50/50, no more, no less!

The increased political involvement of women is directly related to the efforts of the women. The increased political involvement of women is directly related to the efforts of the women's movement. That is the case in Montenegro at any rate, where a number of women's organisations joined forces prior to the election last spring in a far-reaching media campaign to increase the proportion of women MPs. Through goals-oriented collaboration and targeted lobbying they doubled the proportion of women in the elected assembly. This is the beginning of a prolonged struggle for the Montenegrin women's movement.

Against a backdrop of steep mountains, a glistening fjord and brilliant sunshine, in early summer I met 40 or so delegates from ten women's organisations in Montenegro to discuss inroads and challenges along with new ideas for further collaboration. The network meeting gave rise to new constellations and ideas for joint projects, a rare occurrence in a society in which grassroots organisations have to fight all the way in order to survive.

The Kvinna till Kvinna Field Coordinator in the region, Anna Lidström, emphasises the importance of forming new coalitions and underpinning collaboration between the organisations:

"The organisations gathered here are a driving force for women's rights in the country. It is one of the few occasions when these women have the chance to meet to discuss things based on their own agenda, a necessity in such a tough social climate."

Montenegro is a coastal country with a small surface area that gained independence as late as 2006. The activists do not meet especially often, mainly due to the socioeconomic poverty, the inaccessible mountainous landscape and the lack of infrastructure investment.

Soon after independence in 2006, elections were held to elect members of Montenegro's first ever parliament. In January of this year, parliament was dissolved prematurely and a new election was set for March. During this period women's organisations in the country met to discuss ways of changing the one-sided gender division in the elected assembly. Montenegrin law does not require quotas to the legislative assembly. In practice this means that the already low proportion of women candidates often tails off in the negotiations on electable candidates within the political parties. They came to the conclusion that a rapid and broad outreach campaign was required, for which they received support from the Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation's field office. The campaign slogan rang loud and clear: 50/50, no more, no less!

The campaign was a double success. Organisations from different parts of the country collaborated and benefitted from their collective strengths, which gave them more weight than if they had all acted alone. The results were also a milestone. Following pressure on the candidate parties from the women's organisations involved, women candidates finished with 11 per cent of the seats. This may seem like a low figure from a Swedish perspective but in the Montenegro parliament the figure is double that of the previous election.

Targeted lobbying of women MPs regarded as having safe seats proved to be an effective way of mobilising the political will to negotiate for more women in the other seats. Prior to the next election in four years time the organisations are looking to get a law passed on quotes in order to eliminate the arbitrary exclusion of women from the political arena.

Slavica Strikovic is a board member of Women's Action, one of the driving forces of the campaign. She maintains that the election result is proof of the need to introduce legal quotas to the legislative assembly:

"I'm an optimist by nature, you have to be to work with these issues. The inroads we made at the last election left the door ajar for us to benefit from the coming four years prior to the next election. I'm convinced that we will succeed."

Isabelle Nilsson