Women Politicians and Cross-Party Cooperation: Impact on Democracy

Cross-Party Cooperation in Rwandan Parliament

Women Work Across Party Lines

Research shows that women’s leadership and conflict resolution styles embody democratic ideals and that women tend to work in a less hierarchical, more participatory and more collaborative way than male colleagues.2 Women are also more likely to work across party lines, even in highly partisan environments.

- Since assuming 56 percent of the seats in the Rwandan parliament in 2008, women have been responsible for forming the first cross-party caucus to work on controversial issues such as land rights and food security. They have also formed 2 the only tripartite partnership among civil society and executive and legislative bodies to coordinate responsive legislation and ensure basic services are delivered.3

- Twenty-five percent of women lawmakers in the U.S. cite women from the opposition party as key supporters of their top legislation, while only 17 percent of male lawmakers name similar support.4

- In the Russian Federation, an examination of the role of female legislators in the Duma, or parliament, shows that the women legislators were able to set aside ideological and party differences to promote legislation benefiting children and families on a multi-partisan basis. They proposed measures that increased benefits to citizens with children, extended pregnancy benefits and parental leave, reduced taxes for families with many children, created penalties for domestic violence, and promoted equal rights for men and women.5

- Women members of parliament (MPs) in Britain have informally worked together across party lines on issues that are important to society, including issues like employment law, equal pay, and violence against women.6

- In a demonstration that women party members are prepared to cross the boundaries of parties, ethnicity, religion, language and districts to meet their objectives, NDI identified non-partisan issues in Sri Lanka on which women politicians from all parties came together, despite extreme political tensions, to draft and endorse a platform for improving women’s political participation.

- Only five years after the women’s suffrage movement achieved the rights of women to vote and run for office in Kuwait, newly elected female legislators coalesced to introduce amendments to the labor law that would give working mothers mandatory nursing breaks, and provide onsite childcare for companies with more than 200 employees.

After watching the two videos about and listening to the speech by Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm please engage in a robust Discussion Forum by considering and responding to the following:

Examine Shirley Chisholm’s contributions to the quest for freedom and social justice and the role she played in making it possible for a woman to be elected to the presidency of the United States. Place her biography in context as it was represented in the videos and recording referencing concrete examples, facts and information (do not be vague, you must demonstrate you learned the material). Your

1) Why is it important for us to study the significance and contributions of Shirley to the fight for human, women’s and civil rights? (Three paragraphs identifying specific facts and your critic of those facts - example why she ran for president and your thoughts about her reason).

2) How were you inspired by the life of Shirley Chisholm? (One paragraph)

3) Remember to write in red a question for your classmates are to answer.

4) ten (10) important facts you learned about women in/and politics based on this week's article and your review of the Rutger's CAWP website.

http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/sayitplain/schisholm.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qB_krfRLSVM

https://youtu.be/y3JCX3WxBik https://youtu.be/qB_krfRLSVM answer each question under the question cite all refernces