Women want more participation in civic decision-making

A national conference entitled “Development and Participation of Women”, held on Saturday, touched upon issues of women’s civic participation at the decision making level.
As a result, demand has risen to make slight modifications to the law on political parties and law on parliamentary elections, such as to set the quota of female candidates in the elections at 30 percent and 50 percent of the first ten candidates ranked in the political party list, highlighted MP S.Odontuya at the conference.
Around 60 percent of university and institute alumni of Mongolia are women, however, they make up only 30 percent of mid-level leadership positions and 15 percent of high-ranking positions. The same survey also showed that 10 percent of leaders in the private sector and 70 to 80 percent of the nation’s workforce was made up of women.
According to the survey, 41 percent of participants said they would support a female parliamentarian running in the presidential election and 42.8 percent said they would support female candidates in the parliamentary elections. Almost 87 percent of those surveyed agreed that women’s representation is lacking at the decision making level in Mongolia.
The unemployment rate of women is at 6.6 percent nationwide. Some 55 percent of all employed workers in Mongolia are self-employed and do not receive the state service of labor and social security protection. Most of those citizens are women. Men and women receive different salaries than men, who tend to get paid higher than women. The state should pay attention at the policy level to income inequality, emphasized the conference attendees.
At the conclusion of the national conference, the attendees issued an appeal addressed to Parliament, government, and political parties.

To the Parliament:

• discuss and approve renewed versions of the laws on family and domestic violence, first and foremost,
• ratify and implement provisions on gender equality rights, stated in the law on elections and law on political parties,
• strengthen accountability for all types of violence against children and women.

To the government:

• issue a report on the performance of each provision of the law on providing gender equality in all spheres, including the economy, politics, society, culture and family, and make Parliament discuss it,
• plan objective measures to improve the quality of life of Mongolian women and organize their implementation,
• establish a development loan fund and assign NGOs to execute projects allowing single mothers and poor women with many children to find employment and earn income.

To political parties:

• make 50 percent of candidates in the parliamentary and local elections women,
• train and educate women in leadership through women’s organizations within parties.