4 - Attitudes Towards Women and Political Leadership

Summary

As explained in the introduction to this volume, political parties play an important role in shaping the demand for women's representation and participation in politics, while gendered cultural values and norms often influence whether women opt to participate in politics. In this chapter, we explore the ways that attitudes and experiences correlate with men and women's sense of political efficacy and their attitudes towards women's participation in politics in Myanmar as of 2019—i.e., before the 2021 coup. Though the 2015 election resulted in a higher proportion of female members of parliament (MPs) being elected (10 per cent) than at any other previous time in the country's history, women's parliamentary representation remained very low compared to other countries in the region and globally (Gender Equality Network 2017, pp. 10–11). To better understand the sources of women's political underrepresentation in Myanmar, we examine the experiences and attitudes that affect political participation through a nationwide survey conducted between September and December 2019. As detailed in Chapter One, our survey asked a total of 2,889 respondents in four states/ regions that cover a range of Myanmar's geographic and demographic characteristics (Mon, Mandalay, Ayeyarwady, and southern Shan) to reflect on their experiences and attitudes about politics and women's participation in politics.

We begin by analysing men and women's attitudes towards gender equality and gender roles. We find that men and women did not differ much in their overall opinions about gender roles in society. However, when we examine potential reasons why men and women held certain opinions about gender equality, we find that age, political knowledge, satisfaction with democracy, and early life experiences, such as witnessing violence against their mother, have different associations with expressions of support for gender equality among men compared to women.

Then, we turn to three attitudes related to women's participation in politics. First, we examine internal political efficacy, which refers to whether someone feels they are able to participate in politics, which is an important determinant of whether they engage in political behaviour, such as voting, contacting a government official, or running for political office (Finkel 1985). If women feel less politically capable of participating in politics than men, they also will be less likely to engage in politics. We find that men in Myanmar were more likely to express political self-efficacy than women, in general.