Philippines, India have more women leaders: UN<\/p>\n
Agence France-Presse, Manila<\/p>\n
Indian and the Philippines lead Asian nations in getting more
\nwomen into leadership positions while the countries of South Asia
\nfall behind, a United Nations special ambassador said on Monday.<\/p>\n
Women in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand are not as well-
\nrepresented in politics but have benefited from economic growth
\nwhile China has lagged in the advancement of women despite its
\nrapid economic strides, said Erna Witoelar, UN special ambassador
\nfor Millennium Development Goals.<\/p>\n
The UN Millennium Development Goals oversees a series of
\ndevelopment targets for countries to attain by 2015, include
\npromotion of gender equality and empowerment of women.<\/p>\n
Witoelar, speaking on the sidelines of an Asian parliamentary
\nconference in Manila said India and the Philippines both enjoyed
\na high proportion of women within their legislatures and in local
\npositions.<\/p>\n
But she said this did not mean that women in the Philippines
\nwere better off than in other countries. She said Filipina women
\nwere still subject to economic hardship with many migrating to
\ncities or other countries to find jobs.<\/p>\n
Ordinary women in Malaysia and Thailand had benefited from the
\ngeneral economic growth, Witoelar said, but remarked \"despite
\nhigher economic growth, women in leadership positions are still
\nlow\".<\/p>\n
This was also true in Indonesia despite a rule allocating
\nparliament seats for women. Witoelar, an Indonesian, said none of
\nthe political parties there were able to meet quotas for female
\ncandidates in coming polls in April.<\/p>\n
China was moving \"slower in the advancement of women,\" the
\nambassador said, adding that \"it is still very much a male-
\ndominated leadership as well as a male-dominated ordinary life.\"<\/p>\n
She cited the one-child policy in China which led many
\nfamilies to abort their female fetuses in favor of male infants.<\/p>\n
But China was still ahead of countries in South Asia like
\nNepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, she added.<\/p>\n
Although some of these countries already had female heads of
\nstate, \"for ordinary women, there are quite a lot of social and
\ncultural constraints,\" Witoelar said without elaborating.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/philippines-india-have-more-women-leaders-un-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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