Report on Ms. Claudia Derichs' Lecture

What fascinated me the most in an hour lecture was the project members' view point; they focus on Asian female political leaders. Though I have heard of many names of Asian female political leaders, I have never thought about them seriously or had any question about them. But, when Professor Derichs and project members heard about many Asian female political leaders, they wondered "why are there many female leaders in Asia?" and this question motivated them to do this research project.

Taking a look at the specific names they are investigating may realize you the fact that wide range of Asian countries have a female political leader. The leaders they investigates are the followings: Indonesian President Magawati Sukarnoputri, Philippine President Macapagal-Arroyo, Malay Prime Minister Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, Sri Lanka President Chandrika Kumaratunga, Pakistan ex Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, Bangladesh Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia and ex Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Indian ex Prime Minister Sonia Gandhi, Burma opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, Korean opposition leader Park Geun Hye and Japanese ex Minister of Foreign Affairs Makiko Tanaka.

Ms. Derichs introduced their research questions and those were quite interesting to think about. The questions she talked about were; why are there many leaders in all over Asia where it is considered patriarchal and paternalistic, and a change in gender relations as a component of general social and political change seems to take place only at the margins? Also, why are there many female leaders in all over the Asia though each country is quite different from one another in terms of economic development, culture and political system? In addition, it is often said that these women gained the political top offices because of their descent from influential families, but why were women chosen though there are male competitors too?

These 12 women Professor Derichs explained using photos and including many details are quite different from each other as if they represent the diversity of Asia, but Professor Derichs said that they have two things in common. One is that they are daughters or widows of political top leaders or political leaders. Second is that their fathers or husbands had been assassinated (In the cases of Wan Azizah Wan Ismail and Makiko Tanaka, their fathers was imprisoned). According to Professor Derichs, they take the same career path; first, they come to be the role of the "victim" of "martyrdom" of fathers or husband, then they come to be the "leader" of a party or opposition movement and eventually enter the channel of a "career politician". The latest example from Japan which shows how victimization sentiment works well is I think the member of the House of Representative, Yuko Obuti. Just after her father died during his tenure of office as Prime Minister, Yuko Obuti ran in the election of the House of Representative. The speech she delivered when she won the election was "though I don't know anything about politics, I'll try my best". She seemed quite inexperienced, but I assume that people who knew that victimization sentiment appeals to people ran her in the election and people who felt sorry for her voted.

In addition, Ms. Derichs said that "female image" sometimes works quite effectively when women become an opposition leader. The perception of female leaders which is often combined with the elements of motherhood and the image of caring appeals to certain feelings, while male top leaders in the regime are considered cruel and dictatorial by their people. Also, it was said that when women become political top leader in a regime,"female image", peaceful and integrative, sometimes appeal to people, too.

This project is going to analyze not only 12 women but also their societies. The followings are the questions designed to approach to the topic of analysis. Why female leaders were chosen? Is there a connection between female political leadership and the promotion of democracy and/or democratization? Are the female politicians themselves striving to reduce gender differences? Can we discern gender specific reasons for the slow democratization process in the region?

At the end of the lecture, Ms. Derichs talked about what they assume according to their observation so far. There are two things they assume, one is that there is no specific reason which apply to every Asian country for why there are very many female political leaders. She added that there are some reasons which apply to certain regions. Second one is that the dynastic factor cannot be regarded the one and only factor to explain the frequency of female political leadership in such diverse countries. Political skills and political resources do play a strong role as well.

The lecture was very interesting and easy to understand, but there were two questionable points. First one is the choice of the 12 female leaders to investigate. They chose only those who are from dynasties and did not include female leaders who built their career on their own, for example, the leader of the Democratic Party of Japan, Mizuho Fukushima. I suppose that they chose those women intentionally because the title of the project is "Dynasties and female political top leaders in Asia" but, I think due to their sampling, the analysis will be biased. Second questionable or regret point is that findings and their analysis were not included in the lecture because this project was on going. Since she didn't say any findings and analysis, we could think about their research questions she talked about on our own and due to that, the discussion by the audience after the lecture was quite active. The audience could exchange their own unique opinions. But still, I thought that it was pity that there was no findings and analysis.

In the lecture, Ms. Derichs said that this project was planed to be finished by 2005 but they may extend the term to 2006. Now, they are doing research cooperating with partner institutions in all then countries and interviewing the women leaders of themselves and related people. When this project finished, I do hope that she will come back to ICU to deliver the final report.