The initial phase of this handbook involved a great deal of research and networking. First, a preliminary outline was prepared and discussed among the Institute's Gender Working Group. Later drafts were sent to the Gender Advisory Board (see Annex B) whose comments were incorporated. In August 1997, when a final outline was drafted, a group of international experts, women MPs and researchers, gathered at International IDEA to share their experiences and insights on women in parliament in general, and on the outline and the prospective handbook in particular. Following the August meeting, each chapter was commissioned from the acknowledged experts in the field.

As we mentioned, the issue of impacting on politics necessarily involves first looking at the problems women face in getting into parliament and the mechanisms they have used to overcome these obstacles. To address these issues, Chapter 2 looks at the hindrances common to all women around the world; Chapter 3 discusses the legislative recruitment process and electoral systems and examines what clues they provide in increasing women's representation; and Chapter 4 examines the widely used but frequently debated policy of quotas to increase women's representation.

Chapter 5 focuses on the question of how women can enhance their parliamentary decision-making power, and suggests a framework for thinking about and acting on these issues. It presents strategies that have been tried and those that can be tried in the future.

Chapter 6 looks at the experience of one intergovernmental organization, the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), which has a long and distinguished record of working with women parliamentarians. The chapter presents the historical development of IPU, reflecting the shifts and trends in women's access to politics, and presents some of IPU's recommendations in this area.

Case studies from around the world illustrate the issues discussed. From International IDEA's member states, we chose four countries: Norway, Costa Rica, India and South Africa ­ each representing cases in which significant advances by women have been made. From the Arab world, Egypt was chosen as the most populous country with the longest history of experimentation with democracy and one which has the most number of women MPs in the Arab world; we also provide examples from Jordan and Lebanon. Russia is the sixth case study, reflecting the situation of a large country in the midst of democratic transition from a previous regime where women were given many rights, to one where liberalization has entailed the loss of some of these rights. Each case study reflects not only the diverse social, political and cultural situation in each country, but also the commonalities in terms of women's needs and expectations and, in some cases, achievements.

In the conclusion we sum up the material presented by providing an overview of the needs that women MPs have as well as the strategies and mechanisms that have been successfully adopted to make inroads within parliament.

Annex A, on legal instruments, provides information on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the impact that this has had on women's work in different parliaments. This section goes a step further than simply providing a traditional listing of the contents of this convention. Rather, it looks at the question of how and why international conventions fall short of their goals on a national level; or alternatively how they succeed in becoming a useful strategy or tool for women politicians in general. The annex also points to areas where there is a serious lack of important research, and provides a sociological/legal perspective on the actual effectiveness of international legal instruments. This falls within the tradition of this handbook of looking beyond existing strategies and quantitative mechanisms and examining qualitative impact.

Target Audience

This handbook is addressed to a wide range of actors working to promote women's parliamentary participation. First and foremost it is addressed to women members of parliament, as well as those campaigning and working to become MPs. Also targeted are those who are actually working on these issues in the key sectors of civil society, including:

• Journalists, editors and producers in both the electronic
  and printed media;

• Students and scholars of women in politics; and

• Technocrats and bureaucrats who work on related themes.

Limitations of the Handbook

This handbook is not a research instrument. Although it incorporates the views and analyses of researchers, the handbook is designed primarily for practical purposes.

The handbook tends to have more information on women's impact and strategies for increasing effectiveness from the established democracies, than from the developing democracies. This is compensated somewhat by the array of case studies. However, the fact remains that an assessment of the extent to which women impact and their means of doing so, is feasible largely in contexts where women have been in the political process for a longer period of time, and in more than token numbers.

Furthermore, it is important to point out that the handbook is not a research instrument. In other words, although it incorporates the views and analyses of researchers, the handbook is designed primarily for practical purposes. The drawback of this is that while there are some aspects where there is a pressing lack of research, it is not within the scope of this endeavour to cover them.

The handbook is an attempt to synthesize information presented by researchers in the field, as well as the practical experiences of women activists, and organizations working on promoting women's participation in parliaments. Both the individuals and the institutions span the local and the international. As such it is an attempt to bring together a great many threads simultaneously. Certain generalizations tend to be made in an effort to trace commonalties in experiences and results. The specificity of each local circumstance, while respected and taken into account, remains nevertheless difficult to capture in its entirety.