Women Representation and the Quality of Democracy in Indonesia

The inequality in gender representation in Parliament has no linear correlation with the general quality of democracy in a country. For example, the representation of women in Indonesian parliament is currently below 20 percent, but the quality of democracy in Indonesia is relatively better than many other countries with high women parliamentary representation.

We need to be aware of the importance of women representation to the quality of democracy in a country. According to a comparative analysis on the global democracy rank and the rate of women representation in parliament, we can see that most countries with high-quality democracy are usually the country with better gender representation in parliament. Vice versa, most undemocratic countries are usually having low representation of women in parliament.

Let’s compare the 2017 data on women representation in parliament from Inter-Parliamentary Union with the democracy index from Freedom House:

Women Representation Ranking	Democracy Ranking	Country	Women Representation	Democracy Index (sclae 0 – 100)
1	164	Rwanda	61.3	24
2	91	Bolivia	53.1	68
3	177	Cuba	48.9	15
4	12	Iceland	47.6	97
5	129	Nicaragua	45.7	47
6	3	Sweden	43.6	100
7	73	Senegal	42.7	78
8	95	Mexico	42.6	65
9	1	Finland	42	100
10	74	South Africa	42	78
99	94	Indonesia	19.8	65

From the top ten list of countries with highest women representation in parliament, there are three countries with bad democracy index, they are Rwanda, Cuba, and Nicaragua. These countries are ranked as first, third, and fifth, respectively, in women representation ranking, but their democracy index are below 50 (24 for Rwanda, 15 for Cuba, and 47 for Nicaragua).

The rest of the countries on the list have democracy index more than 60. Bolivia, which has 53.1 percent of women representation in parliament, has 68 democracy index. Finland and Sweden have scored 100 in democracy index, and their women representation rate is 42 percent and 43.6 percent respectively. Meanwhile, Iceland has women represent rate at 47.6 percent with 97 of democracy index; Senegal 42.7 percent to 78; Mexico 42.6 percent to 65; and South Africa 42 percent to 78.

Indonesia is ranked at number 99 in women representation, and ranked at 94 in democracy index. The percentage of women in Indonesian parliament is 19.8 percent, while the score for the democracy index is 65.

Now let’s see how are the top 20 democratic countries doing regarding their women representation in parliament:

Democracy Ranking	Country	Score	Percentage of Women in Parliament
1	Finland	93.4	42
2	Norway	92.6	39.6
3	Sweden	91.1	43.6
4	Denmark	88.1	37.4
5	New Zealand	87.8	34.2
6	Belgium	87.6	38
7	Netherlands	87.3	38
8	Ireland	86.9	22.2
9	Canada	85.7	26.3
10	Australia	85.6	28.7
11	Switzerland	85.5	32.5
12	France	85.2	25.8
13	Germany	85.1	37
14	United Kingdom	85.0	30
15	Slovenia	84.2	36.7
16	Austria	83.2	30.6
17	Estonia	82.9	26.7
18	Spain	82.9	39.1
19	Portugal	82.5	34.8
20	United States	82.2	19.1
69	Indonesia	62.3	19.8

According to the list of the top 20 democratic countries, it is only the United States that has less than 20 percent of women representation in parliament. The percentage is almost similar with the percentage of women representation in Indonesia, which is 19.8 percent. However, Indonesia is far below the US in regards with democracy ranking (69) with score of 62.3.

Therefore, we can safely say that 19 out of 20 top democratic countries have no problem with women representation. 99 percent of the countries have more than 25 percent of women representation, and 70 percent of them have more than 30 percent of women representation.

Based on the comparison of both data, we can draw two conclusions: (1) high percentage of women representation in parliament does not correlate with the quality of democracy in the country; (2) countries with high quality democracy usually have proper rate of women representation in parliament (at least 30 percent).

These conclusions will become more apparent if we compare the data in countries with the worst democracy index:

Ranking on Women Representation	Country	Percentage of Women Representation in Parliament	Democracy Index
190	Yemen	0	14
189	Vanuatu	0	80
188	Qatar	0	26
187	Micronesia	0	93
186	Oman	1.2	25
185	Solomon Islands	2	71
184	Haiti	2.6	39
183	Papua New Guinea	2.7	64
182	Lebanon	3.1	44
181	Kuwait	3.1	36
180	Belize	3.1	87
179	Tonga	3.8	74
178	Thailand	4.9	32

Based on the comparison, in all 13 countries with lowest women representation in parliament, they also have poor democracy index. There are 53 percent of countries with democracy index below 45, they are Yemen, Qatar, Oman, Haiti, Lebanon, Kuwait, and Thailand.

Election System

If we compare the data on women representation with the election system implemented in a country, we can see that the type of election system implemented has a correlation with women representation.

Ranking on Women Representation	Country	Percentage of Women Representation in Parliament	Type of Election System
1	Rwanda	61.3	Party List PR: ++
2	Bolivia	53.1	MMP (Majority with party list PR: closed list)
3	Cuba	48.9	Endorsement of selected candidates
4	Iceland	47.6	Party List PR: Closed List
5	Nicaragua	45.7	Party List PR: Closed List
6	Sweden	43.6	Party List PR: Open List
7	Senegal	42.7	Parallel
8	Mexico	42.6	Parallel
9	Finland	42	Party List PR: Open List
10	South Africa	42	Party List PR: Closed List
11	Ecuador	41.6	Party List PR: Closed List
12	Namibia	41.3	Party List PR: Closed List
13	Mozambique	39.6	Party List PR: Closed List
14	Norway	39.6	Party List PR: Open List
15	Spain	39.1	Party List PR: Closed List
16	Argentina	38.9	Party List PR: Closed List
17	Ethiopia	38.8	FPTP
18	Timor-Leste	38.5	Parallel
19	Angola	38.2	Party List PR: Closed List
20	Belgium	38	Party List PR: Flexible List
99	Indonesia	19.8	Party List PR: Open List

Based on the table above, we can see that countries that implement proportional representation (PR) system have higher degree of women representation compared to countries that implement plurality system (first past the post/FPTP). Out of the top 20 countries with highest women representation, only one country, Ethiopia, implement plurality system while also manage to have relatively high women representation rate (38.8 percent).

Meanwhile, the rest of the 19 countries implement PR system, either pure or mixed. Pure PR system has two distinct models: closd list and open list. Meanwhile, the mixed PR system may be implemented as a parallel or mixed-member proportional (MMP) type.

After comparing all of the data, we can draw a final conclusion that the rate of women representation in parliament does not affected by the quality of democracy in a country, but more by the type of election system implemented. Therefore, the rate of women representation in parliament may not be the indicator of democracy quality in a country, but it definitely shows what type of election system is more gender-friendly.[]

USEP HASAN SADIKIN