Women's participation in governance has received increasing attention from international policy
makers and researchers as a highly important issue on the grounds of both equity and improving the
performance of governance. Hitherto, there has been relatively little research on this topic in
Myanmar. This discussion paper builds on the existing research that has already been carried out to
address three main research questions on the theme of women's participation in the subnational
governance of Myanmar:
? What proportion of key decision-making governance positions at subnational level are
occupied by women?
? Does women's participation in subnational governance structures matter?
? What are the barriers and enabling factors for women's participation in governance
structures?
This paper conceives 'governance' broadly, and a variety of governance actors and institutions are
examined. Outside of civil society and the judicial system, women's participation in subnational (and
national) governance is found to be extremely limited. Women account for only 4.42% of MPs in
Myanmar's national parliament. This figure is extremely low in comparison both with other ASEAN
countries and globally. At the subnational level women's representation is even lower than at national
level, with women accounting for only 2.83% of MPs at state and region level, 0% of administrators at
township level, and 0.11% of village heads. Women generally have a secondary role within Myanmar's
various armed groups and their associated political parties. Women's participation is also typically
limited in other political parties, and religious organizations. Women's participation is highest within
civil society, with women being engaged not only in large numbers here, but also often occupying
senior positions with real decision-making power.
This paper presents evidence to strongly suggest that women in Myanmar have different preferences
to men for which governance issues are most important, and what decisions ought to be made.
Healthcare, education, sanitation, and microfinance are some of the issues on which women place
greater priority. Evidence is currently sparse for Myanmar, but this paper suggests that women here
also have different preferences for the regulation of social and intra-household behavior. This paper
presents limited evidence to suggest that women decision makers in Myanmar are more responsive
to the priorities of women citizens than male decision makers. This paper discusses ways in which
increased levels of women's participation might be able to improve the quality of governance in
Myanmar; for example, by reducing corruption, improving completion of projects and service delivery,
and reducing conflict and discord.