Authors : Victoria Molubah and Eric Senneh
Site of publication : American journal of law and political science
Type of publication : Article
Date of publication : 2022
Introduction
Globally, the participation of women in political leadership is still at a very low rate. At the moment, average number of women globally who are parliamentarians is 19% (United Nations Women, 2017). This falls below the target of 30% that was intended to be achieved by 2005 as set in the 1995 Beijing Platform for action. Inter-Parliamentarian Union (2012) report indicates that the global average of female parliamentary representation stood at 19.8 percent in 2011 from 19 percent in 2010.
In Europe, women’s parliamentary political participation has greatly increased over the past years, but gender balanced equality has not been achieved. Further, gender equality in political leadership and resources in industrialized democracies has increased tremendously in the past fifty years. More women have been elected to national parliamentary seats than ever before and a number of women hold executive positions within the national governments. Even though women have over the years benefited from the improving political influence, they still participate less in formal politics across most of the Western nations.
Liberalism
Liberalism is a political philosophy or worldview founded on ideas of liberty and equality. Liberals adopt a wide range of views depending on the principal understanding of these, but in general they support programs and ideas for example the freedom of speech, press, religion, civil rights, free markets, democratic societies, international cooperation, gender equality and secular governments. Gender equality, which is one of the views supported by liberals, is a state of equal access to opportunity and resources on the gender, decision-making plus participation in the economy, valuing the stature of different behaviors, equal needs and aspirations despite the gender.
Demographic Characteristics
The respondents in the study were requested to state the period they have worked in Bomi County. This was quite important as work experience forms a crucial factor in determining whether the employee has sufficient knowledge of the institution the study was being carried out. Most (53%) of respondents had worked for 10-15 years and 47 percentages below 5 years. None of the respondents have worked above 20 years. There is a high proportion of male respondents 121 (76%) as compared to females 38 (24%).
This indicates that both genders participated in this study and that they were well distributed in terms of gender. Majority were 31 to 50 years old with40 percent of respondents falling in this category. This rate shows that most of employees are young as compared to employees over 50 years who represent 6% of the respondents. Majority of respondents in Bomi county government were educated with 145, 91% attaining University/College education while those with Secondary education are 7 percent and Primary education are 2 percent.
Recommendations
The government of Liberia should strengthen the existing constitutional and supportive legal framework in supporting equality practices in women leadership. This will ensure that women acquire economic resources leading to increase of women’s attendance in the political realm. In addition, the government should adopt the best practices in the field of recruitment of any government vacancy which is based on fairness and gender equity.
Women’s social and economic status plays a key responsibility in influencing their representation and involvement in decision making in political organs. Women societal and economic position directly manipulates on their contribution in elected bodies and political organizations. Women should be provided with adequate economic resources which is a major challenge that hinders women from involving themselves in politics in larger numbers. Females’ contribution in political sphere relies primarily on their entrance to job opportunities which equip them with not only material power, but also positive certified abilities and experiences.