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'Citadel of Women': Strengthening Female Leadership in Rural Cambodia

Author: Thavy Chhoeun, Panha Sok, Clodagh Byrne
Date: 2008
Size: 13 pages

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Summary

What opportunities has the decentralisation process given women in Cambodia to participate in political leadership? What obstacles and challenges hinder women’s participation and leadership at the local level? This article from Gender & Development discusses the work of Banteay Srei, a Cambodian NGO, in building the capacity of women to participate in leadership. It describes how Banteay Srei’s leadership training activities have enabled women in the targeted villages to make the most of leadership opportunities. However, challenges to women’s effective political leadership still remain and it is important for NGOs and women leaders to develop strategies to overcome these challenges.

The Cambodian government’s decentralisation policy, including the establishment of democratically-elected Commune Councils, has increased women’s opportunities to participate in local governance. Women in villages where Banteay Srei had carried out leadership training have been elected to a number of Commune Council and Village Leader positions. Since the elections, Banteay Srei has adapted its strategy in order to help women fulfil their new roles and bring real change to their communities. It has promoted grassroots engagement with Commune Councils and provided training on political leadership skills for women and on gender equality for male councillors. It has also initiated a regular Community Women Leaders’ Forum for women leaders to share experiences and discuss challenges.

The Community Women Leaders’ Forum has identified a number of barriers to the election of women leaders, including:

• Social norms and traditionally accepted gender roles – women are expected to stay at home and tend to their families, which can prevent women from building their leadership skills and running for election;
• Economic barriers – relatively low Commune Council salaries may prevent women from taking up positions, since this will take time from agriculture or other livelihood activities;
• Commune Council administrative structures and candidate lists – the values women represent as community leaders may conflict with political party lines, which can affect their position on party candidate lists; and
• Education levels – lower levels of education and higher levels of illiteracy in comparison to men still pose a significant barrier to women being elected.

Even when elected, the extent and quality of women’s participation is limited by a number of factors. These include:

• Work burdens and family duties – once women are elected, expectations that they should still carry out their household duties and economic activities lead to extremely high workloads;
• Women being assigned low-status roles – female councillors are much less likely to be assigned important and financially rewarding roles within the Commune Council and are frequently assigned to menial tasks;
• Fewer opportunities for external training – female councillors are less likely to be given opportunities for external training sessions with government agencies or NGOs than their male counterparts;
• Lack of confidence in the leadership role and decision-making – although confident in their development skills, women leaders report that they are less confident than their male counterparts in making decisions; and
• Disillusionment with the political process – councillors are under pressure to adhere to the party line, which may restrict them from acting on their own judgement or reflecting community needs.

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Source: Chhoeun, T., Sok, P., Byrne, T. C., 2008, ''Citadel of Women': Strengthening Female Leadership in Rural Cambodia', Gender and Development, vol. 16, no. 3, pp. 535-547