Overview

Too much attention is paid to the absence of women leaders around the world rather than their presence, leaving a gap in our understanding of the difference women leaders make on the lives of fellow women. The Woman President presents a unique comparative study of women's leadership and the law, offering new ways for understanding the impact of female presidential leadership on women's everyday lives by analysing the legal legacies of four women presidents: Corazon Aquino (1986-1992), Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (2001-2010), Megawati Sukarnoputri (2001-2004), and Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga (1994-2005). It uses a new and innovative methodology, the Gender Legislative Index, to score laws enacted during these four tenures from a women's rights perspective. The findings challenge and expand our understanding of what constitutes a woman's issue, bringing within its gendered analysis labour law reform, democracy, anti-corruption, poverty-alleviation, and pro-peace interventions, alongside more oft-considered terrain such as gender-based violence, reproductive rights, gender equality quotas, and women's rights at work. This book also offers important insights into the institutional and social mechanisms that enable women leaders to lead for women, including women's movements and global networks of women presidents and prime ministers. The words of women leaders themselves-both from personal interviews and speeches-bring depth to the assessments and conclusions drawn. The Woman President offers new tools and sharpens old ones to provide an essential comparative contribution to our knowledge about the dynamics and impact of female presidencies, drawing from the realities of the Asia region.

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9780192848918

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For a while now, women's rights advocates have argued for the representation of women at the highest level of government. But what does that representation mean in actual practice? Analyzing the lives of four female presidents and with the use of a Gender Legislative Index, Ramona Vijeyarasa focuses on the impact that women leaders have had on the ordinary lives of women. It is a pioneering work that will greatly contribute to our understanding of women's leadership and women's representation in politics. * Radhika Coomaraswamy, Jurist and human rights advocate * This outstanding monograph reflects an enormous commitment by Ramona Vijeyarasa, as a scholar and practitioner, to gathering the weighty and cutting-edge data necessary to addressing key questions around the contribution of women as leaders. In addition, she applies her searing, nuanced analysis to enable us to truly engage with and think through the consequences and issues flowing from her ground-breaking work. Any person with an interest in the intersections between international law and domestic public law will be encouraged by the profound insights shared in this book. * Kim Rubenstein, Professor of Law, University of Canberra and Director 50/50 by 2030 Foundation * Ramona Vijeyarasa's The Woman President fills a considerable gap in the women in presidential politics literature. With findings based on an original dataset and interviews with leading political experts and players, this richly detailed work expands our knowledge about the importance of having women at the helm. This book advances our understanding of the complexities of the legacies of women presidents in Asia and beyond and will be invaluable resource for scholars and policymakers. * Farida Jalalzai, Professor of Political Science, Virginia Tech * This comprehensive study addresses the important though contentious issue of women's political leadership, long debated by feminists and non-feminists alike. Using the CEDAW Convention as a benchmark, and legislation as a key measure, The Woman President provides innovative quantitative and qualitative methodologies to evaluate and better understand the gendered complexities of women's political leadership. Drawn from case studies in Asia this book is universally relevant and fills an important gap in our knowledge and analysis. * Rhoda Reddock, Professor Emerita, University of the West Indies, and CEDAW Committee member 2019-2022 * The Woman President, and the innovative Gender Legislative Index underlying this work, provides an important contribution to our understanding of the value and impact of women's political leadership. Ramona Vijeyarasa offers fresh and significant insights on how female leaders shape laws by exploring four female presidents' competing pressures, struggles, and achievements. * Carol Schwartz AO, Founding Chair, Women's Leadership Institute Australia * This book is a first in many senses. Vijeyarasa takes us on a captivating journey exploring the legislative impact of four Asian women presidents, both on classical 'women's issues' as well as on matters scarcely examined from a gendered perspective, and for the first time under the lens of CEDAW and international women's rights standards in South and Southeast Asia. Weaving together the voices of the leaders themselves and of women and social movements of the region, this book offers a telling and innovative view into the varied and at times contradicting ways in which women's executive governance can, and does, shape women's rights and their everyday experiences. It provides insights and tools for tackling the broader questions surrounding the construction of gender equality and the elimination of discrimination from positions of political power. * Dorothy Estrada-Tanck, Vice-Chair of the UN Working Group on Discrimination against Women and Girls and Professor, University of Murcia, Spain *

For a while now, women's rights advocates have argued for the representation of women at the highest level of government. But what does that representation mean in actual practice? Analyzing the lives of four female presidents and with the use of a Gender Legislative Index, Ramona Vijeyarasa focuses on the impact that women leaders have had on the ordinary lives of women. It is a pioneering work that will greatly contribute to our understanding of women's leadership and women's representation in politics. * Radhika Coomaraswamy, Jurist and human rights advocate * This outstanding monograph reflects an enormous commitment by Ramona Vijeyarasa, as a scholar and practitioner, to gathering the weighty and cutting-edge data necessary to addressing key questions around the contribution of women as leaders. In addition, she applies her searing, nuanced analysis to enable us to truly engage with and think through the consequences and issues flowing from her ground-breaking work. Any person with an interest in the intersections between international law and domestic public law will be encouraged by the profound insights shared in this book. * Kim Rubenstein, Professor of Law, University of Canberra and Director 50/50 by 2030 Foundation * Ramona Vijeyarasa's The Woman President fills a considerable gap in the women in presidential politics literature. With findings based on an original dataset and interviews with leading political experts and players, this richly detailed work expands our knowledge about the importance of having women at the helm. This book advances our understanding of the complexities of the legacies of women presidents in Asia and beyond and will be invaluable resource for scholars and policymakers. * Farida Jalalzai, Professor of Political Science, Virginia Tech * This comprehensive study addresses the important though contentious issue of women's political leadership, long debated by feminists and non-feminists alike. Using the CEDAW Convention as a benchmark, and legislation as a key measure, The Woman President provides innovative quantitative and qualitative methodologies to evaluate and better understand the gendered complexities of women's political leadership. Drawn from case studies in Asia this book is universally relevant and fills an important gap in our knowledge and analysis. * Rhoda Reddock, Professor Emerita, University of the West Indies, and CEDAW Committee member 2019-2022 * The Woman President, and the innovative Gender Legislative Index underlying this work, provides an important contribution to our understanding of the value and impact of women's political leadership. Ramona Vijeyarasa offers fresh and significant insights on how female leaders shape laws by exploring four female presidents' competing pressures, struggles, and achievements. * Carol Schwartz AO, Founding Chair, Women's Leadership Institute Australia * This book is a first in many senses. Vijeyarasa takes us on a captivating journey exploring the legislative impact of four Asian women presidents, both on classical 'women's issues' as well as on matters scarcely examined from a gendered perspective, and for the first time under the lens of CEDAW and international women's rights standards in South and Southeast Asia. Weaving together the voices of the leaders themselves and of women and social movements of the region, this book offers a telling and innovative view into the varied and at times contradicting ways in which women's executive governance can, and does, shape women's rights and their everyday experiences. It provides insights and tools for tackling the broader questions surrounding the construction of gender equality and the elimination of discrimination from positions of political power. * Dorothy Estrada-Tanck, Vice-Chair of the UN Working Group on Discrimination against Women and Girls and Professor, University of Murcia, Spain *

Author Information

Ramona Vijeyarasa is the architect behind the Gender Legislative Index, the first comprehensive IT-based tool to make legislation work more effectively to improve women's lives. Her work innovatively combines law, engineering, and data science to reinvigorate decades-long debates about the law's role in addressing gender inequality. A Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Law at the University of Technology Sydney, Ramona's research is informed by a decade working in civil society. Ramona was the 2020-2022 Women's Leadership Institute Australia Research Fellow, a Runner-up in the 2021 Letten Prize, and has research grants and awards from New York University, the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, and the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

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