Women Politicians and Parliamentary Elections in Ukraine and Georgia in 2012

Abstract

Abstract: Post-communist countries undergoing social transformations in the last twenty years needed to implement political and economic reforms. Changes also had to support the principles of equality in the access to power, specifically gender quotas in executive and legislative branches of government and within political parties. The events in Ukraine and Georgia in 2004-2005 known as the “colour revolutions” gave impulse to the promotion of equality and implementation of reforms. However, the number of women participating in national politics in both countries remains low. This paper proposes an analysis of gender equality principles during the parliamentary election campaigns in Ukraine and Georgia in 2012 from the perspective of women’s participation in politics and their self-representation as politicians. This empirical study covers public attitudes towards women in politics and examines networks of female parliamentarians. The findings raise hopes for better representation of women in politics as female politicians promote them from the top down, and mass public perception of gender equality principles set the ground for bottom-up activism. Keywords: Gender Equality, Women Politicians, Public Attitudes, Social Network Analysis (SNA)