Grab and Keel

Remember Rwanda?

That small African country from whence recent one of our last genocide movies sprung? The object of Clintonian apologies, and current service? At a population of now, around 70% women, and a country with many struggles still ahead, Rwanda has achieved this:

Rwandan Women Secure 56% of Parliamentary Seats in Historic Election Result

Date: 22 September 2008

Kigali — Women contesting in Rwanda’s second parliamentary elections since the 1994 Genocide, held on 15–18 September 2008, have secured 45 out of 80 seats, or 56.25 percent, making the incoming Parliament the first in the world to have women in the majority.

The Constitution of Rwanda provides for a 30-percent minimum quota for women in Parliament, or 24 seats. In the run-up to the election, gender advocates called on parties not only to have equal representation of women and men in their party lists, but also to position women close to the top to ensure the presence of women representatives. The ruling party, the Rwanda Patriotic Front, placed a woman at the head of its list, and of the 42 seats it won, 17 went to women. Of the further 3 seats won by women in the general election, 2 went to the Social Democratic Party and 1 to the Liberal Party…]

http://www.unifem.org/news_events/story_detail.php?StoryID=736

In the mean time, back the USA, we are still discussing the idea, that OMG, what we have is eroding.  We’d rather fight over which woman is politically correct. Imagine, she’s a woman, no, she’s a Republican, no, she’s:

Reform and the 30% (+3%) solution

Posted on September 27, 2008 by garychapelhill

[First I’d like to thank Madamab for her excellent interview with Congresswoman Maloney. I am eagerly looking forward to reading her book, and I have not been able to get the idea of the “30% solution” out of my head since reading Madamab’s post “The 30 Percent Solution: Why Democratic Women Are Voting for McCain/Palin”. I think the idea of fighting to have women account for 30% of all elected officials would certainly change this country profoundly, and for the better….]

http://riverdaughter.wordpress.com/2008/09/27/reform-and-the-30-3-solution/

Imagine if we’d had a real democratic choice this year, we wouldn’t even be having this discussion. Now, however, we are. Thank you, Barack Obama.

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