How far should women and men share in the schools and councils of a community?
Women hold a different share of seats in national parliaments, and girls and boys are not schooled equally in every country. What do the traditions say about equal dignity, about different callings, and about who is to be heard in common life?
The picture
What the numbers show, read from the Data library each time the page opens.
How to read the chart above, and the words it uses (for women in parliament).
How to read the data
The figure is the share of seats in a country’s national parliament held by women. It shows who sits in the chamber, not who holds power in it or how far women take part in other forms of public life.
Key terms
National parliament
A country’s main law-making assembly, elected or appointed.
Representation
The extent to which a body includes people of each kind in the population it serves.
Gender parity
Equal numbers or shares of women and men.
Who has a stake
Each interest, then readings from the Catholic library and the Classics library that bear on it, oldest first. Choose a group to read.
To be treated as persons of equal dignity, to be schooled and heard, and to follow a calling in the home, in work or in public as they and their families judge right.
That a daughter’s or a wife’s part in the household and in the wider community is honoured, and that neither is made to choose between family and public service by custom or necessity.
The gifts of every member in its schools, workplaces and councils, and a fair way of choosing who serves.
Representatives who know and speak for the whole people, chosen freely on merit and trust.
For discussion
What does the equal dignity of women and men ask of a community’s schools, workplaces and councils, and what does it leave to the judgment of families?
How should the interests of women who wish to serve in public be weighed against those of families who rely on their presence at home?
If the gifts of every member are to be used, how should a community choose those who speak for it, and by what measure should it judge whether it has done so fairly?
