The political culture has its own language, its own customs, in some cases its own dress code and traditions, and it is male. One of the challenges for women is to not simply try to fit into this system, but to look at how it can be changed to better reflect the reality of the whole society. We have some great role models such as former Prime Minister of Norway Gro Bruntland, however, the reality is that there are not a lot of women in positions of power who can help to redefine concepts of leadership and power. Some, like Margaret Thatcher, have attained power but have done little to advance equality for women. In my view, there is no genuine democracy unless our political institutions are comprised of at least fifty percent women.
Gender equality is essential to true democracy.
It would appear, however, that rather than the number of women increasing in elected politics, it is decreasing. Even though female literacy rates and income levels are increasing in most of the developing world, women continue to hold fewer than 10 percent of parliamentary seats in most of Asia, Africa and Latin America, and fewer than 2 percent in Arab states. There are also fewer women in the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada being elected. Only the four Scandinavian countries hold more than one third of parliamentary seats. Almost 90 percent of political parties are led by men.