Coming from a country with one of the lowest women participation in politics, Alona Shkrum (pictured), one of the youngest parliamentarians in Ukraine, believes role models can play a significant part to have more women as major players in this male-dominated field.
“I am a member of women’s caucus in Ukraine’s parliament, which, unfortunately, has one of the lowest parliament participation in the world. We have about 11 percent women in the parliament and even less in government,” said Shkrum in response to a question from local media on the sidelines of the 40th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU).
Gender parity in politics is one of the main topics at the ongoing assembly which concludes today, with particular focus on the MENA region which has around 18 percent share of women in parliaments.
Though she admits it is something not easy to achieve, she is hopeful with the emergence of women role models.
“I think a role model is something that counts because I entered parliament only because when I was a little girl I was looking up to the leader of my party who was the only woman in Ukrainian politics then, and now it is 11 percent so I think role models play a very big role in this area,” she said.
At the same time, the 31-year-old parliamentarian believes on men supporting women as they foray into politics. “Dialogue with men matters. When men start to support more active women coming to the parliament, to power, when they support their children, their sisters; this really counts,” she said.
On what would be the biggest achievement of the 140th assembly, she said: “The main purpose of IPU, as the oldest inter-parliamentary organization in the world, is dialogue between different regions and parliamentary members. There are a lot of things that separate us but there are also a lot of things that unite us. It is very interesting to see how different countries deal with the same issues and this way we are much closer than we imagine. So the outcome of these dialogues and personal contacts cannot be underestimated, it’s very important.”
Shkrum said she was looking forward to seeing how the resolutions adopted in the Assembly would be implemented particularly the one by the Standing Committee on Peace and International Security, of which she is a member and of crucial importance in the region.
Asked to comment on having the IPU Assembly for the first time in the region, she said it was a good sign and a push to dialogue and knowledge about the region as many of the attendees are first timers in the region. She lauded Qatar’s hosting of the event saying this was one of the best IPU Assemblies she experienced in terms of organization.
