Strengthening Women Involvement in Political Life (Press Release)
On October 9, the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) held a presentation of its research – Gender Monitoring of Local Self-Government Agencies and Strengthening Women Involvement in Political Life.
ISFED examined composition of Sakrebulos of 71 self-governing territories and found an alarming gender imbalance in almost all of the municipalities.
According to the 2014 local self-government election results, out of 2083 members of Sakrebulo only 242 are women.
ISFED’s research provides a detailed gender statistics in mountainous vs lowland regions, mono-ethnic vs multiethnic regions.
For instance, in Sakrebulos of Telavi, Poti, Mtskheta, Tsalka and Aspindza, there are no women members at all which is alarming considering that these are highly populated areas (71 000 people in Telavi, 60 000 in Mtskheta and 41 000 in Poti).
Further, the research also illustrates gender balance among parties, parties with most or least number of women.
ISFED’s research provides an overview of international obligations of Georgia for improving gender equality. ISFED believes that gender quoting must be introduced as a temporary measure to promote women participation in politics.