KARACHI, Oct 9: “Women see politics as the dirty game meant only for men to deal with. But only women can understand the value of education and healthcare and highlight its significance. It is need of the time for the ordinary women of Pakistan to take part in politics and change the things for the better,” said Ann E.W. Stone, president of Ann E.W. Stone and Associates the USA in a lecture on “Importance of women’s participation in politics in civil society” organised by the Women Media Centre at a local hotel on Tuesday.
Earlier, WMC Executive Director Fauzia Shaheen briefed the participants about the role that the cell had played in creating awareness among women journalists and also gave a brief introduction about Ann Stone, who is also a member of the US National Women History Museum Board.
In her lecture, Ms Stone stated five interesting facts why women must take part in politics.
She said women considered politics to be a domain meant only for men to tread as it was considered too dirty a game for women. “It must be realised that women are ethical half of a society and studies have proved that even if women have power they are less corrupt than men,” she said.
Secondly, she said it was important that women must have a say in legislative issues. She said this was important as “The legislation made by men leaves out issues that concern women and children,” she mentioned.
Highlighting the significance of women’s role in budget sanctioning committee, she said, “When men are given the charge to decide on what the money is going to be spent, they prefer to spend it on arms and military. Whereas women make sure that healthcare and education is not left out,” she argued.
The final two points, she made, revolved around the idea that the women good at politics were generally better at business and household.
At the end, she said that if a change was required in the Pakistani society then ordinary women of the country must participate in politics as they were the ones who had to face the consequences of policies.
Ann Stone then mentioned various women who had contributed in the fields of science, mathematics, philosophy and others whose contribution had not been attributed to them. The names included that of Hypatia, Hildgard and Ada Byron.
In reply to a question raised by the participants following the lecture about how women in Pakistan can take part in politics keeping in mind the religio-social background of the country, she said this was not a new phenomenon.
She said, “Women in the USA also had gone through same hardships. We did not even have the right to vote. It took us long time to get our right and to establish ourselves as thinking beings in the society” she observed.
