JAN KIRK B.

PINEDA SEPTEMBER 30, 2021

AB IS- 41 XA 1

R.A 4: THE SIGNIFICANT INFLUENCE OF PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION &

DEMOCRATIZATION ON THE SHARE OF FEMALE PARLIAMENTARIANS IN
MIDDLE EASTERN AND NORTH AFRICAN (MENA) COUNTRIES by K. Adams

This reading analysis features the literature titled, “THE SIGNIFICANT INFLUENCE OF
PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION & DEMOCRATIZATION ON THE SHARE OF
FEMALE PARLIAMENTARIANS IN MIDDLE EASTERN AND NORTH AFRICAN
(MENA) COUNTRIES. Ms. Kimberly S. Adams is the author of the paper. Electronically
published in 2018. Her research focuses on the women’s participation in politics in
MENA countries. The objective of this research is to examine political and
socioeconomic factors that influence female representation in 14 countries in the Middle
East and North Africa(MENA).

The 24th of June, 2018, will be a day that Saudi Arabian women will remember for
decades. The ban on Saudi women driving was abolished on this date, and for the first
time in the kingdom's history, Saudi women "took to the roadways lawfully". Women
were permitted to vote and seek seats in the kingdom's municipal council” in Saudi
Arabia in 2015. The study examines whether gender quotas, a country's electoral
system, female secondary school enrollment, a country's level of democracy, GDP per
capita (GDPPC), and the economic activity rate for women have a significant impact on
the percentage of women in national parliaments in fourteen Middle Eastern and North
African countries.

Gender quotas have been often highlighted as the most significant single cause for the
huge growth in women in national legislatures throughout the world (Adams 2012;
Krook, 2009; Ertan, 2011). In September 2014, the average proportion of women sitting
in national parliaments' lower chambers was 22.2 percent globally. Women made up
about 8,436 of the total 38, 076 MPs in the lower house worldwide. With 25.6 percent,
the Americas led the way, closely followed by Europe with 25.3 percent. Female MPs
made up 22.5 percent of the total in Sub-Saharan Africa, and 18.8 percent in Asia. The
Arab countries' average national unemployment rate was 7.8%. (IPU, 2014). In 2014,
the average percentage of women sitting in the lower houses of parliament in the
fourteen MENA nations studied was 14.2 percent, which was 8% lower than the global
average of 22.2 percent at the time.

Scholars have focused a great deal of emphasis on the social, religious, and political
effects on women's positions throughout the Middle East and North Africa. While some
nations in the area are actively working to increase women's access to the public
sphere, others maintain a rigid, traditional view of women's responsibilities in society.

Female involvement and power sharing have long been denied and/or discouraged in
the MENA nations included in this study, which are ethnically homogeneous.
Furthermore, due to the paucity of variance across the fourteen nations, the variable
that assesses the effect of a country's main religion on the percentage of women in
parliament has been removed. According to Ertan (2011), women are less likely to be
found in the legislatures of Declared Muslim Governments than in mostly Muslim
countries where Islam is acknowledged as the official religion or predominantly Muslim
countries that are declared secular states (Ertan, 2011).

In this study, the dependent variable is the percentage of female members in the lower
house of fourteen Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) countries as of September
30, 2014. The independent variables are electoral system, presence of quota, level of
democracy, female economic activity rate, secondary education, and gross domestic
product per capita. Out of the six independent variables, only one variable, electoral
system, is significantly correlated with the dependent variable, the percentage of women
in parliament.

According to the Pearson correlation findings suggest that the only meaningful link
between the female share of parliament in the MENA nations studied is with the
electoral system of the country. This indicates that nations with proportional
representation election systems are more likely to have women in lower house
legislatures (Adams, 2013, Ertan, 2011; Matland, 1998). In summary, the findings of
the OLS regression show that political variables have a significantly larger explanatory
value than socioeconomic ones when it comes to the proportion of women in national
parliaments in the Middle Eastern and North African nations studied.

Many studies on women in the Middle East and North Africa tend to concentrate on the
religious and cultural restrictions that prevent women from fully participating in society.
The participation of women in parliaments is influenced by a variety of factors, many of
which are difficult to define and much more difficult to quantify. The findings of this study
appear to support previous beliefs that political factors, and to a lesser degree,
socioeconomic factors such as education, have a major impact on women's
participation in politics.

This study concludes that cultural and religious impediments to gender equality obstruct
gender equality and may be the single most important reason for the lack of women in
politics in MENA nations. Elahaeh Koolaee, an Iranian academic and former member of
Parliament, put it best when she remarked, "Old cultural and historical views have
rendered the potential for women's rights impossible to fulfill." Perhaps the most
significant challenge facing the MENA area is “changing male attitudes and
interpretations of Islamic laws” (Koolaee, 2009).

This study is very informative. No bias that I observed since the main focus of this study
is the women in MENA countries. This paper is essential in the class discussion
because it tackles women's representation in politics. From what I have understood in
our lessons and my classmate’s presentations about the MENA country, I realized that
women were given less spotlight when it comes to politics in these countries. It was
explained in this paper the reason why but I still believe that women should be given
equal rights especially in politics because men cannot represent women alone. It is
important for a country or a state to have a women representative so that their fellow
women will be heard.

Overall, this study enlightened me that gender equality is still a big issue in some
countries. I hope that this study will help other people, especially men, to advocate for
women’s representation in politics, not for equality, but because women need to be
represented properly and eradicate toxic masculinity especially in politics.