Mongolian Women in a Transitional Parliament

Why has the number of female members in the Mongolian parliament declined since 1990? I will conduct a comparative analysis examining the status of women in government pre-1990 and post-1990. More specifically, I will solicit the views of current and past female parliamentary members, rural and urban, to understand how they perceive women’s status in government today, and the specific barriers they faced when campaigning.

I plan to research past and present government programs to identify Mongolia’s efforts to improve the representation of women in its legislatures. I will judge programs’ effectiveness by the number of women each placed in parliament, and if they were properly implemented, or if programs even exist in post-1990 Mongolia. In addition to researching government programs, I will examine potential economic and institutional factors hindering the role of women. For instance, when the Russian infrastructure was removed from Mongolia, how did this removal impact women economically, socially, and politically?

Examining the institutional aspect, however, presents only part of the answer; ethnographic research will also be important. Interviewing female members of parliament and ex-members, in both cities and hinterlands, can provide informative case studies illustrating their own feelings about women’s status in government. The democratic process itself creates barriers for women seeking office, forcing candidates to gain party backing, political experience, and finances. I plan to interview female members of parliament in an attempt to pinpoint key barriers they had to overcome to become members of parliament. Do Mongolian women prefer the quota system instituted during Soviet rule? Do they see other feasible options designed to increase the number of women in parliament? By combining the institutional and ethnographic approaches, I will seek an answer using both government facts and personal case studies.