Women and power

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Jon Bright (London, OK): openDemocracy's 16 days project drew to a close yesterday. Zohra Moosa summarises the incredible range and diversity of contributions - from political statements to personal stories of survival - here. She concludes:

Ultimately, the issue of violence against women is about the abuse of power. Not just at an interpersonal level between perpetrator(s) and victims and survivors, but also at the level of politics and democracy as Helen O'Connell outlines in her contribution. The failure of the state to protect its citizens from murder, mutilation and assault is, in the most literal sense, an abuse of power. It's the deliberate mishandling of power that systematically denies women's needs and entrenches gender inequality. I say deliberate because I know that, in the UK at least, the Government is not unaware of the issues or the solutions thanks to the annual Making the Grade report.

Disrupting this pattern of abuse at the level of politics requires similar tactics to those needed to disrupt abuse at an impersonal level: the active reclaiming of power by women so that they are empowered to take action. Make no mistake, more women in political office is a key and necessary ingredient to change as the Fawcett Society has discussed.

I favour all women shortlists - very successful in Wales - for political office. But what else can be done to get more women into positions of power?

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