Description
Book SynopsisThis book celebrates a century of progress for women’s voting rights and offers thought-leadership on challenges and opportunities for fully realizing gender equality and women’s empowerment, particularly their full and meaningful inclusion in political life and leadership.
Women's Voices: Global Perspectives on the Right to Vote is a special global collection of essays, published as a companion to personal stories about the importance of the right to vote by women in several countries captured on video and produced with the assistance of LexisNexis and the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES).
These essays will be of particular interest for advocates of women’s voting rights and political inclusion. They provide insightful and pragmatic best practices and suggested actions for women’s rights advocates, policy leaders, legislators, political party leaders, and lawyers to remove bias, prejudice, and discriminatory practices in political parties, elections, and public life.
Authors of these essays represent voices from every continent, except Antarctica. The authors were chosen for their diverse perspectives and for a comparison of experiences within varied legal traditions and systems, including common law, civil law, Islamic law, and customary law. These trailblazing women agreed to share stories of triumph and challenge, whether of their own experiences or those of their mothers and grandmothers, and their thoughts on the way forward. As a reflection of their voices, the essays retain each author’s use of the terms “female” and “women.”
Table of ContentsContents
Foreword vii
U.S. Ambassador Prudence Bushnell (retired)
Preface xi
Colonel Linda Strite Murnane
Acknowledgments xv
Colonel Linda Strite Murnane
About the Editors xvii
About the Contributors xix
Introduction xxvii
Lisa Ryan
1
The Americas: Advances, Persistent Obstacles, and New Challenges 1
Alejandra Mora Mora
2
Australia: Citizenship, Participation, and Reality 17
The Honorable Margaret Beazley, AC, KC, and Elizabeth Chapman
3
Brazil: Impacts, Barriers, and Gender Equality 33
Carla Amaral de Andrade Junqueira
4
Guatemala: Securing Equality and Full Political Participation by Women and Indigenous People 39
María Isabel Luján Zilbermann and Fernanda Monzón Arroyo
5
India: The Electoral Landscape and the Glass Ceiling in the World’s Largest Democracy 47
Arya Tripathy and Priti Suri
6
Iran: Culture, Political Participation, and Continuing Efforts 61
Shima Rostami
7
Japan: Pushback against Pushbacks—Why We Need More Women in Parliament in Japan 71
Hayashi Yoko
8
Kenya: Reflections on Preventing Sexual and Gender-Based Election Violence 75
Rachel Irura
9
United Kingdom: The Legacy and Impact of Women’s Suffrage on the Legal Profession 85
Christina Blacklaws
10
United States: Our Sheroes Have Always Been Clan Mothers: What America Learned about Suffrage from Native Women 93
The Honorable Lisa Atkinson
11
United States: Unresolved Accomplishments and Trailblazing Sheroes 111
Paulette Brown
12
United States: Personal Reflections on Lessons from the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution 125
Gail Heriot Silverman
