The effects of female empowerment in creating a non male dominant political system in international relations graduation paper

HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES -INFORMATION
DEPARTMENT

GRADUATION

OF INTERNATIONAL

TECHNOLOGY

RELATIONS

PAPER

THE EFFECTS OF FEMALE EMPOWERMENT
IN CREATING A NON-MALE-DOMINANT
POLITICAL SYSTEM IN
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

By TRAN ANH THU' - 14DH700211

Advised by PHAM THl YEN, Ph.D.

HO CHI MINH CITY, JULY 2019

1


ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would like to dedicate my special thank to Mr. YG Qu6c Anh, to my wonderful
lecturers of HUFLIT, and my amazing teachers from Department of International Relations
(DIR) for educating me through my years of college. Your devotion and enthusiasm have

guided me through new knowledge, which has prepared me for the final graduation paper. I
am so thankful to be studying in DIR, and to be your student.

•
Thank you Ms. Phc;tm Thj Yen for your dedication. I am truly thankful for being
advised by you through the process of this paper. I could not have done it without your
knowledge and patience. Your high standard has encouraged me to accomplish this final task
of my university life, and for that I am grateful for being the lucky student who is instructed
by you. Thank you for believing in me and not giving up on me.
The process of completing this graduation paper yet challenging, but I have made it
through with your mental support Mommy. Even though you might not understand all what is
written here, but I believe that you will understand the efforts that I have put into it, to
achieve the final result, is to make you and Grandma proud. Thank you Mommy for being
my Mom.
To my QH1402-1 and NG1501 fellows, you guys have made my "uni life" as

..

wonderful as it can be. Thank you for all the friendships and support during our classes. I

..

have learnt a lot from you and I could not be more thankful to study with such talented
people. Especially thanks to my "study buddy" Tram YG and "team leader" Y~n

D6,

for just

being there for me. I have successfully gone through tough time while studying here, because

of you. My gorgeous time at HUFLIT is about to end, but sad I won't be as I know, it will
end with laughter and joy.

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ABSTRACT
Female empowerment or women's empowerment can be understood as the process of
giving women trust about themselves,

raising their awareness

along with creating fair

opportunities for both genders in order to achieve equality. Throughout this process, women
get to know their ability in making impact and also to contribute to their society. When being
put in the political context, female empowerment means no difference. The paper focuses on
analyzing how female empowerment

affects on creating a gender-base

balance political

system with the increasing involvement of women. The result shows a significant outcome of
the decrease in gender gap between sexes worldwide,

along with the rise of women's

engagement in political work particularly and other aspects generally. The paper as well
proposes suggestions on generating occasions for female development at 3 analyzing levels

from individual to international. There is a promising future predicted for women with
chances of progressive growth.

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EXAMINER'S

COMMENTS

4


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TABLE OF CONTENT
Acknowledgement
Abstract
Examiner's

Comments

7

Chapter 1: Introduction
1.1 Background

7

1.2 The significance

of doing this research

11

1.3 Objectives

12

1.4 Definitions

of Terms

13

1.5 Scopes

13

1.6 Theoretical

Framework

14

1.7 Hypothesis

15

1.8 Limitation

15

1.9 Organization

16

Chapter 2: Literature Review

17

1.1 Review of related literature and studies

17

1.1.1 Related literature

17

1.1.2 Related studies

21

1.2 Some comments

on related literature and studies

26

Chapter 3: Theoretical and practical frameworl{ in assessing the effects of female
empowerment in creating a non-male-dominant
Relations

29

3.1 Theoretical
3.2 Practical

political system in International

fralnework

framework

3.2.1 Masculine

model of politics

29
38

39

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3.2.2 Current status of female development

.43

Chapter 4: The effects of female empowerment in creating a non-male-dominant
political system in International Relations

60

4.1 The effects of female empowerment in general..
4.2 The effects of female empowerment in creating a non-male-dominant

60
political

system in International Relations

66

4.3 Suggestions

78

Conclusion

87

Reference

90

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CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1

Background
Women have always been seen as a weaker gender compared to man, a gender that

was born not to lead the world but to serve the world. For centuries, roles of women have
been underestimated even if they are in a family context or a social context. A girl when is
expected to be a nice daughter to her family, a good mom to her kids and an obedient wife to
her husband. The values of women are tightly attached to men and men will be the one to
define a lady's value. In different cultures, the underestimation for women could be different,
but still stays the same that women should be submitted to men. For example, in Asia, the
social norm says that women should be the one who build home and male builds the house.
This shows the opinions that women should be inside the house and do the women's job, for
men they can be outside and do all the social work. On the other hand, in Western cultures
for example, even though the gender equality might seem different, but they are actually the
same. When a woman it is married to a man, she has to change her last name into her
husband's last name. Therefore, the display could be different compared to other cultures, but
the value that is rooted with this problem stays the same. The women is always considered
the subject that is always belonged to another one, in this particular situation it is men.

However, from the 19th century women started to realize the basic rights and equality
that they could achieve just like their male co-workers. Women started fights for what could
do to support decreasing the gender gap that was still taking place in that time. All the initial
attempts were not easy to accomplished. Accordingly, with all the efforts that women's across
the globe, and through out centuries have put into, the situation began to change rapidly until
today. After centuries and decades, after hundreds of revolutions or fights for their own
rights, society's concept about women is now loosen up. Women are now seen in more

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academic field such as Mathematics, Engineering or Astrology. Girls are now allowed to go
to school and more women are attending higher education. Women can now work in men's
fields such as Construction, Power Industry or even Politics. What is seen today has been
made for years of dedication

and fighting

for what is believed

right. With all the

achievements that the word has witnessed, women regardless their background can actually
complete things effectively and creatively, the effort will be challenging

but eventually

disregarding region, modern or rural area, women will be seen equally compared to man.
In order to further boost the development of women, educational background should
be seriously considered. The writer believes that this playa vital role in shaping the mind sets

of a woman. This does not mean that higher education will bring a more modern set of mind.
However, with the ability and the opportunities to access to the knowledge of the world, the
women can give themselves a chance and more options to think about what might fit her the
most. One of the problems that women are experiencing is feeling good and accepting to stop
at some level of education. This in fact depends on the orientation and desire of women in
their academic affairs. Nonetheless, what to mention is one of the reasons why a woman
decides to stop is because herself believes that women do not need to reach for too high of
education. This pause takes away opportunities for a woman who can develop at a higher
level and does not give her the opportunity to access to more choices. From there all the
choices of a woman begin to surround the basic requirements that the society imposes on a
woman, such as getting married at a certain age, bear child and work at home, take care of
and help the family. This can be proved as a closed loop of an underdeveloped society when
women are not encouraged to continue pursuing professional education but must stop at any
level to ensure the values given by the society. This thought is thought only happen with the
previous generation, is now happening to Millennials Generation, or Gen Y. The reason is
that the speed of social development is so fast, but the growth rate of some cannot keep up

8


with that speed, thus leading to the negative situations of young people, specifically women.
Young women might easily make decisions based on the trend, ignoring the values and
beliefs from within. For example, many young people believe in a life that does not require
hard of working or serious labor but can still obtains asset. This leads to the result of a part of
young women believe that their value depends on the men who can bring wealth and
property. Their values are now not determined by their educational level or perspective on
life, but decided by a man, which somehow shows that women's empowerment is not really
focused on and developed in many pmis of the world. Women still believe that their value
must be based on the value of a man they go with, not determined by themselves. From this
reason many women have given up on pursuing the abilities of theirs and choose to believe

that jobs that require highly skilled workers or strong determination are male-dominant.
One of those jobs that are considered male-dominant is Politician. From the past until
now, most of the politicians are men. Following Chinese history, Wu Zetian is the only
woman who of the highest status of a country. In the history of Vietnam, Hai Ba Trung were
the ones who were brave and knew how to fight and take what belongs to them. History in
the world also recognized at time very few figures about a past that women who were the
heads of a nation. During the latter-modern era this still continued as a demonstration of true
politics as a playground only for men. According to them women are often dominated by
feelings and emotions rather than reason and critical thinking while political work is a job
that requires a strong mindset in philosophy as well as a finn and resolute decision in all
matters. Therefore, women are often beaten in this field. However, entering the 21st century
status is getting better for women who want to embark on the political path. More female
Heads of State or Heads of Government have shown up. The representatives

are Angela

Merkel, Chancellor of Germany, Theresa May, former Prime Minister of England or Jacinda
Ardern, New Zealand and also the world's youngest Prime Minister. From Asia, there are

9


Bidhya Devi Bhandari from Nepal, the first ever woman to run the office, or Corazon
Aquino, the first Asia female president, who was also representing The Philippines. Women
all over the world are now being seen more in political office, which is a good signal for
decreasing and erasing the gap that has been taking place in this field. With the development
of society, economy, of cultural and educational exchange and other aspects of life, this
perspective on a woman in a radical society has improved, supply a great impact on the role
of people in society. Female women in political systems, because of this development that
women themselves began to trust more on the ability to work in this used to be ruled by male.

Therefore, in general, empowering women and building a society in which women
and men are equal in terms of awareness and wage fairness is improving well in the 21 st
century. In terms of participation in politics, women are braver in nominating themselves as
well as nominating other capable women into the political apparatus. This shows that the
democracy and freedom that a political institution can achieve based on gender and gender
equality is absolutely possible. In this 21 st century, many women have become famous
politicians and being heads of government apparatus of a nation. This is a good signal not
only for the political industry in particular, but for all other social sciences in general.
However, there are still many shortcomings as well as drawbacks not only from the society
around women but also from the women themselves about their values, In order to alternate
this issue and generate more social value, the efforts require the best dedications of all
government departments and agencies as well as organizations

wishing to bring about a

positive change for society, upgrade a woman's consciousness

about her own ability and

positive changes. In the end, it will bring positive contributions to the development of the
country in general and the world in particular when all the labor forces in society are used
and respected fairly, all human resources are utilized in the most effective and practical way.

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The need to VOIce up for women urges the writer to continue on the path of
researching and analyzing more for this issue. Aspects such as economy, social and education
have been discussed mostly when mentioning women's related matters. Nevertheless, politics
seems to be less assessed compared to others. Therefore, as a young millennial who is

interested in politics particularly and international relations generally, the writer conducts this
paper as a foundation for further career development. With the presence of women working
in political field being more respected, the writer is encouraged to contribute effort and
attempts to enhancing the importance of women's work. Thus, the motivation is held on
others benefits, and on the writer herself. The writer hopes the launch of this paper will
maintain to boost the spirit of researching and the desire of dedicating of the writer and others
as well.
1.2

The significance of doing this research
The report is honored to bring a source for both scientific and practical meaning post

completing the paper. Scientifically, the paper will present the value and the important role of
women in the labor force, how women's presence contributes to the development of nations
and cooperation of International Relations. Specifically, women's participation in politics
will be detailed evaluated and presented with reasons for the need of their contribution in this
particular field. Secondly, the paper provides theories and assumptions

of International

Relations theories on explaining the demand for equality of both sexes in the work force. The
act of accessing such theories allow the paper to be academically assessed and approached
under a new aspect, rather than just state as International Relations main actor. Finally, the
research for the topic lies on the scale of IR major, which proves the scientific facet of the
paper. Thus, this will enlarge the variety of means for the signi ficance of the researched
topic.

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On the other hand, although the crucial position of women has been proved over time,
the writer still recognizes the lack of this evaluation under political aspect. Therefore,
practically, the writer would like to take this opportunity to fill in the need of more research
for women's in politics. The provision of such content will offer states another angle to
consider when promoting women's right. Moreover, this might further support with bonding
the collaboration of states for embracing women's significance.
1.3

Objectives
The purpose of this report is to analyze the impacts of gender equality and women's

empowerment on improving self-awareness and self-esteem among women, how it creates
effects on creating a non-male-dominant

worldwide in the political system. The paper will

clarify the current status of women generally and women in politics specifically. In order to
gain that purpose, the research has the specific objectives as below:
•

Approach theoretical and practical frameworks that support on explaining the topic
academically and realistically.

•

Evaluate current status of female empowerment for a closer look at the study subject
in reality

•

Analyze the data that shows the participation of men and women in the labor force for
vivid evidence.

•

Assess the effects of female empowerment in the scope of creating an equal political
system for women internationally.

•

Offer suggestions for continued effort in building fair environment.
Besides, the paper aims to present up to date successes of female empowerment and

its contribution to political field. The paper focuses on how female politicians achieve their
positions and how believing in their self-value has help them obtain what they aim for.
Moreover, this repOli wanted to give out acknowledgement

about gender quality generally

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and female's chance of being equal specifically to readers who have the same concern about
women's rights. In addition, the concern is for politics and gender related issues that the
readers might be interested in and how female empowerment

can actually help achieve

person academic and career goals for women. This report also desires to send another aspect
of the gender matter to male reader as men and women will be considered equal through the

research and all values arc maintaining equal.
1.4

Definitions of Terms
Female Empowerment:

The progress for women to obtaining power and personal

rights throught set of choices and determined demand. There are five segments that make up
the success of women's empowerment "women's sense of self-wolih; their right to have and
to determine choices; their right to have access to opportunities and resources; their right to
have the power to control their own lives, both within and outside the home; and their ability
to influence the direction of social change to create a more just social and economic order,
nationally and internationally." (United Nations, 2019)
Non-male-doiminant:
111

A desired non-male-dominant

society, nation or organization is

which men hold no major power or influence. The authority therefore is distributed

moderately for all genders, patriarchy is not to be conceived.
1.5

Scopes
The report will mainly focus on researching women's right status and case studies that

can be found worldwide and summarized at the end of what have been researched, the fact of

achieving equality for both genders and how they affect the forming of political system. In
addition, the subject of the research is women's

rights and related empowering

issues in

politics. Nonetheless, men will also play an important role in the study as it helps point out
the equality and inequality that the two genders are facing and what could be done to reduce
or ease the situation. The time frame stretches from the early 21 sl century up to now, with the

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threshold is 2010, as the report will focus on the change of women's roles in the eye of
society and their own in the first decade of the 2151 century and the soon to be finished second
decade of its, from 2010 to 2019. However, in order to show the change through out the How
of history, events in the 20th century will sometimes be mentioned in order to make contrast
to the status of the 2151 century and to compare the process.
1.6

Theoretical Framework
When it comes to women's rights and chances for equality for women, the report will

use some theory and definition of Feminism Theory. Feminism has a root for its development
from a social movement, whose fundamental purpose is equality between women and men. In
many times and many places in the past, people have been determined that women and men
have similar abilities and have tried to improve the social status of all women, as well as
men's status. The purpose of Feminism as a political movement is to make women and men
more equal in law, society and culture. Gender inequality has many different

forms,

depending on the economic structure and social organization of a particular society and
depending on the culture of any patiicular group within that society (Judith Lorber, 2013).
One of the 2 factors about Feminism that excites the write is the variety of believes and
expressions for this particular topic. The examples that are used for proving Feminism
practice can be varied due to the shape of the culture and at each time is different. The second
factor is Feminism also has many other forms: Liberal Feminism works on equal rights and
what could men and women mutually achieve; Radical Feminism on another aspect works on
sex issues and separatism;

Marxist/Socialists

Feminism

concentrates

on the effect of

capitalism on women's roles; Black Feminism on the other hand deals with racism and
ethnicity matters (Trueman, 2015). The theories of Feminism will be used to explain the roles
of women in politics and how this helps gain more power and rights for women in this
particular field.

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1.7

Hypothesis
This research believes that by empowering women with knowledge and confidence in

themselves, helping them eliminate the rooted norm that women should only stand behind
men, women can create their own career where they a part of society, specifically in a
political context where women are more enthusiastic in working as a politician. The layers of
development must be achieved from individuals, then continue to develop as nation's effort,
and finally as an international

level. With the accomplishment

of developing women's

positive mindset and encourage them to par1icipate more in political fields, the ratio of the
men and women serving in the field will increase, based on the new interest of women in
choosing career. At the national level, state will build more on their democracy as having
fought the rights of all, with women's is an example. In evolution to that, having women as
heads of states or governments

will release more peace-based

and cooperation-based

decisions that help nations strengthen their relations, as well as collaboration for a mutual
intent for prosperity.
1.8

Limitation
The study can only analyze examples that are accessed to during the time of

conducting research. Therefore, more case studies in reality might be missed. Moreover, due
to the lack of time and resources, there will be inevitable mistakes to be made. In term of
resources, Vietnamese documents about female empowerment are in fact not yet in a variety
to be accessed compared to other developed countries. Therefore, the writer will somehow
lack of the perspective of Vietnamese writer, but mostly will have to take reference of foreign
writers. Moreover, the strong different views of society on this topic might constrain the
fullness of the knowledge expression as this to some society is a sensitive topic to mention as
it might indirectly affect men's dignity when being compared to women. Accordingly, the
report will not be fully and fairly received in some culture or society.

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1.9

Organization
There will be 4 chapters in total in this research report. Chapter 1 - Introduction will

give out a general view on current status of the research topic as well as author's idea on
researching this topic. History of women's unjustness and the fight for evolution over time
will be mentioned in this chapter. Moreover, the writer will intertwine the concept as a whole
to the context of elaborating more rights for women in politics. Chapter 2 - Literature review
concludes sources, which support investigating the issue with comments of the author are
presented. The writer will indicate overview on each analyzed article or study, present what
specific opinions are used in order to support this paper, and finally to compare the disparity
of the source itself with the need of the paper. Chapter 3 - Theoretically

and practical

framework for assessing the effect of female empowerment in creating a non-male-dominant

political system in international relations will be written with the purpose of presenting the
assumptions and opinions from theories that help the writer complete this paper with a solid
foundation of theories. Moreover, the approach to practical framework gives the writer
another realistic aspect of conducting this report and on what facet the paper should be
analyzing. Chapter 4 - The effect of female empowerment in creating a non-male-dominant
political system in international relations will give out details on how much the progress has
been achieved, proof that shows the alternating of women in political field until today. This
chapter also supp0l1 with suggestions for more success in empowering female and donating
environment that works for all sexes.

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CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1

Review of related literature and studies
2.1.1 Related literature
In 2018, Nikolay Popov from South-West University, Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria in his

•

article called Feminism As an Political Ideology evaluated Feminism as a new concept on
social media and in reality. In particular, the author specifically mentioned the analysis of the
concept of Feminism, new but closely related to the Enlightenment period of the British as
well as the French revolution. According to him, Feminism is defined as the desire to learn
and to find women's equal rights, as well as to discover the different aspects that society often
evaluates about women (Nikolay Popov, 2018). In his atticle, he analyzed clearly the process
of forming the history of this concept as well as its understandings. Over time, the honorable

recognition of this concept has led to a scenario where women inevitably raise their needs for
higher and more advanced rights, namely political participation.

He also mentioned two

waves of feminist struggle. The atticle mentioned that in the previous period, it was the
period when feminism was more in silent, but the identity and the connections between the
intrinsic values of the thesis itself urged feminism to continue to be active and flourish in the
second wave period (Nikolay Popov, 2018).
The efforts of the feminist wave until today are undeniable. However, it must be
seriously acknowledged

that fairness and equality between the two sexes are not fully

achieved, even in developed countries. The fact shows that the views of the community and
society still carry a great deal of thought on the promotion of men's essential values in social
situations, put a burden on the care of the family on women. Although modern thinking about
feminism today is widespread, the issue of ideology is still in a deep root, leading to the
inability to fully achieve gender equality for men and women. This opinion of him sharing

17


the same with the writer's point of view about feminism, which interests the researcher in
deepening

search on the value's

role in constraining

and also in enhancing women's

development. Therefore, the author uses this as a supporter for the opinions in the writing.
However, the article merely refers to the analysis of the manifestations of feminism in
the period of before and after the 20th century, but does not present the effects of fighting for

•

the presence of women from a political perspective. In other words, the article does not focus
on presenting issues related to women's rights in reducing the number of men involved in
politics. This can be said to be the difference in the aims of research problems of the author
and this atiicle. Therefore, the writer will use the foundation of this article to refer to further
analyze women's rights in politics.
Mentioning more achieving fairness for both sexes, Gender Equity for Peace and
Prosperity by Khachiilo Zehol that is published in 2018 showed views on men and women
equality under the perspective of "Gender Equity". The chaos and troubles in society happens
as men and women are not treated fairly. From the author's point of view, the issue of male
and female rights should be an issue that is paid attention to by each member of the society,
for protecting women's rights is also protecting human rights (Khachiilo Zehol, 2018).
Therefore, concerning about this issue is also concerning issues related to the interests of
individuals in community. One of the points was that the society and the world are in the 21st
century, but there are still many limitations in a developed society that causes inequality for
men and women. In his article, he also recognized the issues of gender discrimination
through the repOlis of the United Nations, as well as comparing them with the items in
Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 (Khachiilo Zehol, 2018). A highlight in the
article is that the author carefully analyzed typical examples in India as a basis for evaluating
the reality of real situations and actions to help women in a country.

18

One aspect that the author was extremely interested in was enhancing education for
women. The author considered this a very important task in reducing and eliminating the
remaining gaps between men and women. The author believed that education would bring
more positive and effective changes in the issue of empowering men and women. In the
opinion of the writer, the writer also highly recommended that women must be involved in

•

proper study before accessing higher positions, that later might lead in attendance in the
political apparatus, or in other areas. The writer agrees with Khachiilo Zehol Kevekha's view
on promoting

and appreciating

the improvement

of knowledge

in particular

and the

awareness of women in general. The acknowledgement is not only about their rights but also
the aspects of society. This can be seen to be the common viewpoint between the writer and
Khachiilo Zehol Kevekha, when setting out the good aspects of improving education for
women in their own sake. It is mentioned that raising awareness of women has since then led
to the positive impacts, lifting high the knowledge of women. Moreover, this can bring selfprotection that women themselves can equip against social hazards.
However, the article only stops at the level of analyzing social issues without focusing
much on political factors. The aspects of society that are related to the rights of women are

affected, such as education and health issues, but not the political aspect. Although the author
•

uses the concept of "peace" and "prosperity" in his writing, the writer has yet to see the
emphasis of "peace" and "prosperity" will be brought about in the context of politics.
Khachiilo Zehol Kevekha's article can thus support the writer in recognizing the positive
elements of women's empowerment, but the article has not solved the problems in similarly
in the political context. Therefore, this article will be a good foundation for the writer to get a
glimpse into women's role when being promoted to higher levels in politics.
Similarly when talking about women's difficulties and difficulties
women, Dr. Radhika Kapur

111

Challenges to Women's Empowerment

111

Empowering

also mentioned

19


some of the limitations in this issue. In the article, the author mainly mentioned the aspects of
Feminism concept, also at the same time talking about the advantages that humans could
achieve in general and each society can achieve in particular, if the value and position of a
woman is properly and seriously recognized. In his article, there were examples of women's
development from the past until now. He also emphasized the importance of women in the

early times when a new society had bcen formed. From that point of view, he continued to
address changes of feminism and attempts of women through out time. He also described the
difficulties that women had encountered not only Indian society in particular but also in other
areas. Regarding the different levels as well as the different aspects, economically

and

politically, he stated that empowering women is also about liberating women from constraint
and giving them the opportunity to be properly developed with their ability (Radhika Kapur,
2018). The article focuses mainly on the context in India from which the author on this basis
pointed out the problems as well as the difficulties and limitations of women here, along with
difficulties for women's empowerment.
One of the elements of this article that writers want to emphasize is the matter of
leadership. In the article, Dr. Radhika Kapur talked about the leadership aspect of a woman.
The author believes that as an independent individual, women could also fully lead teams, as
well as orient problems. The author thought that women could serve as effective leaders in
many different respects, in organizations as well as businesses if they are given appropriate
opportunities
presence

and benefits (Radhika Kapur, 2018). Dr. Radhika Kapur believed that the

of women in these organizations

is to add her values to the thrive of the

organization, their values lie in various phases, they can bring more information, ideas as
well as skills that can contribute directly to the success of the business. Therefore the author
emphasized the issue of women's leadership, which in the writer's opinion is one of the
factors the writer considers when writing about the presence of women in the political

20


apparatus. Thus, with this view of the author, the writer has a further basis to demonstrate
that the participation of women in the political apparatus will make more good decisions as
well as more collaboration between nations.
Similar to the above articles, the author has not mentioned the issue of empowering
women in the political field. In this article, the author primarily referred to the problems and
difficulties that women face. However, these challenges were very general, such as cognitive,
social as well as external factors affecting women's development, not yet put into context of
politics, in developing the role and rights of women in this area. Therefore, the writer will use
the author's points in this article when discussing the aspect of women's empowerment to be
leaders, thereby relating to women's leadership at the political level. This article, though only
mentioned issues in the social aspect, was mainly given to the writer the oppo11unity and the
citation of support for raising the role of taking on the responsibility of leading for women.
Therefore, the writer will use this article to clarify the role of women in leadership positions,
upgrade to politics angle.
2.1.2 Related studies
One of the factors that the writer believes that has strongly influenced the perception
of the society and of the woman herself is culture. Hanh Thi Hai Nguyen, Andy Bertsch,
Gillian Warner-Soderholm,
Norwegian

James Ondracek from Minot State University, USA and BI

Business School in January 2017 published an m1icle called Understanding

Cultural Factors Which Affect Women Serving On Board of Directors. The article
mentions how cultural actors influence the aspect of women serving in the company as highlevel executives, worldwide. In this article, the authors also study the relations between these

cultural actors, political factors, gender equality factors, the level of maternity and paternity
pay. This paper focuses on 56 countries with data from the World Economic Forum and the
World Bank in 2015 (Hanh Thi Hai Nguyen, Andy Bertsch, Gillian Warner-Soderholm

&

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James Ondracek, 2017). The article focuses on analyzing many specific issues such as the
idea of understanding and giving reasons that influence the success of a woman in a high
position, providing information on gender diversity as well as gender equality that have been
achieved throughout the world. From the collected data, connections are linked to form a
mass of available data from which to be analyzed factors in creating a woman's success.
Besides, the most important factor is also the topic of this study, which is the study of their
cultural actors. Culture plays a very important role in making decisions about deciding whom
to select for Board of Directors. Another aspect of the cultural element that the authors
mention is the humanity in the direction of the national development. This factor has a great
impact on recognition of the issue of creating fairness, convenience, friendliness and equality
among citizens CHanh Thi Hai Nguyen, Andy Bertsch, Gillian Warner-S0derholm

& James

Ondracek, 2017). This also means that people in those countries will appreciate common
interests, as well as always trying to find ways to help their partners and leave out personal
interests. At the same time, countries with such behavior will often have very low rates of
people working for selfishness as well as individual needs. The conclusion of this paper
shows that the gender equality index is predicted through the future orientation as well as
collectivism that take place within the team. Although this is a study that relates to a political
aspect on how women are evaluated and recognizing their ability to stand in the ranks of

Congress, this paper can also partly contribute to parallel field of economics, about how
much women can be deployed and respected in creating products as well as economic
achievements.

In general,

this is a complex

research

area with many analyzes

and

calculations of the authors. The results with data from this study have shown very positive
signals in empowering women worldwide along with promoting social development.
The study offers the result of culture as a vital actor that impacts on the shape of
mindset, from which determine the roles of women in the society. With the solid data and

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chart conducted in several countries, the writer can have an academic and transparent
approach on the infonnation that is given through the research. However, as the research was
conducted generally, the lack of political factor in this study not yet be able to help the writer
to take reference on. Still, this study has widely offer data and views under cultural aspect to
writer for a better understanding about this matter.
In contrast to finding the root, Increasing Women's Political Participation that was
reported in World House Student Fellow 2016 - 2017 has delivered quite a good mark when
showing cases from democratic countries in increasing engagement of women politically,

suggesting policy prescriptions that help changing this issue. The study also recognizes basic
problems

such as the tolerance women must obey each day on discrimination,

body

legislation and struggle to gain access to education. Moreover, recognizing problems that are
still existing is believed to be one of the key factors in finding actual solution for women
inequality related problems. For example, the study has shown the fact that Western country
like French in reality is not that focused on developing women's right like what they have
been known for. Women still spend over three hours on domestic tasks every day, an amount
only four minutes less than that recorded in 1986, and two hours more than men spend on
domestic tasks. Educationally, over 56 percent of women have received higher education, but
they still make up less than 5 percent of senior managers in the largest 200 French companies
and earn an average of 20 percent less than men (Lambert, 2001). This shows a fact that even
in developed countries where female empowerment is strongly believed to have risen up,
inequality remains appearing on a daily basis and also in academic development.

Also

mentioned in the report, Rwanda and Argentina did have some waves of female revolution
where and when women fought for themselves, or adjust their mindset after several of certain
events. For instance, after the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, women became more heavily
involved in politics so as to help rebuild the country. On the other hand, in November 1991

23


the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies passed a gender quota law for Chamber of Deputies

elections following a strong Argentine feminist movement in the late 1980s and early 1990s
(Gray, 2003). This law required that party lists of viable candidates for office include at least
30 percent women (Gray, 2003). Similar to Argentina's achievement, Senegal quota system
called "parity" has also successfully increasing the number of women in politics. Senegal
passed

its parity law in 20 I 0, which has significantly

increased

women's

political

pm1icipation in the country. However, the parity law has generated opposing views. Many
celebrated the law, but not everyone welcomes the law, and others believe the law has not
improved the lives of Senegalese women. Nonetheless, many still recognize the value of
parity. This demonstrates

how controversial

one supporting policy can be when being

released to the public. In addition, this can also belong to sides that are not supporting
women's right as they are afraid of a situation where men's power will have to compromise
with women's.
This study concentrates specifically on politics. With the form of evaluating and
defining matters, this gives the writer a generalized

picture on how the writer should

approach the issue. The study also provides various case studies, from the West to the East,
which helps enrich the diversity of sphere. The study was also written based on a strong
foundation of law approach from the expertise of the authors, that gives the readers more
evidence on a firm assessment for this matter. Nevertheless, the study was conducted over 10
years ago, which is now needs to be updated with latest data and trend. The theories in the
research indeed are still useful in terms of theoretical usage, but an update is also what the
study is in need of.
Similarly analyzing, The Effect of Women's Representation in Parliament and the
Passing of Gender Sensitive Policies by Elizabeth Asiedu and Nanivazo Malokele from
University of Kansas, Claire Branstette from American Institutes for Research and Neepa

24


Gaekwad-Babulal

of State University of New York at Fredonia conducted a paper that

collected data from 159 states to test if countries whose share of parliament seat for women is
higher are more supposable to overcome gender perceptive laws. In the study, the authors
pointed out the trend of participation of women in the government systems over the past three
decades. This rate has increased as well as obtained better quality than the previous time.
Specifically, the parameters have shown that although this development

is still relatively

slow, women over time have become more and more present in the leadership positions, or
pmiicipate

in parliaments

of the nation (Elizabeth

Asiedu, Nanivazo

Malokele,

Claire

Branstette & Neepa Gaekwad-Babu1al, 2017). Besides, a remarkable factor of this change is
based on the income situation of the countries. In high-income countries, the percentage of
women who are involved in politics is higher, which is declining for middle-income countries
and least in low-income countries. However, remarkable thing is that the authors have also
shown that the income gap of countries is narrowing. This means that opportunities

for

women to participate in government departments are becoming higher. According to this
thesis, the authors have shown that the number of women participating in the political work
of the countries on the international system is getting more progressive. This progress is
particularly

scattered throughout

the world, with no particular focus on one area. For

example, representatives from Africa join representatives from Europe in representing female
power in the world map of politics. This removes the notion that African countries are less
developed countries. The level of awareness is generally not equal to Western countries,

which leads to lack of opportunities for women to pmiicipate in political activities. On the
other hand, the miicle specifically analyzes each case of states, which is a good reference
source for the writer in assessing the development of Feminism around the world (Elizabeth
Asiedu, Nanivazo Malokele, Claire Branstette & Neepa Gaekwad-Babulal,

2017) .. Finally,

one of the authors' conclusions is to explain the nation's success in achieving victory in

25