Policy Brief

Women's
Representation in
Various Fields of
Politics in Georgia:

Reality, Challenges,
Recommendations

აშშ-ის საელჩო საქართველოში ივანე ჯავახიშვილის სახელობის თბილისის

The U.S. Embassy in Georgia სახელმწიფო უნივერსიტეტის ამერიკისმცოდნეობის
სტუდენტთა სამეცნიერო წრე
Women's Representation in Various Fields of Politics in Georgia: Reality,
Challenges, Recommendations

Since the creation of the first Democratic Republic of Georgia women have fought
for their rights. The historical period was quite hard and incompatible.
Nevertheless, the historical overview shows that in the first half of the 20th
century there were women who struggled with different methods for their rights.
They wrote letters, expressed their protest and showed to the public that gender-
based stereotypes were a big mistake.

Women's involvement in this direction was intensified in the 1990s, which has led
by the collapse of the Soviet Union and the development of democratic
institutions in Georgia. Working on political consolidation with political parties,
several legislative initiatives have been developed. Despite these attempts, there
was no support for women's political participation in Georgia (Pavliashvili 2017:
See the article).

The fight for women’s political right in Georgia covers several periods. It is worth
mentioning that in 2002 two independent initiatives about the gender quota were
prepared. According to the first initiative, at the party list, no less than 40% of
every ten people should have different gender. The second initiative, which
included the introduction of a gender quota, was initiated by the member of
Parliament, Ada Marshania. Parliament did not support these initiatives
(Pavliashvili, 2017: See the article).

The second period is related to the legislative initiative on gender quotas in 2008.
Approximately 32 400 voters supported this initiative. According to the draft law,
the party should have a 50% gender balance in the proportional list. The initiative
was registered in the Parliament of Georgia in May 2008. Like the previous
initiative, the Parliament did not support this initiative (Pavliashvili, 2017: See the

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article).

Women's Involvement in Politics in Georgia: A Brief Historical Overview

After the reorganization of the Government in 1998 and 2000, Women were
represented in the Cabinet of Ministers. In 2003, there were two women from 18
ministers. In 2004, the number increased to four. By 2006, the number of women
in cabinet reached 20% of the government, but the women's involvement in this
regard is still a low indicator (Khomeriki, 2006: 7).

Later in 2015-2016, women's protests started again in this issue, but they did not
have real results. On the one hand this was due to less interest of the population.
According to the statistic in 2016, for Georgian people economic development
(61%) was more important than democratic systems (29%) (Pavliashvili 2017:
See the article).

Women's representation in the Parliament of Georgia is almost twice as low as

the global average data and their representation at the local self-government level
is extremely low too.

Gender imbalance is also clearly visible in the executive branch of government.

For instance, in 2015 there was not a female city Mayor (Pataraia, 2015: See the
article). In order to understand this issue, we will offer the percentage indicator in
all three branches of the government by 2018 statistic:

Parliament - 24/150 - 16%

Executive government - 3 women between 11 ministers
Judicial power - 128/238 - 53%
Local self-governance bodies - 11%

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Several factors prevent women's political advancement. On the one hand, this is
due to the masculine model of state structures. Also political parties avoid
women's submission in elections. A gender benefit that political parties receive is
often not used to strengthen women's involvement in politic. According to the data
of 2017, 15 political parties get the gender benefit from the state budget.
However, the number of women in local self-governments is still very low
(Georgian Young Lawyers' Association, 2017: See the article).

Due to the data of 2017, both local civil society and international organizations
recommend that the compulsory party quotas have to be established and this will
be for support gender equality in politics. This legislative amendment should be
developed to ensure the critical number of women in politics. It is important for
women in order that they will have a chance to influence the decision-making
process in Georgia (Pataraia, 2015: 7)

According to the annual international ratings, for more than 20 years, Georgia is
among the countries where we have the lowest representation of women in
decision-making and leadership positions. Financial encouragement did not
influence the number of women in politics. At present, public demand in Georgia's
involvement in women's politics is high: 70% of the population believes that the
number of women in the parliament should be at least 30%. (Public Opinion
Survey, November 2014, NDI) (Pataraia, 2015: 7). Now 70 % of society in
Georgia agrees with the opinion that women should be in parliament and the
number should be more than 30% (Public Opinion Research, November 2014,
NDI) (Pataraia, 2015: 7).

In both formal negotiations, such as the Geneva International Discussions and

the meetings of the Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism (IPRM)
participation of women are very low. In IPRM meetings, there are 1 or 2 women
among 6 participants of the delegation. . “From the video and photographs

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spread by media outlets shows that even when women participate in IPRM, they
are not sitting at the negotiating table but mainly in the back row.” (Special Report
of the Public Defender on Conflict-Assisted Regions for Women and Child Rights
(2014-2016) 2017, 15). It is also worth noting advantage - 30 percent of the
Georgian delegation participating in the Geneva International Talks (3-4 from 10
members) were women. (Gender Equality in Georgia: Barriers and
Recommendations, 2018: 92, see the article).

World practice in a new model of war and peace combines women's involvement
in three areas: protection of women during armed conflict, women's participation
in prevention and avoidance of hostilities and women's participation in decision-
making processes on all these issues. (Nanuashvili, 2016:2).

The United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution on "Women, Peace and
Security," In 2000, which recognizes the importance and need for girls and
women in conflict and post-conflict situations.

Women's Representation in the Agencies of Georgia’s Law Enforcement and

Defense

The steps taken by the Government of Georgia in the field of women's

representation in law enforcement and defense are of particular importance.

Representatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia presented the

difficulties and challenges that women are facing to get onto the decision-making
positions in law enforcement agencies in the 2016 study. In regard to this issue, it
is noteworthy that in many cases women are not perceived equally and in the
process of redistribution their views are not taken into consideration because of
the gender. For instance, the common practice is the task of women's activities
that include only shift work, while the field work, patrolling and investigating

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criminal activities are regarded as the activities for men, which can be explained
by women's safety. The same approach is used when responding to patrol police
summons. If the case concerns conflicts, the priority is given to the patrols, but it
is noteworthy that according to the studies, the situation in which women are able
to defuse conflict situations is much better than men. (Office of the Public
Defender of Georgia, 2016: 6 see the article).

In terms of enhancing women's participation in the law-enforcement structure, it is

important to review career promoting opportunities. As it turns out, one of the
lowest interest rates of women working in the law enforcement structure is less
probability of promotion. (Office of the Public Defender of Georgia, 2016: 7 see
the article).

However, it should be noted that the Ministry of Defense addresses activities

such as stimulation of subdivisions of the armed forces and women's involvement
in the peacekeeping contingency. (Office of the Public Defender of Georgia,
2016: 7 see the article).

The Ministry of Defense of Georgia has established a Gender Equality Strategy in

2014, which aimed at eliminating all forms of gender discrimination, creating
appropriate and equal conditions for realization of opportunities for women and
men.

It is noteworthy that women's involvement in international peacekeeping missions

has been increased. According to the 2015 data, 219 women took part in such
missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. 7% of the armed forces are women (Ministry of
Defense of Georgia, 2015: see #MOD 0 15 00874317). As it turns out, women do
not often have military education, which hinders their promotion and further
career advancement.

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Despite the work done by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia, there is an
assumption that many people do not want to be a woman in the high position and
this in some way impedes women's involvement as well.
In this regard, it is necessary to raise awareness and make more emphasis on
the civic education. This will help increase women's participation in political
processes and rise number of women in the leadership positions.

Recommendations and conclusion

1. The Government of Georgia should use the obligatory quotas effectively,

maintain its monitoring and accountability of the process.
2. Georgia should establish the vision and all relevant strategic documents, to
ensure women’s political empowerment.
3. Public officials’ professional experience and level of education should be
elevated in order to implement Gender Policy effectively.
4. The government should implement effective mechanisms at workplaces to
ensure equal conditions for both men and women.

In conclusion, we can say that nowadays women's involvement in Georgian policy

is not provided at an appropriate level. The reason for this, on the one hand,
could be the government’s implementation of inappropriate policy of state
agencies, and on the other hand, lack of interest about the issue from the public.

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References

1. B. Pataraia, Foundation "Open Society - Georgia", Policy without Women -

Quotas as a Way Out, 2015,
http://www.parliament.ge/uploads/other/75/75727.pdf
2. Gender Equality in Georgia: Barriers and Recommendations, 2018.
http://www.ge.undp.org/content/dam/georgia/docs/publications/DG/UNDP_GE_D
G_Gender_Equality_in_Georgia_VOL1_GEO.pdf
3. I.Pavliashvili, "Women's Political Participation in Georgia, Why is Gender
Quota needed", 2017. https://medium.com/@irmapavliashvili/
4. L. Khomeriki, Gender and Politics, 2006.
5. Office of Public Defender, Women, Peace And For the safety of the national
action plan for implementation in Georgia to monitor the results, 2016.
6. Ministry Of Defense Of Georgia, 2015: see a letter #MOD 0 15 00874317.
7. Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association, 2017, https://gyla.ge/ge/post/qalta-
chartuloba-politikur-procesebshi#sthash.PnAdTiEW.OnneDIe6.dpbs

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 #14
12.2018

This publication is created in the framework of the project "U.S. Foreign

Policy and Model Diplomacy Seminars for Girls". Project is funded by the U.S.
Embassy Tbilisi Democracy Outreach/Alumni Program.

The views expressed here do not necessarily represent the views of the U.S.
Embassy Tbilisi.

Author: Rusudan Tsagareli, Salome Siladze

Editor: Mariam Khatiashvili

Women and Girls in Foreign Policy and Diplomacy

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