On Tuesday, 10 December, the fifth lectures in a series of lectures called Someone Said Feminism? Will take place, organized by the Sarajevo Open Center at the Law Faculty in the University of Sarajevo in hall on on the first floor. The focus of this cycle will be on feminist issues, the rights of women and gender issues, and the topic of this lecture will be ‘Who do women represent in political bodies and whose interests do they represent?’. Professor Jasna Bakšić-Muftić will take part in the lecture. The lecture begins at 18:00 and entrance for the public is free.
The precise framing of the issue from the title would be whether women in political bodies represent only women and articulate women’s interests as special interests or do they represent the total electorate and their participation in the policies of general interest?
The answer to this question may seem simple at first glance. In a profound way it discusses the manner of participation of women in political life, whether it is more efficient and appropriate to enter political life as a woman, where the female identity is built on differences and becomes a political identity, or as a representative of citizenship, where the differences are minimized and equality is emphasized instead.
The question is not only of interest to feminist theory that seeks to answer whether women should act and behave like a woman, or whether an identity should be built that is not primarily defined by gender. Translated into the field of politics and political rights, supporters of the theory of difference in accordance with the fundamental assumption that women are different and a different political identity of women is seen in the representation of women-as the second and different, that is representing and articulating the interests of women as a special interest in political bodies.
