Putting women in the driver's seat in Cambodia

How can one push for greater political participation of women in a patriarchal state that believes government is a fraternity? The Cambodian Committee to Promote Women in Politics faced this exact problem when it first started its work to encourage women to get more politically involved in the early 2000s. Back then, CPWP struggled to convince women to become more “involved in decision-making at the national and local levels” not only because of opposition from men, but also because some of these women didn’t see that as their role in politics. “The men in the political parties used scare tactics to convince us that politics was not for women. They said a woman’s place was in the home, and women didn’t understand how politics worked,” CPWP chair Thida Khus told Devex in Phnom Penh. “There were also some women who thought their role was to do the backroom work to support the men in political parties.” As well as chairing CPWP, Khus is executive director of SILAKA, a local nongovernmental organization that offers training to strengthen NGOs and individuals to build up national structures and promote peace in Cambodia. “People also accused us of importing Western ideas about gender equality,” she said. “So we dug out our history and language and found that Cambodia had been a matriarchal society — between the first and sixth centuries, you had to be female to be a ruler. We pointed out that at that time we were prosperous socially and economically and wanted to go back to our roots, so men stopped saying that we were bringing in Western ideas.” CPWP called on SILAKA to run training workshops to help female candidates run for local elections, and raise awareness about the positive role that women play in politics. As a result, the number of women running for office at the commune level increased from 16 percent in 2002 to 21 percent in 2007, and those elected from 8 percent to 15 percent. CPWP, however, has yet to reach its target of ensuring women make up 25 percent of commune councilors. Its program is ambitious, as CPWP is campaigning for equal numbers of men and women elected, as laid down in the Cambodian Constitution. It believes that you should aim high — if you ask for parity, you are more likely to get 30 percent, but if your target is 30 percent, then you will get 20 percent. Corruption is another hurdle. In a system where votes are cast for party lists not individuals, prospective candidates pay to be ranked higher on the list. To combat this, CPWP is advocating for a “zipper system,” or man-woman-man-woman, to ensure that 50 percent of the candidates are women. Improved public services with more women in government One way to convince both men and women that empowering women to become more politically active and take more decision-making roles in government is to make the public see how this could result in positive change in government priorities. CPWP has been doubling its efforts through public forums, where the public is informed about the importance of getting more women in power. Military spending is currently prioritized by the government, as it fears external threats. This can change if more women are in government. “People don’t want their taxes used to buy arms, to go war with our neighbors,” Khus argued, noting that the effects of the brutal Khmer Rouge regime and the following years of conflict are still “very fresh” in the minds of Cambodian women. “Women want the money to be used to improve public services. Many of them had to raise their children on their own as their men were all killed,” she added. The CPWP chief further noted that military might alone is not enough to defend the country from potential threats, as the country had to use rule of law “to defeat Thailand or Vietnam.” Meanwhile, other countries benefit from the arms, helicopters, bullets and tanks that they sell to Cambodia. But CPWP and similar organizations in Cambodia cannot push for gender equality in politics on their own. They are looking to connect with like-minded organizations in the region and globally not just to gather support but also to share experiences and ideas. But they are also cognizant of the fact that international pressure is needed to push the government to strengthen democratic institutions. “There must be more accountability — you have to get the government to be accountable to people, and you need to strengthen the people to demand this. We need real indicators for accountability and for gender justice, so people have access to their rights and aren’t sold as slaves,” Khus said. “Donors must insist that there is more political accountability, which will also help stem the tide of corruption.” Education and the post-2015 development goals One reason for the dearth of women in politics is the lack of decent education for girls, which leaves them without the skills or confidence to enter politics. So a crucial target of the Millennium Development Goals and the future sustainable development goals is to get more girls into secondary education. World Bank data notes that while girls’ enrollment at primary level is up to 98 percent parity with boys, this falls to around 17 percent in some areas when it comes to secondary education. This is partly because of the view that girls do not need education and partly because of problems with the education system. Many people complain that it is weak, corrupt and inefficient. As teachers receive very low salaries, they supplement these by offering children in their classes additional “private classes” and selling them educational materials. There is also an urban-rural divide, with better secondary education in the cities and a higher dropout rate in the countryside. This is particularly acute for girls, where the lack of secondary education has resulted in thousands of young women migrating to neighboring countries to find employment opportunities. Women in Cambodia believe that a stand-alone goal on gender equality, women’s rights and women’s empowerment within the SDGs is needed to address these issues. At the same time, strong mechanisms are needed to support women to enter politics, and to get more government accountability to improve education to help young women. In current SDG discussions there are proposals for private companies to offer support for some of the initiatives. Khus hopes they will form coalitions with donors, foundations and with the Cambodian government to support measures to get more women into politics and more girls into secondary education. These targets should be monitored with the use of gender-equality indicators. Only in this way will the lot of women and girls improve in this war-torn country. 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