Women’s Participation in Democratization and Decision Making in the Politics
Keywords:
Democracy, Democratization, Women’s Empowerment, Political Dominance.Abstract
Since 1900, 'Women's Empowerment', 'Democracy' and 'Democratization' have been key issues in the global political debate. In the context of democratization, be it global politics or domestic politics - the overall micro-observation and knowledge of politics is now widely practiced. Among the southern European countries, the third wave of democratization began with countries like Portugal and Spain. The wave, which began in 1974, swept across southern European countries, including Africa, the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, South Asian countries, and Latin America, and wiped out many undemocratic regimes in most parts of the country. All these uprisings for democratization were born out of the people's movement and enthusiastic participation as well as the activism of the citizens. The participation of women in this wave of democratization in this country and abroad was also remarkable. Women were actively involved in the process of democratization through self-help groups, working groups, NGOs, social movements, elections, social media, etc. This active participation of women was what enabled democratization.
Later the Congress Party the most important political party of the time nominated 32 women candidates in 1985 Loksabha Election, while only 19 women candidates were nominated in 1980 and 17 in 1990. This has had an inadequate influence of women on the inter-party power structures of the Congress. This means that while getting nominations of women candidates, you see a steady decline.
The active participation of women in politics has always been an issue of discussion in Maharashtra. This participation can be divided into two parts, one is to participate in the voting process and the other is to contest elections with active participation. However, the participation of women in both these processes is not so great. The number of women candidates in the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly elections was negligible. Women are considered to be just as important factor as men in determining the turnout in any election.