Towards Effective Participation of Women in Local Councils

In 2017, Tadwein for Gender Studies designed a project “The Councils are Ours” to encourage and support the effective participation of women in the Egyptian local councils. The project aimed to create more spaces for women to effectively occupy political and public spaces, fight social stigmas regarding women’s presence and participation in political spaces, provide better representation of youth in the formal political channels, and address issues of violence against women at the local level.

Tadwein for Gender Studies was able to effectively train 320 young women from 7 governorates to provide them with an in-depth understanding of women’s issues in their respective governorates. The training, along with other activities, enabled women to project a clear and informed voice by defining the outlines of political participation beyond its classical definition and integrating it with a gender-transforming perspective.

A series of short videos were developed to highlight the importance of women’s participation in the local councils. Moreover, a simplified introductory booklet that explains the local councils’ constitution’s articles, clarifying their duties and responsibilities, and trying to link the local development programs and the needs of women in Egypt was also developed as a result of this project.

The outcomes of this project were publicized at the “Towards Effective Participation of Egyptian Women in the Local Councils” conference, which was held in 2018.