VOA常速英语2008年-New Study Shows Women Making Progress on Politi

By Terry FitzPatrick
Cape¹ Town
15 April 2008

Nearly 18 percent of the members of parliament, worldwide, are women, according to a new study released this week as the Inter-Parliamentary Union meets in South Africa. The report says many of the barriers that have kept women from parliament are gone, but that much more needs to be done for women to be on an equal footing with men. For VOA, Terry FitzPatrick reports from Cape Town.

 

The report on gender² equality in politics says women are making slow but steady progress. In 1945, only three percent of parliament members, worldwide were women. The number is now close to 18 percent. Researcher Julie Ballington, from the Inter-Parlaimentary Union, conducted the global survey. She says some of the biggest gains by women have been in countries recovering from war.

 

"Several post-conflict states did very well in terms of post-conflict representation," she said. "The reason for that is that all the rules and structures were written from scratch. Women also took part in the liberation struggles in several countries."

 

Rwanda tops the world's gender equality list: 49 percent of its members of parliament are women. By region, the Scandinavian countries average 41 percent female representatives. The Americas average 20 percent. Africa and Asia average 17 percent and Middle Eastern countries average ten percent.

 

The deputy speaker of South Africa's parliament, Gwen Mahlangu, says the growing presence of women politicians is changing the nature of political debate.

 

"Women take along the family all the time. Whatever women do, they think about the family. They think about the children," she said.

 

Mahlangu says this focuses legislative³ attention on social issues such as equal pay, maternity⁴ leave, pension rights and domestic violence.

 

"Once men understand some of the issues we are faced with as women, you will find a change in attitude," she said.

 

Although the percentage of women lawmakers is growing by one percent per year, women remain a minority. According to researcher Julie Ballington, this narrows their impact.

 

"You'll find that women tend to be concentrated in committees that tend to deal with social issues or with health issues of with education issues and have less representation in committees that deal with finance, that deal with foreign affairs, etc," she explained. "So there needs to be more women in parliament, to spend time in a broad range of committees."

 

There are still many barriers preventing women from being elected or even running for office. These include long parliament working hours without childcare facilities; a lack of financial resources to wage effective political campaigns; and, cultural resistance to women in positions of authority. Researchers here say women politicians are unlikely to achieve parity⁵ with men, until these problems are resolved.

1 cape   

n.海角，岬；披肩，短披风

参考例句：

• I long for a trip to the Cape of Good Hope.我渴望到好望角去旅行。
• She was wearing a cape over her dress.她在外套上披着一件披肩。

2 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

3 legislative   

n.立法机构，立法权；adj.立法的，有立法权的

参考例句：

• Congress is the legislative branch of the U.S. government.国会是美国政府的立法部门。
• Today's hearing was just the first step in the legislative process.今天的听证会只是展开立法程序的第一步。

4 maternity   

n.母性，母道，妇产科病房；adj.孕妇的，母性的

参考例句：

• Women workers are entitled to maternity leave with full pay.女工产假期间工资照发。
• Trainee nurses have to work for some weeks in maternity.受训的护士必须在产科病房工作数周。

5 parity   

n.平价，等价，比价，对等

参考例句：

• The two currencies have now reached parity.这两种货币现已达到同等价值。
• Women have yet to achieve wage or occupational parity in many fields.女性在很多领域还没能争取到薪金、职位方面的平等。