The document discusses the representation of women in Cambodian politics, indicating a gradual increase in female political representation from 16.26% in 2013 to 20.3% in 2017, while highlighting that this remains low compared to other countries. It proposes a strategy to promote women's political participation including legislative protection from discrimination, increasing educational investments, and implementing a quota system. Additionally, it touches upon concepts of affirmative action, the significance of sexual politics, and first-wave feminism related to women's suffrage.

1. សាកលវិទ្យាល័យបញ្ញា សាស្រ្តកម្ពុជា
Paññāsāstra University of Cambodia (PUC)
Gender Studies
ジェンダー学
Homework 5: Political Science
Prof. Kasumi Nakagawa
Som Oeurn Mao
ID: 135908 / GROUP 9
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Gender and Power by Kasumi June 15, 2018
1. Describe your observation about female representation in the Cambodian politics.
Use at least two official statistics (of the Royal Government of Cambodia) in your
answer, appropriately quoted, cited and use the latest data.
According to Key Gender Statistics in Cambodia published in February 2015 by JICA,
it stated that the proportion of female representatives in senior or leadership
positions in government such as deputy prime minister, minister, secretary of state
and undersecretary of state was approximately on average about 16.26% in 2013
(RoyalKrom, 2013) and increased to 17.66% in 2015 (JICA, 2015), and it then was
20.3% in 2017 (WORLDBANK, The World Bank Group, 2018). Due to this figure, the
number of this women’s proportion was increased (UNDP, 2017); however, we
admitted that the women’s participation in politics has not been quite high yet and
still limited (Kem & Chea, 2016) comparing to other countries, for instance, Australia
(29%), United Kingdom (32%), New Zealand (34%), Germany (37%), France (39%),
Spain (39%), etc. (WORLDBANK, WorldBank, 2018), but it doesn’t mean that it is
too low proportion which cannot be accepted comparing to our neighboring
countries or other developed countries, for example, Thailand (5%), Japan (9%),
Malaysia (10%), Myanmar (10%), Indonesia (20%), Singapore (23%), Vietnam
(27%), Philippines (30%), etc. while the United State of America had only 19% of
women’s participation in politics in 2017 (WORLDBANK, WorldBank, 2018).
2. If you are making a strategy to promote Cambodian women into politics, what are
your main actions in the strategy for the upcoming national election? List up at least
two actions that should be proposed.
Honestly speaking, it is quite imaginary to answer this question; anyway, if I were
selected to be one of the leaders who develops plans or strategies in order to promote
Cambodia women into politics, I would do as follows:
2.1. Abolish the culture or aspects that women are weaker than men by promoting
women’s abilities and talents through social medias in both national and
international levels;
2.2. Adopt the legislation to protect women who participate in politics from
discrimination and strengthen the law to ensure fairness and independent
judiciary;
Instruction
• Read the textbook Chapter 8: Political Science & Chapter 6: Anthropology and
type your answer to the questions below and submit your homework on June 22,
2018.
• Avoid plagiarism.

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2.3. Give, respect, and guarantee more freedom for women in order to participat in
politics;
2.4. Increase more investments in women’s education to ensure high quality of
education at all levels of schooling;
2.5. Provide women equal access to training opportunities;
2.6. Hand more cooperation to women of all political parties by giving a supportive
network for women politicians at all levels;
2.7. Address the barriers which prohibit women from participating or playing a
role in politics; and
2.8. Reform of the electoral system by including the adoption of a quota system to
guarantee a minimum 30% of women’s representation into politics (CCHR,
2013).
3. What is Affirmation Action? (economictimes, 2018)
“Affirmative action is a policy initiative in which a person's nationality, sex,
religion, and caste are taken into account by a company or a government
organization to extend employment or education opportunities. By initiatives like
these, the government plans to increase opportunities provided to underprivileged
citizens.”1
4. The text says, “Sexual politics must include the politics of motherhood”. What does it
mean?
Before we go deeper to the meaning of this statement, we should know some of the
following key words. The first one, “sexual politics”, means “the power relationship
between men and women in formal groups and in the family.” (Marchbank &
Letherby, 2014), and second key word is “the politics of motherhood”, which refers to
the political-women-as-mom who is trying to work and break into politics.
(HEILWEIL, 2016) With these explanations from these two key words, it is enough to
prove that society as well as politic community have not given women enough rights
or gender equity to fully participate in politics on behalf of women and mother. And
with the concepts provided above, they have most likely demanded the proper rights
to fully and sustainably participate in the politics; however, they have a period of
pregnancy and maternity leave as the nature of mother. So society should not have
stopped them from fully participating in politics, and because of daily responsibility,
women should have not ended her pregnancy, even it is medically possible
(Marchbank & Letherby, 2014).
1
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/definition/affirmative-action

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5. Mrs. Hilary Clinton did not become the first female President of the United States of
America. In her speech immediately after the election, she said that there is still a glass
ceiling. What did Mrs. Hilary mean by saying this?
The glass ceiling to which she referred after the 2016 presidential election was sexism
and misogyny. What she meant is that no matter what a particular woman is smart,
qualified and likable and no matter what she has a great ability to challenge in order
to stand out and to be a strong woman in the public eyes, the society still draws a box
around her, and says, “You stay in there.” In addition, the emotional message she
wanted to give is that the world has not given her fairness and enough opportunity to
prove what her competence is because of this invisible box (Clinton, 2017).
6. Explain First Wave Feminism by referring to the women’s right to suffrage. (You need
to read Chapter 6 of the textbook to understand the background.)
First-wave feminism referred to a period of feminist activity and thought happening
during the 19th and early 20th century in the Western world, and it related to women
who fought for their rights to vote as men. For example, during the convention in July
1848, activists such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott demanded for
women’s right to vote in the United States (DeFonza, 2018).
There are three Wave Feminisms (DOREY-STEIN, 2015):
1. The first wave (1830’s – early 1900’s): Women’s fight for equal contract and
property rights
2. The second wave (1960’s-1980’s): Broadening the debate
3. The third wave (1990’s – present): The “micropolitics” of gender equality

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References
CCHR. (2013). Policy Brief: Women’s Political Representation in Cambodia. Phnom
Penh: Cambodian Center for Human Rights.
Clinton, H. R. (2017). What Happened. New York: New Yourk TImes.
DeFonza, R. (2018). blogs.stockton. Retrieved from https://blogs.stockton.edu:
https://blogs.stockton.edu/postcolonialstudies/domesticity-and-
kitchens/american-feminism/first-wave-feminism/
DOREY-STEIN, C. (2015, Sept 22). progressivewomensleadership. Retrieved from
https://www.progressivewomensleadership.com:
https://www.progressivewomensleadership.com/a-brief-history-the-three-
waves-of-feminism/
economictimes. (2018). economictimes.indiatimes. Retrieved from
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com:
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/definition/affirmative-action
HEILWEIL, R. ( 2016, JULY 28). democracyjournal. Retrieved from
https://democracyjournal.org: https://democracyjournal.org/arguments/time-
to-rethink-motherhood-politics/
JICA. (2015). Key Gender Statistics in Cambodia. Phnom Penh: JICA. Retrieved from
www.jica.go.jp:
https://www.jica.go.jp/project/cambodia/011/news/general/ku57pq00001xwvt
s-att/20150308_01.pdf
Kem & Chea. (2016). The Senate Women Caucus. Progress of Women in Politics in
Cambodia, 2.
Marchbank & Letherby. (2014). introduction to gender social science perspectives. New
York, NY
RoyalKrom. (2013). Cambodia Millennium Development Goal. Phnom Penh: JICA.
UNDP. (2017, Feb 13). kh.undp. Retrieved from http://www.kh.undp.org:
http://www.kh.undp.org/content/cambodia/en/home/presscenter/articles/201
7/02/13/more-women-need-to-be-included-in-the-political-process-.html
WORLDBANK. (2018). The World Bank Group. Retrieved from
http://datatopics.worldbank.org:
http://datatopics.worldbank.org/gender/country/cambodia
WORLDBANK. (2018). WorldBank. Retrieved from https://data.worldbank.org:
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SG.GEN.PARL.ZS