American political theorist Robert Dahl defined the ideal democracy as a theoretical utopia -- he suggested that each country needs to fulfill five specific criteria -- effective participation, voting equality, enlightened understanding, control of the agenda, and inclusiveness -- if they are to work their way towards sustaining democratic ideals and institutions.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Begum Khaleda Zia have broken innumerable mental and tangible glass ceilings in domestic politics. It goes without saying that having a female prime minister, a female opposition leader, and a female parliamentary speaker concurrently is a unique achievement for a young country such as ours.
We tend to observe political participation from the lens of those participating as candidates in the electoral process, yet Robert Dahl’s notion of an ideal democracy calls for looking at voters as the primary unit of analysis in societies.
In January 2018, the Election Commission stated that the total electorate comprises of 52.46 million male voters compared to 51.58 million female voters. A 2016 World Bank report suggested that 49.56% of the total Bangladeshi population was female -- with the sex ratio of the total population being 1.020 (1020 males per 1000 females).
Whilst the female population of Bangladesh has been increasing steadily, the participation of female voters in the country is not increasing at a rate which wholeheartedly ensures equity in the electoral process. Setting aside the 2014 general election which saw low turnout, the participation of women in the 2008 general election was a positive sign.
Over 70 million people voted in the election, with 46 million female voters; the erstwhile voter list comprised of 51% registered females, and the high engagement of women in the elections was seen as a step in the right direction.
However, the 2018 voter list comprises of 49.6% women, and when considered in line with the growing female population in the country and the 51% registered female voters in 2008, this is not a good sign. But at the end of the day, it remains the responsibility of the political stake-holders, particularly the Election Commission, to create a congenial atmosphere to ensure that a majority of voters can perform their civic duty.
Moving beyond this, effective participation of female voters is seen in tandem with the enhanced participation of prospective female parliamentarians -- in theory, when more women run and get elected to parliament, issues affecting women have a higher chance of being brought to the notice of public debates and policy-making.
The case of female politicians in Bangladesh is somewhat different. The accession of Begum Raushan Ershad to the role of the parliamentary opposition leader only adds substance to the argument that both Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia have primarily been able to play prominent roles in Bangladeshi politics due to their familial lineages.
However, this is not to say that our female leaders have not catapulted their public personas to incredible heights of popularity. Nevertheless, the authority garnered by these individuals is surely not an indication of enhanced female representation in domestic politics overall.
In the study of the global political economy, constructivism is a concept which argues that knowledge and action are socially created and can be shaped to different purposes. While feminism examines the strategic interaction of actors based on a set of presumed preferences, constructivists examine how those preferences came about in the first place.
In Bangladesh, neither Hasina’s nor Khaleda Zia’s accession to politics was planned, nor was it a result of a social call for women to be integrated into politics. As per constructivist thought, both were propelled to the high political offices on the basis of their relationship with deceased leaders of the country. The preference for the Zia and Sheikh names to continue in politics was a reality to which senior advisers and politicians of both parties related to.
The idea that both Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia could lead the country forward, till today, is derived largely on the notion that one is the daughter of the nation’s founding father, whilst the other is the widowed wife of a freedom-fighter turned president.
There have been those who suggest that the reservation of 50 seats at the Jatiya Sangsad was an important step in enhancing the representation of women in politics -- the reality is, however, very different. The reality is that the 2008 and 2014 general elections saw a mere 3.76% and 7.43% female candidates running for parliamentary seats -- the current parliament has witnessed 21 directly elected female MPs in addition to 50 female MPs from reserved seats, which in essence is more of a constitutional requirement than a means to empower female politicians.
Symbolic yes, but effective. Numerically, 20.3% of current MPs are female. This is a concerning statistic, as approximately 50% of voters in the country are female -- and the representation of this demographic in parliament continues to remain low. By observing the candidates who are vying for the upcoming election, the picture continues to look relatively grim -- the growth of female aspirants to parliament remains lower than expected, which continues to perpetuate the idea that politics in this country remains male dominated.
The above concerns are shared by many female parliamentarians -- without giving further opportunities to women to run for political office, it is difficult to expect ideal levels of effective participation of women in the electoral process. And without the increased participation of female voters and candidates in the elections, it is difficult to institute an inclusive state-society relationship -- which boils down to the question as to what kind of democracy we want to truly be.
One hopes that a high number of women voters express their constitutional rights and go to the polls; nevertheless, there are many barriers which still need to be broken down, and the responsibility of leading the charge will ironically fall on the two major parties which have governed the country for the past three decades.
Mir Aftabuddin Ahmed is a recent graduate of arts, economics, and international relations from the University of Toronto.