Participation

Women have become more forthcoming as news sources than before as indicated by findings of the Gender and Media Progress Study (GMPS) that show that during the past seven years women sources have risen from 4% to 20% in Botswana.

In presenting these findings, Binki Kerileng a gender activist, said that during her time as a councillor she would attend rallies and functions with her male counterparts yet she would not be quoted.

A leading women's organisation in the country has appealed to newly elected members of Parliament to show integrity and good judgment and act with responsibility and accountability in the process of electing a new prime minister and forming government.

The Solomon Islands caretaker deputy prime minister says if women are successful at next month's national election there will be no need to reserve seats for them.

Fred Fono from the People's Congress Party says when the government rejected a proposal from women's groups that 10 seats be reserved for women, he had argued that that number was too high and should be reduced to 2 or 4 as a compromise.

The first ladies Tuesday 10th Aug. signed a memorandum of understanding that will foresee the enhancement of girl education and women empowerment in Sudan. Mary Ayen Mayardit, wife to Goss president Salva Kiir Mayardit and Widad Babiker Omer, wife to President Hassan Omer Bashir are both heading organizations that raise awareness on the discrimination against women and girls.

I remember how fresh I felt on that first day of spring in 2006, when I finally got to put on a flowered dress and head to work. I was living in Geneva, Switzerland at the time and working for a health agency -- a branch of the UN. When I stepped into my office, a male colleague in his late 40's was coming out of his.

Following court order to appoint woman to commission investigating flotilla, dozens of rabbis make lists of candidates. 'Alongside values of justice, they will display loyalty to Israel'

For a young Pacific girl born in the 70s, Pacific women were much more likely to be cleaning the parliamentary loos than sitting on the benches.

But in 1999, when Winnie Laban became the first Pacific woman MP in New Zealand, it dawned on me that the ads I had seen on telly that said "Girls can do anything" also included me, even if I was a Pacific Islander.

When Jogorku Kenesh, the Kyrgyz parliament, convened in 2005, it had no female members. Only one member of the cabinet of ministers was a woman. The paucity of women in decision-making positions contributed to difficulties in achieving gender equality in the conservative Kyrgyz tradition.

Women representation in Parliament and Cabinet positions has regressed in most Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries since the 2009 elections.

In Namibia, gender representation at that level has decreased from 30.8 percent to 22 percent, and in Botswana the numbers have dropped from 11 percent to 6.5 percent.

...Member states racing against time to have more women in leadership

With just five years left before 2015, the target year set for SADC member states to ensure that at least 50 percent of all political and decision making positions are held by women, it looks like most countries are unlikely to reach this target.