More women needed at peace talks: South Caucasus survey

Georgia Today released information on a South Caucasus survey conducted in Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan by CARE International.

Although the sample size was low - CARE polled 394 people from 24 communities - it's a "partial picture" of their views on a range of questions regarding women's participation in politics. Currently in the South Caucasus women's participation in political processes is low. Globally 19.2% of parliamentarians are women. In post-Soviet countries 17.9% of parliamentarians are women. However, in Georgia only 6% are women.

Only 26% of respondents (34% of men and 19% of women) said they were not prepared to vote for a woman as president. However, 34% said they'd vote a woman into other political posts.

There has only been one female presidential candidate in Georgia and that was in the 2008 presidential election in which she received less than 1% of the vote (based more on her platform and less on her gender - her platform was "No to NATO and yes to Russia"). CARE's survey did show that 63% of respondents (53% of men and 71% of women) acknowledged gender inequality in political representation in the region. And 67% supported laws to increase women's participation in politics.

The survey also showed that the majority of respondents (62%) believed that more women are needed in peace talks in the region. Currently, Georgia Today states, no delegation across the region has more than one female representative, with the exception of the Geneva format created after the August 2008 conflict which is dependent on international mediation by the European Union, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the United Nations.

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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