female participation in decision making processes. These are:
According to the first principle women would have the right on comparative numerical representation in decision making bodies, since they represent more than half of the population of Bosnia-Herzegovina. According to the second principle the non-engagement of women in politics represents a waste of human resources and to ignore half of the talent and potential which is at the disposal in our country. According to the third principle women have to be integrated in political activities, since that is the only way that their interests will be represented instead of being pushed to the margin of political priorities.
Since 1998 activists are stressing that women in politics have different interests than men. This makes the need for a gender-related needs-definition in social structures evident. Women should transform political institutions and make account for their action because of their experience concerning discrimination and marginalization.
Women in non-governmental organizations know from their experience, that affirmative action is the only tool to assure the representation of a minimum of 30% women at all levels were decisions are made. Apart from this, there is a need to increase the motivation of women-engagement on the level op women’s mass movements, if we do not want that men define political areas for women.
But the reality is different from theoretical requests and expectations of women activists. There is a limited co-operation between female politicians and activists in women organizations. Especially evident is the gap between female representatives and women organizations. Female politicians do not invest enough efforts to create channels of communication and lobbying for the questions of promotion of women in decision making bodies. Female politicians and the few women on decision making level developed a strategy of surviving in a discriminatory surrounding instead of developing new forms of political culture. A fact that postpones tremendously the liquidation of the unequal position of women in politics.
Research showed that female politicians developed different styles of political engagement, but that they are very reluctant in representing women and women’s interest and by that the whole process of public decision making still does not improve concerning quality and justice.
When it comes to the representation of women in the political institutions of the country, Bosnia-Herzegovina experienced positive change. After the parliamentarian elections in autumn 1998 the number of female parliamentarians rose from 2,7% to 27,64 % - what brought Bosnia-Herzegovina in the position of a leading country in the region concerning female participation. In the elections of 2000 and 2004 this percentage was reduced for about 10% and in the election of 2006 for about 5%. The picture of real representation of women in the Bosnian-herzegovinain legislative today is 15,25 %.
On the national executive level there is not a single woman, while on the executive level of the entities and of the local level the representation of women lies around 5-7 %. In the area of the judiciary women are represented the most with around 60%. Women are involved in reform processes around health, education, social welfare and local administration, but not in the reforms concerning the army and the police. Women are the one who research, collect, write and present data and information, but they do not decide.
Despite the fact that there is an institutional framework for the promotion and supervision of gender equality and a policy of gender-consciousness (gender Centres in the federation of B&H and in the Republika Srpska, Agency for the equality of sexes, the law on the equality of sexes), there is still a long way to go to equal participation of women and men in all bodies of decision making in the political and public life and to parietal democracy in B&H.
There are no real solutions to increase the number of women on positions of decision making, but there are actions and activities of clear articulation of gender-conscious politics and viewpoints, which can give directives by which women can take the lead in the decision on justice in society, human rights and a better functioning of democracy in general. One of the suggestions to increase women’s participation in politics, for example, are the activities within the program ‘Political strengthening of women’, which designs women’s politics in Bosnia-Herzegovina through communicating its experiences to local communities.
Women’s initiatives are the biggest challenge for political reforms which will free women from patriarchal dominance, because they are based on a re-defined concept of women’s human rights, which requests, that women are treated as free and creative human beings in the developments of all their sexual, moral, political and intellectual potentials. This personalised concept accepted by feminist women is a strong tool for the widening of the knowledge territory between activism, politics and feminism.
Nuna Zvizdić, Executive Director of the Association Women to Women, Sarajevo (http:www.zenezenama.com.ba)
Translation: Tatjana Meijvogel-Volk, Centre for Political Participation (IPP)