Opinion | Hong Kong elections: the shameful absence of women from politics

Name: More than 610,000 vote in Hong Kong’s pro-democracy opposition primary elections
Uploaded: 2020-07-26T13:30:09.000Z
Duration: 2 min 7 s
Description: More than 610,000 vote in Hong Kong’s pro-democracy opposition primary elections

Evidence around the world reveals women have shown political leadership by working across party lines even in the most politically combative environments

Every political actor contributes to the chronic underrepresentation of women in the halls of power in this city, which impoverishes our public life

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Eunice Yung Hoi-yan, right, holds up a sign while fellow lawmaker Leung Yiu-chung speaks during a meeting of the Legislative Council's Bills Committee on May 6, 2019. Yung is one of four female Legco members confirmed to be leaving, putting Hong Kong at risk of a new low in women’s political representation. Photo: Dickson Lee

Alice Wu

Published: 9:30pm, 26 Jul 2020Updated: 3:14pm, 27 Jul 2020

During these times of political polarisation and fragmentation in Hong Kong, there is one thing we can find in common across partisan lines – shutting out women from politics. The future for Hong Kong parliamentary politics is definitely not female.

No, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor can’t be blamed for this one. While only 24.6 per cent of all national parliamentarians were women as of February 2019, Hong Kong has consistently fallen below that number. At the end of this legislative term, women’s representation in Hong Kong politics remains below a pathetic 17 per cent.

The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women has called on Hong Kong to introduce measures to improve that number. If we don’t see more women sign up to run before the nomination period for the Legislative Council general election concludes on July 31, we are going to reach a new low instead.

So far, we know four female lawmakers – two pro-establishment and two pan-democratic – will not seek re-election and will be succeeded by men. Tanya Chan and Ann Chiang Lai-wan are retiring. Helena Wong Pik-wan was ousted in the opposition primaries held earlier this month, when traditional pro-democratic parties lost ground to radicals and localists. The irony is that Wong is a political scientist who has researched the women’s movement and political participation but has ended up sidelined.

Eunice Yung Hoi-yan’s abrupt end to her political career is one for the books. She single-handedly turned the frequently cited adage that women never get married or pregnant during their time in Hong Kong’s legislature on its head. She got married and had two daughters while in office, proving that women can indeed lean all the way in.

02:07

More than 610,000 vote in Hong Kong’s pro-democracy opposition primary elections

Even so, Yung pulled out of her party’s primary earlier this year, feeling ostracised by a system she claimed to be stacked against her in favour of an outsider. Whether the fact the outsider happened to be a man played a role, we’ll never know.

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