Civil society urged to support women candidates

“Women often times in their endeavour to stand for political positions, find themselves struggling alone with only their party behind them. Civil Society activity is in most cases lacking or not there, hence for an active civil society. Women have always been the majority voters and this should be encouraging,” she said.  She said despite their active roles in various political activities, women’s representation in political leadership structures continues to remain very low, accounting for only 31% in the central committees.

Phuthego encouraged women to compete with men in party central committee positions even for the presidency. She, however, said Botswana has made tremendous progress in the representation of women in decision making within the Public Service.