Quotas in favour of women improve the image but not the reality
Statement of Skevi Koukouma, AKEL MP and General Secretary of POGO
4th March 2016, Nicosia
The DISY, DIKO and EDEK parties are submitting a Bill so that a quota system for women will be legislated for at least 2/5 quota on the Boards of Semi-governmental organizations. First of all, the DISY leadership will have to answer why it cares so much about the presence of women in Semi-governmental organizations when it is trying by all means to sell them off.
Women’s underrepresentation in decision-making centres is a real problem. However, the Progressive Women’s Movement and the broader People’s Movement of the Left have always disagreed with the introduction of quotas for women, because, regardless of any intentions, they operate in a demeaning way in relation to women’s capabilities. In addition, quotas do not address the root cause of the problem. The main reason why women are underrepresented in public life is not sexist stereotypes and the devaluation of women’s capabilities. These are disproved daily by women themselves in all areas of life. The root cause lies in the fact that working women today are called upon to simultaneously fulfil multiple roles and responsibilities – at work, motherhood, the family – a fact which severely reduces the time and opportunities for them to get involved in political activity, trade union struggles and mass organizations. Women have to face a great deal more obstacles and difficulties which they have to combat so as to be able to actively participate in socio-political affairs.
Therefore, if we want to see more women engaged in political affairs we have to improve their living and working conditions, and especially for working women who represent the vast majority. We’re fighting for progress in society, the substantial improvement in the lives of women themselves and not for some artificial improvement of an image.
Instead therefore of promoting the contentious quota policy, the government, DISY and DIKO should have remembered equality when the President of the Republic appointed just one woman in the Cabinet and this after society’s outcry. DISY should also have been more sensitive with regards the cases of extreme sexist behaviour by its own MP’s. They also should have reflected that when the government is seeking to impose unlimited shop working hours, this results in hundreds of working women throughout Cyprus being forced to work 10 and 12 hour shifts daily, without any time for their lives, families and activity in society.
Finally, we stress that the criterion to measure progressiveness and the ability of each and every one involved in politics is not gender. Thatcher’s and now Merkel’s policies don’t serve women’s interests. On the contrary, they are policies that attack workers and are doubly crushing for working women. This is why we mustn’t also forget this aspect which is much more substantive: What policies are being implemented by those women who are already in the decision-making centres and to whose benefit are these policies for?
