Women account for around 50% of the world population. It would not be an unusual theoretical construct of democracy that representatives broadly reflect the make up of their constituents. Yet in 2002, the mean value of female representation in Parliament in the world was only 12 %, up from 9 % in 1987. If the same pattern of growth continues, a simple linear projection shows that women members of Parliament (MP) will attain parity with men at the turn of the 22nd century ! The predicament is worse at the apex of power. Out of 179 nations surveyed in 2002, only nine had a woman as elected head of state or Government while women represent less than 10 % of the world?s cabinet ministers.

There is however huge differences in women?s political representation across the globe. There are some regions where women hardly find their place in the legislature while in others they are significantly represented. Women account for a third or more of MP in no more than 12 countries. In nearly 20 % of states, there are less than 5 % female MP. In ten countries, there is not one single woman in Parliament. Thus there is still a very long way to go before the world experiences a gender-balanced representation.

There is both a spatial and a temporal variation in women?s political representation. From a spatial standpoint, female representation is considerably higher in Western Europe (especially the Scandinavian countries), North America, Australia, New Zealand than in other parts of the world. In Asia and in regions in North Africa and the Middle East, female representation is significantly lower. The political representation of women has increased quite markedly in Latin America and in sub- Saharan Africa. From a temporal angle, there has been an improvement since the 50?s. The mean value of female representation for all countries has risen from 3.4 per cent in 1950 to 8.2 per cent in 1980 and 12 per cent in 2002.

Back home, there has been some razzmatazz on the appointment of a second female Minister in Government. Undoubtedly two is better than one. True, the share of women in Cabinet has doubled. Even if in actual fact, it has increased from a miserable 4 % to a paltry 8%, from one Minister to two out of a total of 25. Never mind that there is nothing ground-breaking about it in as much as there were two female Ministers for five years in the last Government; let us ignore the fact that the two women hold minor portfolios that can hardly be considered as vital for the success or failure of Govt. And never mind that women still represent 4.7 % of all MP (4 out of 70), the lowest percentage, even among SADC countries.

While most, if not all, communities and castes have tickets at elections broadly proportional to their numerical strength in the population, women are ten times underrepresented to their demographic size. Even if they share the other characteristics of candidates in terms of community, caste, age and socio-economic background.

There are many factors that determine the level of women?s political representation.They usually fall into four categories as follows : socio-economic factors like women?s participation in the labour force, unequal access to training and education, and the difficulties to combine a political career with parental responsibility; cultural factors like whether the country embraces an egalitarian culture between men and women, the influence of religion and the attitudes towards the state; political factors like party organization, the domination of political parties by men, and the existence of quotas; and electoral systems.

While socio-economic and cultural factors remain barriers to women?s political representation in many regions, the dramatic rise in the number of female MP in some countries has led political scientists to focus attention on political factors and the electoral systems as being significant determinants of the number of female MP. For instance, based on figures published by the Inter Parliamentary Union, it would appear that the level of socio-economic development does not necessarily translate into better conditions for higher women?s representation. Countries like South Africa, Mozambique and Costa Rica have much higher female representation than the USA, Italy and Japan. Often it boils down to political factors and the electoral systems. Pippa Norris of Harvard University powerfully argues that ?while culture continues to prove a significant influence on the proportion of women MP, even controlling for social, structural and political institutions, there is evidence that these cultural barriers have been fading among the younger generation of post industrial societies as a result of modernisation?. And she concludes that the most important causes of women?s representation are the basic electoral formula and the implementation of political strategies with respect to affirmative action. I shall deal with affirmative actions in the third paper.

Theoretically and empirically there is a close correlation between electoral systems and women representation. While electoral systems alone cannot explain the low representation of women, it is a fact that some formulae exaggerate the exclusion of women from political life. Under FPTP systems, women are sharply under-represented. For the 8 elections in Mauritius since 1967, the average representation of women is very low at 4.7 %. It ranges from 0 % in 1967 to 9 % in 1995. It is currently at 5.7%. The same under-representation exists at cabinet level with only 4 % of ministers, until last week.

While the electoral system is neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition to guarantee female representation, it does act as a facilitating mechanism. The main types of electoral systems produce different outcomes for women and some prevent them from playing a more significant political role. A number of empirical studies show that countries with PR and mixed systems and which use party lists have a higher proportion of women than states with a majority or a plurality-First Past The Post system. PR and mixed systems with party lists invariably improve women?s ability to play a key role in political life and provides for greater social representation. In winner-takes-all FPTP electoral system, women have far less chance of getting elected. It is no surprise that countries with plurality and majority systems have the lowest number of women in their legislatures, irrespective of socio-economic development and culture. This is amply demonstrated at the table below.

It gives the relationship between electoral systems and the political representation of women. The empirical evidence could not be clearer.Countries with PR systems such as Sweden, Netherlands and South Africa have much higher percentages of women MP, from 43 % in Sweden to 30 % in South Africa. States with mixed system (a good combination of FPTP and PR) such as Germany, New Zealand and Venezuela fare quite well, from 31 % in New Zealand to 29 % in Venezuela. Countries with majority electoral systems (candidates need 50 % of votes to be elected) have low level of women parliamentarians. France?s two round system returned 11 % of women. Those with FPTP electoral systems discriminate very heavily against women. The percentage of female MP ranges from 18 % in the UK to 13 % in the USA, to 9 % in India and 6 % in Mauritius.

Three other empirical observations strengthen this causal relationship between electoral system and women?s political representation. New Zealand had a FPTP electoral system until 1996 when it changed to a mixed model (combination of FPTP and PR). The number of women MP almost doubled from 16 % in 1990 with FPTP to 30 % in 1999 with a mixed system. As both components of the mixed system elect women, it is possible to gauge which mode is more gender friendly. In New Zealand?s mixed electoral formula, more women are elected from the PR party list than from FPTP constituencies.For instance,15 % of constituency MP were women in 1996 compared to 45 % of the PR party list elected members. In Germany?s mixed system, 50 % of the seats are returned by a FPTP mode while the other 50 % are elected through PR. Around 80 % of women in Parliament gain access through the PR route while 20 % come in through the FPTP system.This suggests that any rhetorical support and political commitment to change the low representation of women will hardly yield any significant result if there is no electoral reform and if we do not introduce a strong dose of PR with party lists.This much is abundantly plain.

<I>?There has been some razzmatazz on the appointment of a second female Minister in Government. Undoubtedly two is better than one. True,the share of women in Cabinet has doubled.

Even if in actual fact, it has increased from a miserable 4% to a paltry 8%.?