STATE GOVERNMENT

SUMMARIZE:

Finding female parliamentarians with legislative power on crafting environmental legislation is limited. Sweden according to Norgaard and York have a large female representation in parliament, are more prone to ratify environmental treaties. (512) While Sweden ranks as number #1 in representation, it ranks number #10 environmentally, while Spain ranks number #16 for representation, it ranks #1 environmentally. Recent data suggest that Rwanda ranks number #1 for female representation-globally, and Singapore number #1 in Asia, neither have an environmental ranking. Wealthy nations that cause the most environmental damage, support environmental treaties. The reasons are unclear. One assumes these capitalist nations throw their weight around and sign treaties out of political correctness.

“No quantitative empirical work has tested whether gender equality does in fact influence state behavior with respect to the environment” (Norgaard and York. 508) Norgsaard and York continue, “explanations for the gender gap in environmental concern suggest that women are more concerned about the environment because they have been socialized to be family nurturers and care givers. “(508) Ecofeminists imply gender inequality may be linked to environmental degradation because nation states with greater gender inequality may be less environmentally responsible due to the hegemony of the logic of domination. These authors believe that societies with greater female representation in parliament are more prone to ratify environmental treaties. (512) Not in the following countries.

• Singapore women earn $0.90 cents for every $1.00 earned by men. Currently 23percentage of their parliamentarians are women, but only make up 10 percentage of the cabinet. The number of women has progressed in the last two decades. (Agarwal Chirag) These women emerged from The Singapore Council of Women (SCW) a civil rights group formed in 1954 after the ending of Japanese occupation. . They created a heightened consciousness of what women could achieve, by creating an identity. Agarwal reminds us that “in spite of the positive improvements in Singaporean women’s lives, Singapore remains largely a ‘woman unfriendly state’” The few women who enter the domain acknowledge politics is an “androcentric arena.” Women therefore cannot choose to differentiate themselves from men during discussions in parliament. This imbalance of power and domination exercised by men leave women feeling as the “second sex.” (47-48)
• Rwanda boasts the best record for female representation -61.3percentage, after the genocide ended. (Dudman, Jane. The guardian) Dudman argues that “behind the headlines is the anxiety of women’s lives. Domestic Violence remains widely accepted. 1 in 5 women experience sexual violence at the hands of their husbands. “That’s how marriages work”-local saying. Josette Uwanziga (in Dudmans’ piece) social campaigner agrees with the United Nations assessment that the poorest citizens are women, who states Uwanzinga, are beginning to have “a monopoly on poverty.” “The parliamentarians she argues, have a good salary, but it’s like a vase in a living room: smells and looks good, but ultimately it does nothing.” How are their lives in private? One parliamentarian told Justine Uvuza-Ph.D research student, her husband expects her to polish his shoes, iron his clothes, and fear her husband like other women fear theirs. One even told her she contemplated suicide because she felt trapped. These women wrote Uvuza, “don’t want to stand under the banner of feminism, “that’s for Westerners.”” These women’s lives could be seen through the lens of Shulamith Firestone’s “the freeing of women from the tyranny of their reproductive biology and the diffusion of childbearing and childrearing.” This freeing she cautions, “would threaten the social unit organized around biological reproductions and subjection of women to their biological destiny, the family. (206-207)
• 
• Empowering women is a responsibility, not a favour. Rwandan parliamentarians.

Sources.

Firestone, Shulamith. The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for a Feminist Revolution. New York. 1970.

Dudman, Jane. Lesson from Rwanda’s female-run institutions. the guardian.com. July 2014.

Agarwal Chirag. We need more women in Singapore politics. today online.com, March 2018.

Warner, Gregory.  Uvuza, Justine. It’s The No.1 country for women in Politics-But not in Daily Life. NPR.org. July 29, 2016.

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY.

The SCW-(mentioned earlier) flourished under the leadership of Feminist Extraordinaire Shirin Fozdar. It affiliated itself with leading overseas women’s rights groups. The SCW became increasingly concerned with prostitution in Singapore, with the rising numbers of girls and women from China and Hong Kong sold to brothels. Fozdar criticized the government at the Afro-Asian conference in Colomba in 1958, it triggered an uproar with the government. SCW pioneered the setting up of creches in factories with working women to provide child care; they provided counselling for many hapless women deserted by divorce, and in 1953 drafted an ordinance against bigamous marriages. In 1959 it ended abruptly with a political victory by a party using the slogan” one man one wife.” The SCW is credited with awakening Singapore’s women to a new consciousness of themselves as humans with a purpose and a goal.

Lian Chew, Phylli Dr. Blazing a Trail: The Fight for Women’s Rights in Singapore. BIBLIOASIA. 2009.