I had to take the minutes of my first meeting today-never done that before-anyway not the point...it was a meeting between a Jordanian and Turkish delegation, to discuss something...again not the point-promise it's coming up! I looked around at the Jordanian side, to find only me sitting between a group of elderly men...then I glanced at the Turkish side and found 4 women, the question started to form in my mind, why is it that this country has four women on their delegation, all with presentations and proposals to make, yet on the Jordanian side I was the only one, and I was there pretty much to take notes-still too new to be of much help!
I then came online and found an article in the Guardian,
No room at the top - fewer women reaching boards of Britain's top firms, where it is discussing how the number of women as head of boards has come down since last year, "The number of directorships held by women fell in 2006 after rising steadily in previous years. Now 23 companies in the blue chip index - one more than last year - have entirely male boards." It goes on to discuss the implication for this situation on women and also on how companies are going to grow, they also said that the UK has refrained from making a quota for women on boards.
I have never been able to decide on where I stand when it comes to quotes, be it in parliaments or in this case board rooms, sometimes I am for them, for we need to force society to start seeing women in these roles, and then we can take the quota away. Yet in the case of Jordan it proves that just because you have women in parliament does not mean that they will be voting or acting for the benefit of the women of their society, we saw how they voted in the last parliament against laws that would have made the legal and social life of Jordanian women a lot better.
I think the main thing, is that it is not so much about quotas only it is also about educated the women and men who will fill them-for in some cases their are quotes that include men (racial and religious minorities.) These people that we vote for, or who are assigned to represent us, should be shown and explained to that when they are in such a position it is not only to fill a seat, or show that the country is equal, but it is to actually work so that at some point we no longer need quotes we just vote for people because they are good.
Looking through the Guardian, I found a opinion talking about Palestine and what is happening now, and it had a really amazing quote, that showed how effective women are when they decide to do something about their lives. In
A brutal taste of the future, Sami Abdel-Shafi, stated that, "On Friday morning, scores of women marched through Beit Hanoun in a spontaneous rush to aid friends and loved ones after hearing their pleas. Unarmed, they were shot at by Israeli soldiers from their tanks; two women were left dead and others severely injured. These women were said to have been heading to a mosque to free armed men who took refuge there. Television footage and interviews with witnesses show these women posed no military threat, but they were treated as such by the Israeli army without warning." Again Palestinians and more importantly Palestinian woman show us the way to go...how we have to just go out there and break through all the boundaries, and obstacles put in front of us.
So again, I was disappointed in our delegation today, I really had expected there to be more women, we make up more then half this society, and it is about time that we start pushing through all the glass ceiling and whatnot and make a place for ourselves.
