Part I:
The Pipeline-ParticipationAuthority Framework The Middle East Women Leaders Index (MEWLI) was created to measure the magnitude of the leadership gap between men and women in the public sector in the region. In order to quantify this gap, we first had to develop a framework that could address three key issues: 1) what does it mean to be fully and equally represented? 2) how do we know what public positions qualify as leadership positions? And 3) is holding/participating in a position of leadership sufficient if the participants do not wield the same authority or have influence? In addition to presenting the index, this report also introduces the Pipeline-Participation-Authority framework to address the specific challenges in creating and nurturing women’s leadership in the MENA region, but with global scope in mind. While certain indicators have been included in this edition to address the social, legal and economic context of the MENA region, it should be noted that the broader framework has been designed with the intention of applying to any region or even the global context, acknowledging that the specific indicators used may be adjusted for context or data availability. What does it mean to be represented, especially in leadership positions? I In her seminal work, The Concept of Representation,3 Hanna Fenichel Pitkin outlines the various conceptions of political representation in four categories: Formalistic Representation, Symbolic Representation, Descriptive Representation, and Substantive Representation. Formalistic representation argues that to be represented depends on the process by which the representative enters into the position. This process of designating representation should be evaluated in two dimensions: authorization and accountability. Legitimacy, which gives the representative the authority to act, must come from the process by which the representative entered the position (for instance: were the elections considered fair?). It also rests on what mechanisms a constituency has available to remove a representative when their legitimacy is compromised. Symbolic representation takes the view that the representative must “stand for� the constituency. The position must hold a symbolic meaning for those being represented. Rather than being concerned with the institutional positioning of the representative, symbolic representation seeks to understand the acceptance and response of the represented in relation to their representative.
