Philippines, India have more women leaders: UN

Philippines, India have more women leaders: UN

Agence France-Presse, Manila

Indian and the Philippines lead Asian nations in getting more
women into leadership positions while the countries of South Asia
fall behind, a United Nations special ambassador said on Monday.

Women in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand are not as well-
represented in politics but have benefited from economic growth
while China has lagged in the advancement of women despite its
rapid economic strides, said Erna Witoelar, UN special ambassador
for Millennium Development Goals.

The UN Millennium Development Goals oversees a series of
development targets for countries to attain by 2015, include
promotion of gender equality and empowerment of women.

Witoelar, speaking on the sidelines of an Asian parliamentary
conference in Manila said India and the Philippines both enjoyed
a high proportion of women within their legislatures and in local
positions.

But she said this did not mean that women in the Philippines
were better off than in other countries. She said Filipina women
were still subject to economic hardship with many migrating to
cities or other countries to find jobs.

Ordinary women in Malaysia and Thailand had benefited from the
general economic growth, Witoelar said, but remarked "despite
higher economic growth, women in leadership positions are still
low".

This was also true in Indonesia despite a rule allocating
parliament seats for women. Witoelar, an Indonesian, said none of
the political parties there were able to meet quotas for female
candidates in coming polls in April.

China was moving "slower in the advancement of women," the
ambassador said, adding that "it is still very much a male-
dominated leadership as well as a male-dominated ordinary life."

She cited the one-child policy in China which led many
families to abort their female fetuses in favor of male infants.

But China was still ahead of countries in South Asia like
Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, she added.

Although some of these countries already had female heads of
state, "for ordinary women, there are quite a lot of social and
cultural constraints," Witoelar said without elaborating.