More Women into Politics: Civil Society Activities in the Czech Republic

The master's thesis deals with the role civil society plays in the process of introducing more women into politics. Women are significantly underrepresented in the Czech politics. This situation can be changed by adopting measures to support women in politics. These measures must either be voluntarily adopted by political parties or regulated by law. In order for political parties to recognize the necessity of such measures, they must be pressured by the voters. That is why nongovernmental organizations' activity is needed, as they are able to push interests through and they can inform public as well as cooperate with other subjects in order to achieve their goals. An example of such an organization is the organization Fórum 50 %, whose activities are subject to an analysis in this thesis. The master's thesis is divided into four chapters. The first part of the thesis covers the civil society and interest representation in theory. The second chapter is concerned with the concept of women's political representation, presents statistics of the number of women in Czech politics, identifies the main barriers that prevent women from political participation and introduces the instruments that can help regulate the amount of women in politics. The third chapter depicts female-oriented nongovernmental organizations in the Czech Republic after 1989 and the women's movement development. The last chapter focuses on the analysis of activities of the organization Fórum 50 %.