Gender Monitoring of Local Self-Government Bodies and Strengthening Women Involvement in Political Life
Despite improvements made over the last decades in the fields of raising awareness, education and strengthening political rights of women, women representation in politics and leadership positions in particular has not improved significantly. As of 2013, women constitute 25.6% of members of parliaments throughout the world, with Georgia significantly legging behind as following the 2012 parliamentary elections women were able to secure only 12% of mandates. Consequently, Georgia is ranked number 115 among 185 countries of the world. Gender imbalance is evident in the executive authorities as well in Georgia where only 3 of 19 Ministers are women.
The 2014 local self-government elections have painted an alarming picture of gender imbalance. All of the Mayors in 12 local self-governing cities are men, while out of 69 Gamgebelis throughout the country only two are women (including one appointed in Tbilisi). In view of the serious gender imbalance in executive and legislative authorities of Georgia both at the local and the central levels, the purpose of the present research is to initiate legal changes tailored to the local context by sharing successful international experience and harmonizing Georgian legislation with international obligations and recommendations issued specifically for Georgia.