Not so much on the candidates.
Yemen goes to the polls on Wednesday to elect a president and two levels of local government - governorate and district - but with fewer women candidates. Analysts and Yemeni female activists blame all Yemeni political parties for this, saying that they only pay lip service to the empowerment of women....Compared to some 18,760 men vying for political posts, there are only 137 women running in Yemen's local elections, according to Elham al-Akil, head of the women's department at the Supreme Commission for Elections and Referendum (SCER). Almost half are being fielded by political parties, she said, and the rest are running as independents.
"We have noticed that women's candidacy is backsliding. In the first local elections of 2001, the number of women who ran were 150, and 38 of them won."
Women are not too pleased about the lack of lady candidates--some even protested in a recent march, demanding a 15 percent quota in local elections.
Huriyah Mashhoor of the Women's National Committee says that "men in Yemen want women as voters only, rather than strong challengers."
The whole article is an interesting read, so check it out. And for more info on women's political participation, check out WEDO's 50/50 campaign.
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Now, I don't know enough about the elligible female candidates who could be running for office in Yemen but as good hearted as these intentions are, they don't sit well with me.
While I am all for more women in positions of power, I don't think a quota is the way to do it.
I'm a firm opposer of affirmative action based on sex or race (economic roots and other issues are seperate in my mind). Not only can there be some very solid male candidates pushed aside by the quota, but there could also be some very unqualified women stepping up to fill the gap which could reflect poorly on the solid, qualified entrants as well.
Besides, women have enough issues getting respect without having to fight the "youre only here because of the quota" stigma that this would set up.
Then again, if there are large numbers (15%) of qualified female candidates who are being denied assumidly on their sex, it's a different matter.
I think the quota issue is a tough one. As a general matter, I don't like quotas, but in a situation like this, maybe it is the best way to make an immediate change.
Agreed, but it would be an immediate fix which would cause further issues.
I think patience, education, lobbying, and money would do a much more solid and practical boost for women in politics in Yemen or anywhere, honestly.
I do not think that a woman politician is innately better than a man and both have the same aptitudes for good and bad. We all know there are certainly very concervative antifeminist women out there. I'd rather see it done right, with really qualified candidates making a stand that yes women CAN do this they WILL do this and they MUST do this because they DESERVE IT and can do a bang up job.
I was thinking about it more, and thinking about the US. It's been almost 100 years since women had the right to vote and we still don't have equal representation in our government. Maybe starting out with a quota system gets things moving faster. Seems pretty unfair to ask the women of Yemen or wherever to wait 100 years.