Understanding the role of gender stereotypes and ideologies is crucial for these changes. In the 1990s, political ideology itself has to be redefined in view of the wide range of political activities in which women are highly involved. No longer can politics be defined as the activity of governmental officials and elite influence peddlers, or popular participation be reduced to just voting and membership in political parties. Now politics is about differential access to resources, both material and symbolic, and how such power relations and structures are created and sustained. In this broad definition, politics operates at all levels, ranging from the family and community, to the state and the international sphere.
All people act politically in their everyday lives.
We must change the lens with which we view politics. There is a clear interaction between the under representation of women in conventional power structures of society, the economy and government and too little awareness of the gender hierarchy. So we need to have more women in leadership positions and greater attention paid to the role of gender in shaping world politics. The task is two- fold adding women to the existing power structures and transforming those very power structures, ideologically and materially.