Political Participation of National Minority Women in Georgia
Political Participation of National Minority Women in Georgia

Author(s): Levan Kakhishvili
Subject(s): Gender Studies, Civil Society, Ethnic Minorities Studies, Sociology of Politics
Published by: CSS - Center for Social Sciences
Keywords: national minorities; Georgia;
Summary/Abstract: The goal of this paper is to analyse the degree of political participation of women belonging to national minorities in Georgia, to identify the factors hindering their higher level of involvement in politics and to develop recommendations for various stakeholders interested in increasing the role of minority women in Georgian politics. Based on focus group discussions with participants from Samtskhe-Javakheti and Kvemo Kartli regions as well as in-depth interviews with representatives of political parties and experts in the field of minority issues, this paper concludes that minority women’s involvement in politics is extremely limited and that there are two types of impeding factors. First, structural factors include the type of electoral system, recruitment practices within the political parties, and knowledge of the state language. Second, cultural factors include perceptions of and fear of politics among minority women, and gender prejudice and stereotypes within the minority communities and generally in Georgian society.

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