Report on the Annual Gathering of the Group of Women Parliamentarians
Overcoming the Barriers: Transforming the System by Means of a Critical Mass
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During the engaging question and answer period following the panel presentations, one of the questions incited panellists to reflect on formal power structures of which all of them form part as members of legislatures.
A delegate commented that sometimes the barriers women face are described as though they were detached from systems upholding oppression. She reminded the Group of an important feminist concern of the past century which resonated widely with her fellow delegates:
We don’t want a bigger piece of the
cake. We want to change the recipe.
Said otherwise, to get to the root causes and reproductive base of gender inequality, we must transform the structures themselves. There was widespread agreement on this point, with further discussion surrounding the tangible, immediate strategies that should be explored to dismantle male power structures. These included affirmative actions to establish a critical mass necessary to raise opposition in patriarchal institutions and challenge sexist beliefs driving today’s social, economic, and political systems.
It will also be necessary to recognize that gender stereotypes also marginalize and victimize some men, and that our interventions must not remedy the problems of some women at the expense of others.
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