Institutionalizing gender equality within party structures, processes and practices While political party regulations, procedures and structures vary considerably across the

OSCE region, most parties have adopted founding documents and rules of procedure to gov-ern how they function. Therefore, getting to know how a party operates – both formally and informally – can reveal the degree to which men and women are provided equal opportuni-ties for political advancement within paropportuni-ties. Accordingly, this section focuses on strategies to introduce gender equality as a principle and gender balance as a goal in party documents, processes and procedures.

➔ Undertaking a comprehensive gender audit of the party

Undertaking a gender audit is an important first step in identifying gaps in party statutes, processes and practices related to gender equality.

A political party gender audit, or “self-assessment”, is a methodology for assessing party processes, procedures, structures, culture and activities from a gender perspective, with the aim of identifying discriminatory practices – wheth-er direct or indirect, formal or informal – that can pwheth-erpetuate gender inequality and hinder women from advancing in their political careers. It is a tool to equip political party leaders with the necessary information to adjust its political party policies, programmes and campaign strategies as regards gender equality. A party can establish an internal working group comprised of party activists, decision makers and gen-der experts to ungen-dertake a gengen-der audit within a specified pe-riod of time. Where the establishment of an internal working group is not possible, a party could commission its women’s wing to carry out the audit. Alternatively, it can hire a pro-fessional gender analyst or work with specialized NGOs that possess gender audit expertise (see more on the role of civil society in Chapter 5). However, in order to ensure that the audit is carried out with the co-operation of the party leader-ship, it is preferable to create a gender audit working group

or taskforce composed of the party’s secretary general or president, leading members of the party’s executive committee, the head of the women’s wing, as well as gender experts. The involvement of party leaders will help to ensure that the party acts on the results of the audit.

The political party’s charter/statutes, the party’s policies, strategies and platform, as well as its internal rules of procedure (both formal and informal), should all be scrutinized as part of a gender audit. In addition, a gender audit can be used to survey party members and leaders, to determine attitudes towards gender equality and women’s advancement, as well as to uncover perceptions as to the fairness and gender-sensitivity of existing party practices. The gender audit should also survey the types of party positions women and men currently occupy (leader-ship or decision-making positions), and what type of work they undertake (paid or voluntary).

A political party gender audit template can be found in Annex 2.

Box 3.2:

Possible Members of a Political Party Gender Audit Team To undertake a comprehensive political party gender audit, party leaders could consider establishing a Gender Audit Taskforce, consisting of:

1. The party secretary-general, or the leader of the political party;

2. Representatives of the political party leadership, for example, representatives of the party’s Executive Committee or Board;

3. Head or member of the women’s wing, if such an organ exists, or, alternatively, a party gender activist; anD 4. Gender mainstreaming

experts, from within the party or from civil society.

Gender audits can be undertaken not only at the national level, but also at regional or local party branch levels as well. In fact, this will allow a comparative picture to emerge of what progress (if any) party branches are making in terms of promoting gender equality, what strat-egies or good practices can be learned from them, and what more needs to be done to support women’s advancement at local level. Furthermore, these tailored gender audits will allow party leaders and gender advocates at both national and local levels to develop more targeted re-sponses to the needs of individual party branches. Lastly, comparing the progress of different party branches could spur those branches that are doing very little to devote more attention to promoting gender equality.

Self-assessment activities ensure that both the strengths and shortcomings of a party’s gender-equality approach are identified and that a strategy addressing the shortcomings, in particu-lar, can be devised. The picture that emerges from a gender assessment can indicate whether a political party is gender-friendly or not. It may also point to the activities that a party can undertake in order to strengthen its commitment to gender equality (see Box 3.3).

Pre-electoral or post-electoral periods are ideal entry points for parties to undertake a gender-equality assessment.

• Pre-electoral period: During this period, parties can review their existing documents – statutes, founding documents, strategies, party platforms, policies and rules of procedure – to pinpoint any discriminatory provisions or gaps, as well as interview party members to identify discriminatory practices and solicit suggestions on how the party can improve.

Ideally, this knowledge will be used to inform the development of the party’s election plat-form and ensure more equitable access to electoral resources for both men and women.

• Post-electoral period: The post-electoral period is also an opportune period to undertake analysis of public opinion surveys and research, exit polls conducted during the electoral period, as well as electoral results, from a gender perspective. During this period, inter-views with party leaders and voters can also be undertaken, to assess their inter-views on women candidates and whether the electoral campaign unfolded in a gender-sensitive manner.

This data will often provide sufficient external information to assist a party in conducting a gender audit. The outcome of the gender audit will also help reveal to what extent the political party upheld its campaign messages and promises, and can be used to design its next electoral strategy.⁸³

83 See Empowering Women for Stronger Political Parties. A Good Practices Guide to Promote Women’s Political Participation, UNDP/NDI, 2011, p. 25, <http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/librarypage/womens-em-powerment/empower-women-political-parties.html>.

➔ Developing a party gender action plan

Gender audits are not meant to be undertaken as ends in themselves but, rather, to provide the necessary information a party needs to improve its policies, strategies, procedures, structures and activities in favour of greater gender equality. The findings of an audit may be used to de-velop party policies to prevent discrimination or harassment on the basis of sex, introduce and inform party codes of conduct, initiate revisions of party statutes, develop strategies for capac-ity building of women (and men) party members or inform the party’s next electoral campaign.

On the basis of the gaps identified in the gender audit, parties can develop a party gender ac-tion plan. A step forward in this direcac-tion has been undertaken by the Slovenian government, which requires political parties to develop and adopt a party gender action plan, examples of which can be found in Annex 3. Gender action plans can be developed as a result of gender au-dits undertaken at national level, but also for gender auau-dits conducted at local and/or regional levels, allowing for more targeted and nuanced gender action plans to emerge.

The taskforce or working group established to undertake the gender audit is in the best posi-tion to lead the process of developing a gender acposi-tion plan for the party. During the process of drafting the document, the taskforce should keep all party members informed about progress.

Likewise, drafts of the gender action plan should be presented to party members to raise awareness about the document, as well as to obtain party feedback and buy-in for the action plan. This discussion can take place in specifically convened focus groups or deliberative fo-rums that meet to discuss the proposals presented in the gender action plan by the taskforce.

Following the adoption of the document, the party leadership should ensure that party mem-bers at all levels fully understand and comply with the gender action plan’s activities and ob-jectives. Table 3.4 below identifies and explains the different components that could make up a party gender action plan.

✓ The political party’s statutes ensure balanced participation of men and women in all party decision-making bodies, on party electoral lists and for all nominated and appointed positions.

✓ Gender equality is mentioned as a basic party value in its statutes, policies and programmes.

✓ The party keeps updated records of party members at local, regional and national levels, including members of the board;

all data is disaggregated by sex.

✓ The party undertakes regular gender audits to identify processes and practices that can discriminate against women, and to assess progress towards gender equality.

✓ Specific gender-equality priorities are elaborated; some of these priorities are included in the electoral campaigns and promises of the party.

✓ An autonomous, active and publicly-visible gender-equality mechanism/organization (e.g., women’s wing or section) is established and respected within the party.

✓ The party gender-equality mechanism/

organization regularly and freely initiates intra-party and public discussion on gender-equality issues.

✓ The party serves as a conduit between women’s NGOs in civil society, parliament and government.

✓ The party’s resources are distributed fairly between female and male members and candidates.

✓ The political party budget provides for financing for the equality mechanism and gender-equality policies/strategies within the party.

✓ The party has established a complaints

mechanism and procedure that allows both men and women to bring to the party’s attention cases of gender-based misconduct or discrimination.

Box 3.3: Checklist of Criteria for a Gender-friendly Party

Source: Adapted from materials prepared by Sonja Lokar for this handbook.

Table 3.4: Creating a Political Party Gender Action Plan: Key Components Type of Activity Activity

1. Conduct a gender audit of internal party procedures

• Conduct a self-assessment or gender audit of key party processes and practices, the party’s views regarding gender-equality issues, as well as the distribution of work and power within the party based on the sex of the party member.

2. Develop and build party leadership support for a Gender Equality Action Plan

• Develop a party-specific gender action plan, based on the findings of the gender audit.

• Ensure that the party’s main organs agree to discuss the implementation of this action plan at least once every four years and to accept the development of new action plans, based on progress made.

3. Strengthen party founding documents

• Introduce provisions in party statutes to ensure minimum representation of women in parties and especially in party decision-making bodies and processes.

• Introduce or strengthen internal party codes of conduct or policies to prohibit discrimination and harassment based on sex or gender.

4. Include women’s sections in party statutes/by-laws

• Establish or strengthen autonomous women’s organizations or sections (“women’s wings”) within the party.

• Introduce provisions in party statutes or by-laws that require the representation of women’s sections in decision-making bodies and processes.

5. Support the party’s gender-equality mechanism/ women’s section

• Develop specific activities that women’s sections can undertake, including mentorship programmes, trainings, forums or open debates.

• Ensure the women’s sections are provided with resources to undertake these activities.

6. Collect sex-disaggregated data

• Collect and regularly maintain sex-disaggregated membership statistics, including at local and regional levels.

7. Enhance internal party democracy by making party processes more transparent and fair

• Advocate for the introduction or application of existing internal party procedures regarding party recruitment, promotion of party members, candidate selection, decision-making and allocation of resources in a clear and transparent manner and according to democratic principles.

• Ensure party procedures are written down in a clear and gender-sensitive manner.

• Introduce induction courses for all newly-recruited male and female party members, with a module on gender equality in political parties.

8. Adopt internal party measures to promote women as leaders and candidates

• Adopt at the highest executive party level an operational plan for gradually increasing the share of women in all bodies of the party and in key party roles, in a way that reflects the share of women in party membership.

• Voluntarily set time-bound benchmarks, targets or quotas to achieve increased representation of women within the party.

9. Organize training and leadership development

• Develop special types of training for women members (on leadership skill development, preparing women as candidates, etc.).

10. Conduct internal party awareness raising

• Raise awareness of all party members on the party policy regarding gender equality.

• Organize seminars to increase party understanding of gender-equality objectives and policy for both male and female party activists, members and officials, including all those who perform public roles for the party.

11. Develop concrete party platform positions on gender equality-related issues

• Define priorities and prepare concrete party platform positions that address specific gender-equality issues and challenges.

• When in opposition, a party (and not only the women’s wing) should organize campaigns advocating for the introduction of such policies; when the party is a governing party, it should drive the process of introducing such policies and persevere in their implementation.

12. Link party

• Include respect and support for equality between women and men as a requirement or condition of membership in the party.

• Link promotions within the party (to party leadership positions, eligible places on the lists, placement of candidates in winnable districts or other authority roles) to the commitment and successful work of both male and female candidates or party members to promote gender equality.

Source: Prepared by Sonja Lokar for this handbook.

To some extent, the components contained in the gender action plan template above also in-form the order and content of the strategies contained in the rest of this chapter.

➔ Developing rules guaranteeing representation of women in party decision-making bodies

There is no definitive research on numbers of women in po-litical parties in the OSCE region, either as members or in positions of leadership, although some data indicate that women make up less than 40 per cent of party members in a number of participating States, and that their representa-tion in decision-making is much lower. In some participating States, there have been noted gains in women’s representa-tion in leadership in political parties. In Spain, for exam-ple, research from 2009 revealed a sharp increase in women holding executive positions in parties, to 31 per cent. Since 2008, more than 50 per cent of the Spanish Socialist Worker’s Party’s officers have been female.⁸⁴ This increase is the result of sustained efforts by gender advocates within and outside the party to advance women’s representation in party deci-sion-making bodies (see Box 3.15 below).

By contrast, in Georgia, research undertaken in 2011 revealed that women make up at least 40 per cent of party members of all major political parties (regardless of their position on the political spectrum), and between 60 and 70 per cent of all members of the Georgia’s Way and Labour parties. However, their representation in party decision-making structures ranged from less than 10 per cent to just under 30 per cent. In fact, while women made up roughly 60 per cent of the Labour Party, they occupied under 20 per cent of decision-making positions.⁸⁵

Political party leaders should, therefore, consider introducing detailed rules guaranteeing rep-resentation of women in political party decision-making bodies. For example, the United

84 Soledad Ruiz Seguín and Marta Plaza, “Gender Equality Policies in Spain: The commitment of social democracy”, Queries. See: <http://213.192.236.136/sites/default/files/marta_plaza_genero__feps_pdf.pdf >

85 Tamar Bagratia, Medea Badashvili, David Jijelava and Irakli Khmaladze, “Developing intra-party democracy from a gender perspective”, in Intra-party democracy and local governance (Tbilisi: NIMD Georgia), 2012, p. 12.

Box 3.5:

Women’s Representation in Party Decision-Making Bodies In various OSCE participating States, political parties have adopted provisions in their statutes that guarantee a minimum representation of women in party decision-making bodies or specify the positions that require the representation of women. These include:

United Kingdom Labour Party:

National Executive Committee:

Of the three frontbench Members of Parliament to be represented in the 24-member NEC, at least one must be a woman.

German Christian Democratic Union: Apply a 33 per cent quota for party officials; internal elections are held again if this threshold is not met.

German Green Party: Dual Presidency: Requires that a man and a woman ‘co-chair’ the presidency of the party.

Source: For full reference to political party statutes, see Bibliography.

Kingdom Labour Party Rule Book contains a provision to guarantee the representation of women in the National Executive Committee of the party (see Box 3.5). ⁸⁶

In addition, specific gender-equality rules for internal party bodies can be introduced to regulate the leadership com-position of the party. For example, Germany’s Green Party has instituted a “dual presidency”, with a man and woman co-chairing the party. This practice is used to reflect the Green Party’s commitment to values such as fairness and equality. In other cases, gender-equality rules prescribe that women should be members of key committees, taskforces and/or working groups. In 1996, for example, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in Germany adopted a 33 per cent quota for party officials; if this quota of female political party officials is not met, internal party elections must be repeat-ed.⁸⁷ The Liberal Democratic and Social Democratic parties of Moldova encourage 30 per cent women’s representation in party leadership at all levels.

Ensuring women’s representation in internal decision-mak-ing bodies is believed to indirectly influence the numbers of women who eventually run for elected office.⁸⁸ Therefore, these gender-equality rules might come from or serve as a basis for a political party gender-equality strategy and/or a party platform on gender issues more broadly.

➔ Introducing rules guaranteeing women’s representation in decision-making processes

In addition to provisions guaranteeing minimum representation of women in decision-making bodies, party leadership can also introduce provisions to ensure a minimum representation of women in decision-making processes and activities, such as party congresses or conferences, or annual general meetings (see Box 3.6). For example, the Texas State Democratic Executive Committee in the United States has included in its party’s charter the rule that nominations of convention delegates should comprise women and men in the proportion present in the district or state.⁸⁹ Likewise, the United States Democratic Party requires that the elected delegates

86 “Labour Party Rule Book”, 2010, <http://www.leftfutures.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Labour-Party-Rule-Book-2010.pdf>. The resources and examples referenced in this handbook are included owing to their value as effective good practices for the promotion of women’s participation in political parties. As such, their inclusion in no way represents an endorsement of or agreement with the policy agendas or political platforms of the or-ganizations, platforms and political parties that produced them.

87 “Voluntary Political Party Quotas for Europe”, Global Database of Quotas for Women, Quota Project,

<http://www.quotaproject.org/systemParty.cfm?region=50>.

<http://www.quotaproject.org/systemParty.cfm?region=50>.

Im Dokument Handbook on Promoting Women’s Participation in Political Parties (Seite 51-61)