Gendering governance: the case of Mauritius

• Date: 12 August 2014
• Published date: 12 August 2014
• Pages: 535-563
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/EDI-02-2013-0003
• Author: Verena Tandrayen-Ragoobur
• Subject Matter: HR & organizational behaviour,Employment law,Diversity, equality, inclusion

Gendering governance: the case

of Mauritius

Verena Tandrayen-Ragoobur

Department of Economics and Statistics, University of Mauritius,

Reduit, Mauritius

Abstract

Purpose – The relationship between gender and governance is often neglected in both conceptual

and empirical work. However, gender equality in the decision-making fora is vital, for enabling

far-reaching social change and for empowering people excluded from decision making. The purpose of

this paper is to analyse the participation of women in governance institutions in a small island

economy like Mauritius. Though, there has been some progress in Mauritius in redressing the gender

imbalance in national and local governance processes, more is still to be achieved. This paper analyses

women participation in governance by using gender-sensitive governance indicators.

Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected from different sources namely from the

Mauritian Electoral Commissioner’s Office, Statistics Mauritius, Mauritius Household Budget Surveys

and the Ministry of Education and Human Resources. Data were also made available from the Global

Gender Gap Report, 2012; the Global Parliamentary Report, 2012 and the SADC Gender Protocol

Barometer, 2012. These data were used in the computation of gender-sensitive governance indicators

used by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP, 2006). The indicators are the Global

Gender Gap Index, the percentage of seats reserved in parliament for women, voter turnout among

registered females and prevalence of women in poor districts.

Findings – The paper argues that the overall gender gap index for Mauritius has increased over

the years but the scores for economic participation and political attainment remain very low. In the

economic sphere, the author note a rising female unemployment rate, though girls perfor m better than

boys at all educational levels. Mauritius has been adept at the politics of recognition of different ethnic

groups but this approach has not addressed the issue of women. The findings reveal that women

are often excluded from decision making, from the household up to the highest levels of policymaking.

The “invisibility” of women in parliament, is a concern and is “a grave democratic deficit” for the

country (Sachs, 2001).

Originality/value – No study has taken a gender perspective of governance issues in Mau ritius.

The author assess the importance of gender in a democratic country like Mauritius which has

performed well on the economic front but gender is still too often ignored in governance and other

spheres. There is thus a growing need fo r greater gender equality and participation of women in

governance institutions and processes.

Keywords Gender, Poverty, Labour market, Equal opportunities, Government policy

Paper type Research p aper

1. Introduction

The relationship between gender and governance has too often been neglected in both

theoretical and empirical work (Nussbaum, 2003). The lives of women are de eply

rooted by social norms and cultu res and thus women are often excluded from decision

making, from the household up to the highest levels of policymaking. Signing up to

international treaties and passing legislation on issues such as women’s rights, equal

access to education and equal eligibility to credit and property ownership is only a first

step. Legislation and policy have to be translated into government directives,

budgetary allocations, institutional arrangemen ts, bureaucratic procedures and

monitoring standards. The connection between political commitment and effective

policy implementation is expressed in the concept of “governance” (Razavi, 2000).

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at

www.emeraldinsight.com/2040-7149.htm

Received 6 February 2013

Revised 2 June 2013

Accepted 18 July 2013

Equality, Diversityand Inclusion:

An International Journal

Vol.33 No. 6, 2014

pp. 535-563

rEmeraldGroup Publishing Limited

2040-7149

DOI 10.1108/E DI-02-2013-0003

535

Gendering

governance

Hence, decisions made and policies implemented by governance institutions at

global, national and local levels help to shape perceptions of the roles that women and

men play in society, as well as determining their access to rights and resources.

Involving women in defining policies and processes and influencing the institutions

that produce them, will contribute to greater gender equality in meeting the needs of

both men and women. Women’s equal participation in governance is an important end

in itself; a recognition of their right to speak and be heard. More broadly, it is a means

to social transformation (Brody, 2009). Unless efforts are made to rectify the social,

economic and political marginalisation of women, governance will not become

democratic, accountable, effective, participative or developmental and “good

governance” will remain abstract theoretical concepts (Kehler, 2000).

Across Africa, many countries have taken initiatives to increase the participation

and representation of women in governance (Bur net, 2008). However, there are still

entrenched unequal gendered power relations and other forms of ex clusion that

are inbuilt in governing processes and institutions in many countries, especially

developing nations. There are still far fewer women than men in decision-making

positions at global, national and local levels of governance, including the micro-levels

of the community and household. There are gender-specific capacity failures in most

public institutions. Public expenditure management systems fail to acknowledge

women’s needs or distribute budgetary resources equally. Further, the civil service

or judiciary may be dominated by men antip athetic to gender equality. Women

public-sector workers; often clustered at the bottom of state bureaucracies may be the

first to lose their jobs, when cost-cutting efficiencies are introduced. In addition , “Rule

of law” reforms, even if limited to the stabilisation of the market for commercial

activity, may limit women’s scope to profit from informal private enterprise, o r fail to

enable them to secure assets over which they previously enjoyed customary rights

(Razavi, 2000). In 2011, the number of women parliamentarians around the world

amount to 8,716 and they represented 19.25 per cent of the total number of

parliamentarians (UNDP, 2012). Further, only 17.05 per cent of chambers comprise

of more than 30 per cent of women and 20.45 per cent of chambers are comprised of

o10 per cent women. The Rwandan Chamber of De puties has the highest percentage

of women (56.25 per cent) in the world. It is followed by the General Council of Andorra

(53.57 per cent) (UNDP, 2012).

Though, Mauritius has successfully transformed itself from a vulnerable island

confronted with severe structural problems into a success story, gender equality does

not represent an essential component of the country. Women are still marginalised

within the political and public life of the country. The objective of the paper is to

analyse the participation of women in governance institutions and processes in a small

island economy like Mau ritius. Though, there has been some prog ress in Mauritius in

redressing the gender imbalance in national and local governance processes and

institutions, more is still to be achieved. This pap er analyses women participation in

governance by using potential gender-sensitive governance indicato rs such as the

gender gap index; women participation in parliament and elections, voter turnout

among registered females, educational attainment of women and the prevalence of

women in poor districts.

The paper is structured as follows: Section 2 reviews the literatu re on gender and

governance. Section 3 presents a situational analysis of the Mauritian economy while

Section 4 sets out the data source and methodology used. Section 5 an alyses the

findings based on the gender-sensitive indicators. We finally conclude in Section 6.

536

EDI

33,6