Publications and Research
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2023
Abstract
Women’s political representation has increased globally over the past few decades. Women are entering the political world in more significant numbers. This increase is visible among the countries of the former Yugoslavia. Within the last three decades, women have become present in greater numbers across the parliaments of the former Yugoslavia, primarily due to the adoption of gender quotas due to women’s movement activism. But is the presence of elected women enough to empower them politically and create “space” for activism, advocacy, and subsequently higher levels of substantive representation? In this work, I pose this main research question and focus on two country case studies from the region, namely Serbia and Montenegro. I argue that women politicians in both countries, despite being present to a greater extent descriptively, face considerable constraints to their political activism within institutions such as parliament, thus limiting the effects they can have in terms of substantive “output” or women-friendly legislation. I highlight several factors that complicate women’s political efficacy in the two countries, including a reemergence (and legacy) of authoritarianism, ideological proclivities of ruling parties, and endemic corruption. This work contributes to the regional literature on women’s political representation and situates two country case studies in a regional perspective.
Širom sveta, žene su prisutnije u politici nego ikada pre. Porast zastupljenosti je takođe vidljiv u zemljama bivše Jugoslavije. U zadnje tri decenije, broj žena se znatno povećao u parlamentima zemalja regiona. To je delimično zbog rodnih kvota koje su uvedene tokom zadnje dve decenije pod uticajem ženskog pokreta. Ali, da li je ova povećana prisutnost žena u ključnim institucijama dovoljna da napravi veći prostor za žene poslanice i političarke tako da bi one mogle da imaju suštinski i moćniji uticaj na politiku? U ovom radu to pitanje je postavljeno i razmatrano na primeru dve države, Srbije i Crne Gore. U ovom radu branim tezu da su žene političarke limitirane da suštinski promene politiku, a i uz to zakone, inicijative i zatim kvalitet života žena. Drugim rečima, njihovo političko predstavljanje je jako ograničeno. Žene u politici se susreću za ozbiljnim preprekama i u Srbiji i u Crnoj Gori, kao što su, na primer, politička represija i dominacija pojedinih političkih stranaka, ideološke orijentacije tih stranaka, i prisutnost korupcije u politici i u širem društvu. Ti faktori značajno komplikuju sposobnost i moć žena da imaju veći uticaj u politici. Cilj ovog rada je da doprinese literaturi o ženama u politici u regionu bivše Jugoslavije i da nastavi akademsku raspravu o ovoj ključnoj temi.
Comments
Alternative title: Ograničenja prisustva: prepreke za političko predstavljanje žena u Srbiji i Crnoj Gori
This article was originally published in Genero: A Journal of Feminist Theory and Cultural Studies, vol. 27, available at https://doi.org/10.18485/genero.2023.27.1.4
This work is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0).