Open Access Kassa, J Glob Econ 2015, 3:4 DOI: 10.4172/2375-4389.1000162 Volume 3 • Issue 4 • 1000162 J Glob Econ ISSN: 2375-4389 Economics, an open access journal Research Article Open Access *Corresponding author: Shimelis Kassa, Lecturer, Department of Civics and Ethical Studies, Arbaminch University, Ethiopia, Tel: +251-46-8810771; E-mail: shimelsamu@yahoo.com Received September 07, 2015; Accepted October 19, 2015; Published October 26, 2015 Citation: Kassa S (2015) Challenges and Opportunities of Women Political Participation in Ethiopia. J Glob Econ 3: 162. doi:10.4172/2375-4389.1000162 Copyright: © 2015 Kassa S. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Challenges and Opportunities of Women Political Participation in Ethiopia Shimelis Kassa* Lecturer, Department of Civics and Ethical Studies, Arbaminch University, Ethiopia Keywords: Women; Decision making; Political participation; Ethiopia Abbreviations: EGM: Expert Group Meeting; FDRE: Federal Dem- ocratic Republic of Ethiopia; FWCW: Fourth World Conference on Women; JICA: Japan International Cooperation Agency; MDGs: Mil- lennium Development Goal; MoLSA: Ministry of Labour and Social Afairs; MoWA: Ministry of Women Afairs; SIDA: Swedish Interna- tional Development Cooperation Agency; UDHR: Universal Decla- ration of Human Rights; UNICEF: United Nations Children’s Fund; WEDO: Women’s Environment and Development Organization Introduction “Freedom cannot be achieved unless the women have been emancipated from all forms of oppression. All of us take this on board that the objective of reconstruction and development programme will not have been realized unless we see in visible practical terms that the condition of women in our country has radically changed for better and that they have been empowered to intervene in all aspects of life equal with any other member of the society” Nelson Mandela Te possibility for all citizens to participate in the management of public afairs is at the very heart of democracy. At the same time full and equal participation of both women and men in political decision making provides a balance that more accurately refects the composition of society, and may as such enhance the legitimacy of political processes by making them more democratic and responsive to the concerns and perspectives of all segments of society. Despite these facts in the majority of countries of the world, the political arena remains largely dominated by men, and is even an exclusively male bastion in some countries. As we know in democracy the voice of all is being heard equally. But, throughout history, women which constitute ffy percent of global populations are underrepresented in decision-making processes at all governance levels around the world and even they are dominated and marginalized politically, socially, economically, physically and psychologically by their counter parts. Terefore, the participation of women in the political discourse is a recent phenomenon. Te participation of women in political decision- making positions was recognized as a political right afer the adoption of the Universal Declaration of (UDHR) in 1948. UDHR Articles 2 and 21 stipulate equal enjoyment of political rights without discrimination on the basis of one’s sex or any other ground. Even in most of western states women franchise right is not recognized in the frst wave of democratization except in USA, Britain and some European countries. Like many world countries, the majority of women in Ethiopia has also deprived of social, economic and political rights and hold low status in the society for much history of the country. Tey have been denied equal access to education, training and gainful employment opportunities and their involvement in policy formulation and decision making processes have been minimal. While Ethiopia’s government has made signifcant strides over the recent years in setting the corner stones of a women’s machinery in government. Te present government has given priority to the speeding up of equality between men and women. Practically for example the government formulated national policy on women in 1993 with the objective of speeding up of equality between men and women, so that women can participate in the political, social, and economic life of their country on equal terms with men, ensuring that their right to own property as well as their other human rights are respected and that they are not excluded from the enjoyment of the fruits of their labour or from performing public functions and being decision makers. Hence the article centers on two main substantive parts. Te frst part focuses on the factors that hinder women political participation in Ethiopia and secondly the importance of women political participation. Abstract Women’s political participation has been recognized internationally as an important measure of the status of women in any particular country. Hence, in recent years, women’s participation in politics and decision-making has received signifcant attention across the world. However, women remain seriously underrepresented in decision-making positions. The central objective of this study is to examine challenges and opportunities of women political participation in Ethiopia. To this end qualitative research methodology was employed. Data was collected from secondary sources mainly from published journal article, books and report of government and non-government organization. The fnding of the study shows that different casual factors such as; economic, religious, social and cultural factors contributed to women’s poor political participation in the country. The study further revealed that political participation allow women to address their basic problems and needs in their community and ensures the openness, real fght against rent-seeking, accountability, political commitment, political leadership, and political responsiveness of the existing national, regional, districts, and local levels. It is true that more than half percent of the world’s population are women. But, they lack access to political decision making as compared to their counter parts at all levels of government. So that women’s equal participation in decision-making and politics is not only a demand for simple justice or democracy, but a necessary pre-condition for women’s interests to be taken into account. Journal of Global Economics J o u r n a l o f G l o b a l E c o n o m i c s ISSN: 2375-4389 $