Gender and Political and Social Change in Palestine Woman Political Participation

Peace Center for Community Training and Research (PEACE)

POBox (7039)-Khan Younis-Gaza Strip-Palestine

Tel:00970-8-2051966 Telfax: 00970-8-2054966

Email: peacearab@yahoo.com (or) peacearab@palnet.com 

Gender and Political and Social  Change in Palestine Woman Political Participation 

By

Kamal M M Astal

Associate Professor

Al-Azhar University of Gaza

Development Studies Series (3)

First Edition- August  2005

Introduction

Women’s political participation encompasses a wide range of actions and strategies. It includes voting and voter education, candidacy in national and local elections, lending support to candidates who carry gender-sensitive agenda, campaigning against those who are have policies that are ‘anti-women’s rights’, and advocating for the integration of a women’s rights agenda in the platforms of candidates and parties.

Political participation strategies include mechanisms that enhance women’s political participation. Examples of these are gender quotas that allot 30 to 50 percent of decision-making positions for women; gender mainstreaming strategies that promote a culture of gender sensitivity in government; national machineries for women, which have the primary role of leading and monitoring gender mainstreaming strategies of governments; gender or women’s budgets that allot a percentage of national budget for gender mainstreaming and affirmative action for women’s advancement. In legislatures of some democratic countries, women’s sectoral representatives have been appointed on terms and capacities at par with elected representatives. A more recent mechanism that provides a leeway for women’s political participation is the party list system where women’s groups can bid for seats in the legislature.

Objectives of the Study

This  research  aims at:

• Sheding light on the Women and Gender and political participation in general and in Palestine in particular. s.
• Discussing the issue of gender and political and social change in Palestine and in the Arab world.
• Analyzing the degree of interaction and relationship between the issue of woman political participation and socio-politco-economic factors.
• Introducing a field study and analytical  model of women political participation in Palestine
• Clarifying the importance of involving gender perspective in various aspects of the social, economic and political development in Palestine.
•  Evaluating the woman role in the Palestinian political life.

The statement of the problem of the study

The research represents an attempt to find answers for a number of questions. These questions form the core problem of the issue of gender and political and social change in the Palestinian Territories. The problem of the study includes the following questions:

How and when the political participation of women in Palestine was started and developed? What are the women goals in the Palestinian political and social life? What are the main factors that affect women participation in the Palestinian political life? Why are the woman representation and participation in political and social activities still weak and under-represented? How the women organizations were formed and what their impact on women and gender perspective in various areas of Palestinian political life? What are the type/s of tripartite/mutual interaction among Women organizations, the local community and political parties, and the whole society at large? What is the legal framework that controls the woman political and social activities? What are the main constraints and restrictions that hinder the expansion of woman political participation in the Palestinian political life? What is the Islam viewpoint about the woman political participation?

The researcher has introduced an attempt to answering the above-mentioned questions.

In words, the main statement of the problem of this research is that it deals with a case study of the issue of gender and political and social change in Palestine.