ABSTRACT
It is evident that although women’s public participation bears many similarities to that of men, there remain significant differences, particularly at the upper levels of the hierarchies of political organisations. Willingness to vote is in fact a useful analytical base line as an individual’s act of casting a ballot for a candidate is of a qualitatively different order from that of becoming or attempting to become a candidate for public office. The variation in the extent to, and manner in which women have been politically active in different countries is almost as great as that between men and women within nations. Responsibilities within the family have normally meant that increased proportions of women, particularly married women with children, in economic activity will not directly translate into similar proportions of women in formal political activity. Women’s massive voting strength thoughtfully used, or withheld, could activate even apparently moribund political leaders.
