Reservations about the reservation bill

Reservations about the reservation bill
Susanna Sharpe takes a look at India's reservation bill and compares women in politics in India with her home country Australia.

Susanna Sharpe
March 15, 2010

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Should women be given a ‘free pass’ into politics or continue to compete against men for seats on merit, even if it is an unbalanced playing field? This is the question running through my head since India resurrected its debate on its women’s reservation bill last week.

I was initially impressed that a mostly-male parliament had decided to renew debate on the bill – which would allocate a percentage of seats to women on a state and federal level – but also wondered how a country willing to debate such a bill could also treat its girls and women like second-class citizens in other aspects of life. Even without this bill, women in politics in India and its neighbouring countries seem to be better represented than they do in my home country of Australia.

India has a female president Pratibha Patil and Sonia Gandhi has been a prominent figure in Indian politics for a long time. It’s been more than 15 years since Sri Lanka first had a female president and Bangladesh and Pakistan have also had female leaders. Compare this with Australia, where it wasn’t until 2007 when Julie Gillard was named our first female deputy prime minister. In Queensland, the state where I live, we voted in Australia’s first female premier just a year ago. Both the deputy leaders of Australia’s government and opposition party are currently female but compare this with South Asia and we still have a long way to go.

I have little complaints about the treatment of women in the home and society in Australia but from a management and political perspective, the glass ceiling still looms overhead. Should women in Australia be given a political handicap, if you will, to give them an opportunity to be better represented in government and once there, prove their worth? Or is this just another form of sexism?

Although I agree that women should be better represented in politics in Australia and India as well, I wonder if this reservation bill is reverse sexism and women will be chosen because of their sex and not on merit. Will a woman be chosen to fill a seat when there is a man who is actually better equipped to serve the people of that constituency? Or are reservations necessary to prove to their male counterparts that women aren’t a threat but bring an new perspective that would aid them in ruling the country? As much as I would like to see women better represented in business, politics and other influential positions, I think it needs to be earned and when a woman is chosen for a high-flying job on merit alone, she can be satisfied and confident in the knowledge she earned it.