Women achieving more politically By ROBIN HINDERY, Associated Press Writer
Tue Jun 20, 3:39 AM ET
Countries as diverse as Britain, Chile, Liberia and Israel have elected women to their highest political office. When it comes to female representation in national parliaments, the U.S. ranks 68th in the world.
[...]
Even the new democracies in Iraq and Afghanistan have a greater percentage of female representatives than does Congress, according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, an international group based in Geneva, Switzerland. The organization ranked 188 countries according to their female representatives.
[...]
The U.S. has "gotten further and further behind as other countries have adopted quotas and other mechanisms to ensure they are using all their resources, meaning their women," Wilson said. "Those countries implemented quotas because they finally decided that political parity was important enough to be given some teeth."
The Inter-Parliamentary Union found that the average ratio of female parliamentarians in countries that used quotas in 2005 elections was nearly twice that those without such special measures: 26.9 percent versus 13.6 percent.
In 2003, the number of women in Rwanda's National Assembly doubled, largely due to the creation of a constitutionally mandated quota. Since that year, Rwanda has been No. 1 in the global ranking of women in national parliaments, with 48.8 percent of its assembly made up of women.
Experts say the success of quotas does not tell the whole story. Other factors helping female politicians outside the U.S. include financial support, women-focused reforms within individual political parties, and an organized effort by the media and the general public to champion political parity.
[...]
"Some people have discussed it in the U.S.," said Debbie Walsh of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University, "but people in this country tend to run when you say 'quota.'