In The News
This piece was originally published in the Star on 31 May 2007.
A female Prime Minister?
Vizla Kumaresan
The first step is for political parties to stop paying lip service to women and start enforcing gender quotas.
I USED to think that a female Malaysian Prime Minister was an impossible dream. Then the French Presidential elections were held. It was refreshing to see left and right wing politics pitted equally against each other. And, there was a female candidate, a favourite - Segolene Royal.
French politics is said to be notoriously chauvinistic. The Guardian (March 3, 2006) reported that it is loaded with centuries of "ingrained sexism". French women only got the vote in 1944, and today, just 71 of the 577 Members of Parliament are women. Some political parties reportedly would rather be fined than adhere to legal quotas when it comes to fielding women candidates.
Segolene Royal was a candidate for the recent French Presidential elections. She lost the elections but won a big battle for women. Still, Segolene Royal managed to rise to the top of the male-dominated Socialist Party. Her detractors chided her, asking, "Who will look after the children?" (She is a mother of four.)
The media was rife with labels for the first female French presidential candidate. Newsweek called her "the Sexy Socialist". Reports of her campaign always focused on her figure, clothes and hairstyle. However, those of her opponents - all male - rarely featured the same. Instead, they were usually described as "relaxed" or "businesslike", or in vocabulary that referred to their professionalism.
Addressing sexism, Segolene Royal explained: "It's pretty simple. If a man had been an adviser to the president of the republic as I was to President Mitterrand for seven years, if he had been a minister three times and elected as an MP four times consecutively, as I have been, if he had beaten the then prime minister in the last regional elections, as I did, would he find his legitimacy contested and his capacity to govern questioned? No." (The Guardian, March 3, 2006).
Segolene Royal lost the elections. However, she won a big battle for women.
She stuck to her campaign despite objections from her own party and never shied away from her feminist principles. She proved that gender was not an obstruction to her ambition of becoming the country's president.
This is a lesson in democracy: leaders can be chosen based on merit and capability. It would be naïve to ignore the issue of mass appeal and popularity. But the French showed that more than clever spin doctoring, a demonstrated track record and consistency in principles matter. The French elections also proved that, despite prevailing sexism, women are capable of becoming leaders of their nation - if they are given the chance.
Malaysian women have established their capabilities in leading homes, organisations, universities, banks, ministries and political parties. I would think they are just as qualified to become prime minister.
However, we need to make some changes first. Demeaning jokes about women must stop, along with stereotypes that limit their potential to the home and to being sexual objects.
Just recently, we witnessed two parliamentarians degrade women during a debate. Other leaders later supported them and justified their statements. Only after a public furore was an apology made, and even then, this was qualified. The two did not acknowledge that their actions were wrong. Instead they blamed women, implying that in taking offence in the first place, something was wrong with them.
That our leaders behave in sexist ways not only tells us about their attitudes towards women; it also sends a message to Malaysians that sexism is acceptable. It indirectly tells women that their place is not in politics.
Malaysia, in ratifying the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (Cedaw), has an obligation to ensure that women can participate equally in politics and decision-making, including holding positions in public office.
Yet, the reality is far from this.
What we need, at least for a start, is for political parties to go beyond paying lip service to women and start enforcing gender quotas. They need to stand behind, and support, women candidates without discriminating against them on any grounds. And we need Malaysian voters to do the same.
Perhaps then, a Malaysian female prime minister will no longer be an impossible dream.
# Two things that Vizla Kumaresan is passionate about - feminism and activism - are coming together at Fiesta Feminista.
