Changing sources of support for women's political rights^*

Abstract

Much research investigating changes in women's political rights focuses on the presence or absence of improvement that is evident in national and international policies or on gender proportionality in representative institutions at international, national, and local levels. Public opinion about women's rights is an important corollary to this research because it underpins the legitimacy of policies and representative bodies. However, if examined alone, changes in public opinion over time yield an incomplete picture of women's situation, just as changes in policies and representation do. Factors that lie behind statistics about trends in women's rights matter, and it is essential to figure out if the sources of support for women's political rights shift over time. We employed data from Kuwait in the years surrounding the Beijing +5 conference to illustrate how the absence of change in public opinion about women's rights can hide important social dynamics that figure into the development of policies and practices affecting women. Whereas support for women's rights was evident among the most numerous and advantaged Kuwaiti citizens in 1994, it rested less with the general public and more with citizens involved in social networks and those who had particular political and cultural agendas by 1998.

Changed Political Attitudes in the Middle East

“…However, in terms of support for women's rights, we expect, based on our previous research comparing groups that supported women in 1994-8 (Meyer et al, 2005), that those favoring increased women's rights in 1998 were different from the supporters in 1994. In 1994, advantaged groups, such as men, Sunnis and the religiously orthodox, supported women's rights.…”

Women’s Rights in the Middle East: A Longitudinal Study of Kuwait

“…They reflect moderate support for including women more fully in political life. Meyer and Ali developed and conducted the Kuwait General Social Survey in Arabic in three waves: in 1994, 1996, and 1998 (see Meyer and Ali 1994, 1996, 1998; Meyer, Rizzo, and Ali 1998, 2001, 2005, 2007 for details). Attitudes toward women’s rights shown in Figure 2 were measured by three items: women’s ability to participate in parliamentary elections, whether women should hold local political office, and whether women should be able to vote in national elections 5 .…”