Impacts of Women In Politics

Whether the percentage of women whom actually have places in parliament in a country is very high or not, it is still proven that it has a positive effect on the countries quality of life, and not only for the women. 
Such as in Rwanda they helped rebuild their country after the genocides and have the highest number of women in their house of commons, and many laws giving them equality.


Women Impact In Political Participation

Although women do not yet have an equal representation in politics, it has already been proven that if given the equality and education and opportunities to be involved in politics, that women can help to improve the quality of life for the entire nation.

Women in Democracies

Political Ideologies

Having Women's thoughts and ideas heard in political issues is important, as they often have completely different ideas on what they want and think should be happening, and giving them power in politics is a good way to make this possible. Women in countries that are democracies often have a higher chance to run for roles in parliament, and countries with democracies also often have an overall higher quality of life as well. 

As women often vote very differently from men as Professor Alison Wolf explained, they will also have their own views and ideas on what they think should be happening in their countries on a political level, and giving them the ability to be involved in politics, and their country on this level can have a large impact on the overall functioning of many things in a society that may not happen otherwise. 

Human Rights and Equality

Having equality and equal rights to men is a very important part to women actually being able to gain any kind of political power, and making sure women have equal rights doesn't only effect their quality of life, but can improve it overall for the entire population.

When women achieve equal rights and and education and equality they have the ability to greatly improve many things in the country, and run for parliament, which when they get places in they can have their voices heard more strongly and help change things in ways they want to see as well, and this overall improvements that could be possible in the quality for life for the entire nation, can help have a large decline in conflicts and issues.

Educations and Women's Political Power

When women are given equal access to education as men, and a high quality education, the ability to fight for rights is greatly improved, and educating everyone in women's rights and abilities helps them gain the power and knowledge to run for political power, get themselves heard, and help make the changes they would like to see in the world. This power that is gained from education is enough to make a very large change to their lives, and quality of life, as well as other people living in their countries. 

When women and men both receive a good, or at least equal education there is often going to be a higher amount of women in parliament. 

Women in World Politics

North America is not the only places in the world where women have achieved high places in politics, in fact as places with the highest percentages of women who participate in politics goes, much of it is not even close to the highest. Rwanda has the highest percentage of women in political office, with 64% females, making them the first country to achieve a higher percentage of women in office then men, as "they were the backbone of reconstruction of our country but at the same time also there was a political will to empower women," (Mathilde Mukantabana). The power that women have in the country of Rwanda is giving them the power to pass bills, and giving them equality and equal rights to the men, and things such as violence against women are being taken very seriously in their laws. They have also been a very fast growing country with the smallest amount of corruption, which just proves one of the many benefits of allowing women the ability to run for and be involved in politics. 

http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2014/05/08/310719495/the-nation-that-elects-the-most-women-is

However in the rest of the world women don't have nearly as strong of a political standing against the man, with only 20% of the global people in office as women. If in the rest of the world women were given the chance that the women in Rwanda received the movement for equal rights all over the world could be greatly effected in positive ways.

Women's Participation in Governments Around The World.

A History of Women In Politics

Women around the world have fought for their rights to vote in elections and have the rights to run in elections as well. And as the video below will show, in America alone they have gained a lot of rights in these ways.

A Timeline of international Women in politics

As the timeline above shows 1920 was one of the biggest steps towards women's ability to do anything with politics in North America, as it is when in America they gained the right to vote, although in Canada it wasn't until 1960 that every woman had the right to vote, and until 1991 that we had our first female premier, named Rita Johnston, which was a huge step forwards in Canadian women's political abilities.

Fighting for the rights to be equal and have this power took a long time though, and was not a quick and easy solution. Two very key factors in this achievement was gaining equality and having the same rights, and educating everyone equally. Giving women the rights to an equal education also empowered them to be able to get their standing in politics and have more control in their countries, without the education standards in many of the places where women have the ability to run in elections, they would not have this right, and overall the quality of life would be lowered for everyone.

Women in Canadian Politics

        It is important to have women in political power around the world, and in our own country. Women make up more than fifty percent of Canada's population, and only around 25% of women were elected for the house of commons in 2011. As Equal Voice, an organization in Canada helping to get more women to have a place in politics said, "democracy should be a genuine partnership of men and women." Meaning that there should be an equal representation of each gender in our House of Commons. 

http://www.cbc.ca/news2/interactives/map-cda-womenpolitics/

As of July 2013 Canada was rated at 46th for the number of women who are elected and up for election in political campaigns, which is a vast improvement from the past, but still leaves us with a relatively low number of women with places in politics. 

The map on the side shows our national average of women, as well as the provincial averages and where is above or below the average number of female political figures, which really gives an idea on where women have more gained there places in political power, and where it could still be more improved than in others.

Although Canada's overall percent of women in our federal politics is not that high, and could be improved it is still better than many other places, and the fact that women have the ability to be involved in our politics and run for office shows that gender equality is important to Canadians lifestyles, and supplying everyone with a higher quality of life, and the fact that there are organizations such as Equal Voice still helping to get more women involved in the country shows that the equality should only continue to become stronger.