Why aren’t there more women world leaders?
Political leadership, and how it affects women’s rights, is back in the spotlight with recent reports of sexual assault and harassment in Australian politics.
Dr Ramona Vijeyarasa says we need more leaders who lead with women in mind, regardless of their own sex. Photo: Toby Burrows.
At the same time, political leaders across the world continue to face intense scrutiny as the coronavirus pandemic enters its second year.
UTS Law researcher Dr Ramona Vijeyarasa says the theme of International Women’s Day 2021, Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world, is a timely one.
“There has been much talk about countries with women leaders doing better in the pandemic, but data is limited and selective,” says Dr Vijeyarasa, who leads a project investigating the legislative impact of women leaders on women’s lives.
“Half the states of the world should be led by women, but this will only happen if voters in democratic nations choose to elect women as presidents and prime ministers,” she says.
“It also requires fellow women in politics supporting other women to climb up the political ladder,” she says.
Leaders must stop assuming laws and policies drafted in neutral terms affect men and women in the same way.
Dr Ramona Vijeyarasa
Women have never occupied more than 15 per cent of executive positions worldwide, and today only 23 women occupy the highest political office in their country.
However, Dr Vijeyarasa says that, just as importantly, we need leaders who lead differently.
“While it’s important to work towards equal gender representation in political leadership, above all we need more leaders who lead with women in mind, regardless of their own sex.
“Leading differently may have more to do with who you appoint as your cabinet, evidence-based decision-making and a consciousness of the implications of your decisions on the lives of the people you lead.”
Dr Vijeyarasa has launched the Gender Legislative Index, a research tool powered by human evaluation and machine learning to assess the gender-responsiveness of individual laws. The website was developed in collaboration with Rapido Social and the UTS Connected Intelligence Centre.
“Leaders must stop assuming laws and policies drafted in neutral terms affect men and women in the same way,” she says.
“For example, when taxation laws favour families with two parents, they indirectly discriminate against single-parent households, which are more often led by women.”
The Gender Legislative Index is designed to enable leaders to draw on gender-disaggregated data to make informed policy choices.
“Simply speaking, it is about using data to understand whether laws are effectively helping women, and to visualise how to draft better laws that work more effectively to advance women’s rights,” says Dr Vijeyarasa.
Dr Vijeyarasa is the Chief Investigator behind the Gender Legislative Index a research tool powered by human evaluation and machine learning. Photo: Fancyboy Photography.
Dr Vijeyarasa has applied the index to four women Presidents in Asia, the research of which will form the basis of her forthcoming book The Woman President.
She says that that just because a country has a woman leader, women in that country will not necessarily be better off.
“At the same time, women do make an important difference as leaders, in ways that are often not counted. The research shows how frequently we forget or dismiss the kind of fundamental changes women leaders brought about, in ways that really advance women’s interests,” she says.
“So often these are not seen as ‘women’s issue’s’ such as President Aquino’s leadership on establishing democracy in the Philippines or President Kumaratunga of Sri Lanka’s efforts to bring peace in times of conflict or President Megawati of Indonesia’s efforts to tackle corruption, albeit ultimately limited in their effect.”
Ultimately, Dr Vijeyarasa says, the law plays a pivotal role in shaping society and advancing equality.
For example, international research demonstrates that the legalisation of same sex marriage changed perceptions and acceptability for same-sex couples, and hence helped promote equality well beyond the actual change of the law.
Dr Vijeyarasa says: “It can help move society away from negative, stereotypical and discriminatory norms about the roles of men and women.”
Dr Ramona Vijeyarasa is a Chancellor's Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in the Faculty of Law at UTS. The Woman President will be published by Oxford University Press in early 2022.
