Women in politics may be elites, in positions due to their personal connections
with male politicians and be unable or unwilling to represent grassroots
women's interests. […] it is important to 'feminise' the power spaces, so that
there are increasing number of women in the spaces where decisions are
taken nationally and internationally, but that it is also necessary to
simultaneously strengthen women's movement as a political lobbying force
that can establish dialogue with those very power structures (Herrera quoted
in Oxaal and Baden 1997: 13).