Economic Progress, Social Capital and Political Participation: De�ning Policy Priorities of

Promoting Women's Social- Political Involvement in Local Self-governance

Policy Paper

Economic Progress, Social Capital and Political Participation: Defining Policy Priorities of Promoting Women's Social-Political Involvement in Local Self-governance

Despite being more than half of world population women still have a very modest role in political

processes. This phenomenon is conditioned by a variety of structural, functional and social-psychological

factors which vary in different cultures and countries. Yet according to feminist political scientists the main

problem underlies in the essence of politics and liberal democracy.

According to feminist and political scientist Nancy Hirschman, liberalism mainly represents the

individual self from the perspective of male identity, thus, dismissing women. One of the cornerstones of

feminist criticism over liberalism is the differentiation of public and personal, where public is associated only

with masculinity and personal - with femininity. As Ericka Tucker notes, "in the public space where women

are ousted, it is men, who define the rules of the public and personal power. For centuries women have

been deprived of playing a role in public life and therefore of having their word in politics via force and

different laws"1.

In her report on " Women’s Political Participation: Issues and Challenges "2 Farzana Bari highlights

the following factors that limit women's political participation (it should be noted that many of those factors

are closely interconnected):

Ideological factors, implying that in gender relations formed within patriarchic regime women will

always engage secondary roles and will be ousted from public life:

Political factors assuming that men-ruled parties, the culture and patriarchic values and norms of

political parties limit women participation in politics.

Social-cultural factors which are reflected in the stereotyped notions of severely differentiating

gender socialization and in the dominant myths and stereotypes on masculinity and femininity. This

set of norms and stereotypes, although functioning differently in various cultures, prevents

women's competent participation in both public-political life and labor market. The social-cultural

norms and values regarding gender roles are being displayed in a variety of forms: starting with

1https://www.academia.edu/2650005/_Feminist_Political_Theory_entry_in_Michael_Gibbons_Ed._The_Encyclopedia_of_Political_Thought 2 F. Bari. Women’s Political Participation: Issues and Challenges (report), UN Division for the Advancement of Women, 2005.

negative notions towards women leadership and ending with a number of duties expected of them,

which for their turn objectively restrain women’s economic and political activities.

Economic factors, assuming that within the context of highly-commercialised politics, the scarcity if

economic capital among women is a remarkable barrier towards their political participation.

Low social capital, implying that women succumb to men in the criteria of involvement in social

networks, establishment and maintenance of socially "significant" contacts.

Other factors include the generally masculine model of politics, lack of educational projects aimed

towards promoting women's professional progress in politics and in leadership as a whole, as well as the

peculiarities of electoral system which are absolutely gender-insensitive in several countries.

In the modern world women's involvement in labor market as middle and high class executives has

become one of the most important and immediate steps to foster economic development. Women's

involvement as executives not only serves for the growth of economic wealth, but also contributes to the

application of new leadership culture. However, in Armenia women continue holding positions with middle

or low-class salaries.

According to the data provided by the Asian Development Bank3 Armenian labor market displays

vertical discrimination, when the presence of women in senior positions is small or doesn't exist at all.

Despite the fact that only 9.4% of employed population holds senior positions, their vast majority is

occupied by men (67.8% of senior officials are men)4. In 2013 women held only 23% high-ranking positions

in business, moreover the figure had decreased compared with 2012, when it was 27%. Further research

reveals that women usually hold senior positions in HR (27%) and financial (25%) sectors of management,

the mentioned practice has been preserved since Soviet era5. In 2012 only 9% of functioning businesses

were managed by women.

A number of studies, carried out by several prominent organizations during the last decade (World

Bank, Global Economic Forum) prove that within the context of demographic changes and aging of societies

involvement of women in the economy (including the senior decision-making positions) has become one of

the most realistic solutions towards economic development6.

The research carried out by Boston Advisory Group shows that women will have made up two thirds

of the consumers by 2028. The increase of women's income will have a positive impact on the whole

economy as they have (and will continue having) more investments in the spheres of food, healthcare and

in education for themselves and their children7.

3 Armenia County Gender Assessment, Asian Development Bank (ADB), July 2015, http://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/institutional-document/162152/arm-country-gender-assessment.pdf. 4 Armenia: MDG National Progress Report, 2010. 5 ADB Country Gender Assessment, 2015 – referring to Panorama.am. 2012. Just Over One in Three Senior Management Positions in Businesses Surveyed in Armenia Are Held by Women— Grant Thornton. 13 March. http://www.panorama.am/en/society/2012/03/13/women/. 6 http://journal.aarpinternational.org/a/b/2012/02/Women-as-Economic-Drivers. 7 Ibid.

Thus, according to the data provided by World Bank, the examples of Brazil, China, India, South

Africa and United Kingdom prove that when women earn more, their children are better nourished and

receive better education8.

The calculations made by UN reveal that if women had as much access to production means as men

do, women's income from farms would increase by 20-30%, this increase would respectively stimulate the

growth of agricultural production in developing countries and would reduce the number of people suffering

from hunger by 12-17% (around 150 million people)9.

A lot of comparative and analytic studies have been conducted recently focusing on the correlation

between the women engagement in senior positions and the profit received by those organizations. The

organizations with more women in their board of directors exceed the amount of investments by 66%10.

Researchers Ami Alexander and Christian Welzel, focusing on the issue of gender equality, suggest

analyzing it from four main perspectives:

1. economic modernization;

2. cultural transformations that spread egalitarian opinions within the society;

3. the historical sources of women's movement and the social-historical context of gender equality in

the given society;

4. institutional design, which emphasizes the structure of the whole political culture and women's role

in it11.

At the same time, the authors differentiate four levels of gender equality12:

gender equality in such fundamental rights, as quality of life, duration of life, education etc;

activation of women in civil society;

women’s representation in senior positions and gender equality in remunerations;

women's political empowerment and equal representation in politics.

But how does that drastic transition from economic to political empowerment take place? In

general, the literature analysis points out the information concerning the factors influencing on women's

political participation is quite controversial. No structural and systematic factor exerting indirect and explicit

influence on women's political participation has been drawn out. In most cases it acts as a combination of

different factors. In some countries education is considered as the main factor of impact on women's

political participation and so is the presence of economic capital in other countries. Researcher An Phillips

even noted that from the perspective of women participation political sphere can be characterized as

"relatively autonomous"13.

8 http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2012/03/revenga.htm 9 Ibid. 10 http://journal.aarpinternational.org/a/b/201/02/Women-as-Economic-Drivers 11 A. C. Alexander, Ch. Welzel. 12 Ibid. 13 http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0014/001467/146770e.pdf

Researcher Merilee Grindle emphasizes that while touching upon the issue of political participation

particularly in the context of developing and poor countries, one should totally avoid simplistic judgments

and conclusions, because what functions in one social context can absolutely refuse to function in other

cases14.

Women's political participation is also affected by cultural variables, in other words, social notions

regarding women leadership and power, and besides, their effect can be stronger than the others'.

The literature dealing with economic progress and political participation attaches great importance

to social capital and trust as pledges of both economic and political participation.

According to various studies, economic advancement has a more positive impact on political

participation, if the given society has developed a high rate of institutional and interpersonal trust. Several

studies witness that social capital and institutional trust are exactly the only possible determinants of

political participation.

The results of research regarding women participation in local elections in Armenia15 state that

stereotypes and economic factors were named as hindering factors of women's political participation.

Interestingly, that most emphasis is put not on the stereotypes, which are regarded as surmountable

realities by the women community leaders, but on the poor economic situation in rural areas. That

approach was also seconded by those experts who explain the negative attitude towards women's

economic participation through stereotypes but at the same time consider it solvable if systematic activities

are implemented.

The same research suggests grouping the causes hindering political participation using two types of

reasons, which arise from the above-mentioned classification of issues regarding women's political

participation on the level of 20 local communities:

gender-based cases of discrimination towards women's political participation (factors of direct

impact),

general social-economic , political reasons, that hinder women's political participation (factors of

mediate impact).

While studying the formation and replication of such types of social capital, that foster individual

political participation, researchers La Du Leik and Hackfeld mark out 3 main factors: the size of the

respective social networks, the degree of political experience within those networks and the frequency of

political communications. According to researchers, other factors such as personal income, employment

status, age, membership in different organizations, race etc also make indirect impact on the level of

individual's politically relevant social capital. Interestingly, education has the most influence on all the three

mentioned factors.

14 http://www.gsdrc.org/docs/open/se8.pdf 15 H.Shapaghatyan, L.Poghosyan, Women's political participation in LSG elections: issues and perspectives, YSU Center of Gender and Leadership Studies, 2014. http://ysu.am/files/Hasmik_Shapaghatyan_Final_Report_ARM.pdf.

Addressing the relationship among social capital, economic advancement and political participation

Howard, based on his research in Senegal notes that microfinance programs are successfully implemented

only when they lead to a growth of the number of individual's social networks and increase of political

expertise and respectively political debates in those networks.

La Du Leik and Hackfeld also mark out four factors that will ensure successful involvement in

community's decision-making process for the credit borrowers:

sense of comfort while talking about politics in the given network;

existence of certain political proficiency;

sufficient interpersonal and group trust for exchanging political views candidly;

existing mechanisms of forming consent upon political issues.16

Similar results were achieved in the women empowerment programs in the South Asian countries.

The Empowerment was indicated on the levels of women self-awareness and self-perception, rethinking of

gender roles and social norms as well as of awareness of collective interests and issues.

There have been observed remarkable successes in cases when programs of economic support were

implemented by using the method of women self-help groups. For instance, the number of women who

became beneficiaries of loan programs has increased (before that the residents of the studied communities

preferred to arrange risky deals by borrowing amounts with high interests, including from usurers).17

Another positive acquisition of self-help groups was that women gained control on the products of

their labor and achieved leadership positions in their communities and even control from the perspective of

reproduction and bodily integrity18. It's also worth to mention that economic advancement through self-

help method has had different impacts on different female social-demographic groups. Its impact has been

particularly significant on women-ran households and on women older than 45.

The experience of micro-finance programs also witnesses that in parallel with providing funding

trainings on life and time planning skills, redistribution of collective interests, marketing, leadership and

development of other social skills should be mandatory, otherwise programs won't attain their goals.

Taking into account on one hand, the high level of poverty in Armenia, especially among rural areas,

and one the other hand, the international experience on women's economic and political development we

indicate the following priorities.

1. Development of women's economic and political leadership skills and capacities necessary for

becoming competitive in economic and political fields in communities. Considering the fact that

women usually have no material assets in rural areas, have got low human capital and are engaged

in household activities in most of their lives, the probabilities and risks for women and girls to

emerge in groups with low demographic potential are substantially higher. Therefore women's

economic and political empowerment is inevitably related with the development of educational

16 Galab and N. Chandrasekhara Rao. Women's Self-Help Groups, Poverty Alleviation and Empowerment. Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 38, No. 12/13, 2003 17 Ibid. 18 Ibid.

capital among women. In this context under educational capital we mean the development of

economic and political knowledge and respective skills. Besides educational capital, we consider

implementation of trainings towards development of women's self-efficiency skills to be a policy

priority. The significance of this priority is proved by recent studies on the political participation of

poor population. The studies, confirming the relationship between economic capital and political

participation point out that those people, who consider their everyday activities as efficient reality,

are keener on participating in political processes.19

2. The growth of educational capital can be implemented on both formal (while training specialists in

higher educational institutions through the specializations of public management, women

leadership, management etc) and informal (development of leadership skills by organizing and

implementing free leadership schools, trainings, exchange programs, expansive forms etc) levels.

3. Formation and development of social capital and self-help groups among women. This method has

achieved much success in women empowerment programs in several countries. It has been

repeatedly confirmed that one of the most powerful obstacles in the way of both poverty reduction

and economic development is the absence of social capital and trust. Nevertheless activities

pursuing interpersonal and community trust are hard to put into practice. Considering this direction

of stimulating women's economic and political empowerment very perspective, we suggest

conducting a deeper research and elaborate a list of respective activities which besides women's

economic empowerment will also include the formation and functioning of cooperation institutions

among women.

4. Installation of gender-sensitive budgeting approach from the perspective of social and gender

justice. Particularly in terms of women's political empowerment on the local level gender-sensitive

budgets can maximally foster in solving the issue of women's and men's equal participation while

dealing with a number of social problems. Gender-sensitive budgeting, as one of the most

important tools of gender mainstreaming not only promotes women empowerment on global and

local levels, but also provides the problems carriers (both men and women) opportunities of being

actively involved in the processes of problem-solving discussions and their solutions.

5. The reformulation and rethinking of women's image in politics, which in direct correlation with the

reformulation of economically prosperous woman's image. Those two factors are based on

notions founded on cultural stereotypes, according to which women's vigorous economic and

political activities are directly derived from their "moral characteristics and image". The solution of

this issue greatly depends on both the change of politically and economically active women's own

stereotypical notions and perceptions and on ways of preparing and disseminating accomplished

and adequate media materials.

6. To build a positive image and to overcome stereotypes it's essential to consider the involvement of

PR specialists in the elections and from the perspective of developing self-expressing skills. The

cooperation with PR specialist both before nomination and during the whole campaign process can

promote not only self-respect, acknowledgment and acceptance of personal value among women

politicians, but also greatly promote leadership skills among other women and young generations.

7. Implementation of gender analysis and monitoring of quota system taking into account the

debates over the changes in quota system of Electoral Code as well as their positive feedback

19 Patrice Z. Howard. Evaluating the Political Impact of Microfinance: Evidence from Senegal. Columbia University, 2012 http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2021542.

among local, state and international organizations. In this regard it's essential not only to foster

women's knowledge and readiness in elections, but also to change state mechanisms. In particular,

the decrease of nomination fees in elections can positively contribute to women's involvement in

politics in terms of goals and desires.

8. From the perspective of achieving positive field changes and developments in Armenia the

functioning of Gender Thematic Group is attaining even more significance. On the one hand it's

important in terms of making decisions and representing them, while on the other hand - in

promoting solidarity, healthy competition and sharing of joint goal among the organizations

functioning in the same field. It's also the place where respective state mechanisms regarding

political participation within the framework of "National Strategic Action Plan against Gender-based

Violence" should be elaborated, in particular to display the relationship among women's

educational, economic and political capital.

9. The promotion of micro-financing programs especially in terms of funding and stimulating

women's initiatives. In this regard it's important not only to back and promote initiatives pursuing

mere economic prosperity but also the funding by international organizations which besides

empowering economic capital also contain mechanisms of solving social, economic and/or political

issues (i.e. proposals on road construction in communities, inclusion of new programs in schools,

political programs towards reproductive health etc that are planned and implemented by women).

10. Study of relationship between women's economic and political capitals on academic and research

levels. In this sense, the role of active agents can be played by those educational institutions and

research centers whose research can be used to carry out the analysis of Armenian realities.

11. A versatile research should be also made to examine the causes of men's and women's job

preferences, the process of employment, the impact of employer's preferences as well as the

gender differences of career advancement in Armenian labor market.

12. To adapt the empowerment evaluation methodology for Armenian reality. The empowerment

methodology is a combination of concepts, techniques and research tools aimed to measure the

level of self-efficiency and self-determination of individuals and groups. In this context the usage of

this method will contribute to the many-sided evaluation of the efficiency of women's economic

and political participation and empowerment.