Although Equatorial Guinea appears to be ahead of its neighbouring countries in terms of female representation in political institutions, there is a caveat to that:

1)      Equatorial Guinea is still well behind Spain in all dimensions;

2)      As the paper suggests, at play is the so called ‘feminismo de asiento (“chair feminism”), a term indicating that the role of the women in Parliament or public and political positions is only symbolic: it has been a mechanism to persuade international organizations such as the United Nations that gender policies in Equatorial Guinea show accountability toward the inclusion of women, breaking the gap even in the highest public domains. 

My personal take away from this mental exercise is to take such cross-country comparisons with a grain of salt, since if we look just at the surface, we can easily be misled due to practices such as the ‘chair feminism’. This also relates to the discussion about value chain/ system thinking perspective that we had last Monday – what seems like a good solution now, might be less attractive if put into the right perspective and the context understood. Having said that, do you think the UN should also attempt to look at less obvious, but harder to manipulate values, e.g. percentage of women in cultural activities, heads of businesses, etc. as opposed to merely counting bodies in the Parliament? What other potential variables come to mind?