New York, May 01: Though women's representation in legislatures across the world has increased thanks to the quota system, progress in areas like education, literacy and employment has been rather slow, a new United Nations report says. "National poverty has no relation to female representation in legislatures. By that standard, several developing countries are far ahead of developed ones", according to the report by United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM). The US, France and Japan, where women's share of parliamentary seats is 12 per cent, 11.8 per cent and 10 per cent respectively, lag behind thirteen developing counties of sub-saharan Africa even though it is one of the poorest regions in the world. Although there were definite signs of progress in all regions between 2000 and 2002 towards meeting the target, the reports says, women are still on the whole largely absent from parliament.
They account for about 14 per cent of members in 2002 overall. Only 11 countries had reached the 30 per cent benchmark in 2002 -Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Finland, Norway, Iceland, the Netherlands, South Africa, Costa Rica, Argentina and Mozambique. All of these countries have quota systems, either on voluntary basis or established by laws.
The goal of increasing women's political participation is a long-standing one. The target of 30 per cent representation in key decision-making positions has been agreed to at numerous international conferences in the last decade. Bureau Report