ABSTRACT
New sources of authority and influence have been generated for both individual women and women as a group at regional level. Women took 80 per cent of the regional representative seats in the first Regional Committee election. Women comprised 80 per cent of regional representative seats on the 1994/95 Committee and 70 per cent on the 1995/96 committee. The study of the Regional Council indicated elements in women’s access to the decision-making arena: physically being there, being vocal, the quoracy of the meeting and knowing the ‘rules of the game’. The observation of structures in Region 2 would indicate that proportionality, fair representation and self-organisation have altered political processes between men and women. Comparing the Regional Women’s Committee meeting on the following day, and the response of the Regional Committee, a week later, best illustrate the different levels of awareness and interest in the national minimum wage.
