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According to the latest IPU report, Women in Parliament 2022, women’s participation in parliament has never been as diverse and representative as it is in many countries today. And for the first time in history, not a single functioning parliament in the world is male-only.

As the IPU celebrates International Women’s Day, these are just some of the inspiring women MPs working actively in the IPU’s committees to promote gender equality, youth participation, peace and sustainable development.

Sahar Albazar, Egypt

President of the Board of the Forum of Young Parliamentarians

Geneva/New York — More women than ever hold political decision-making posts worldwide, but gender parity is still far off, according to the 2023 edition of the IPU-UN Women Map of Women in Politics.

Elections in Colombia saw a political shift in 2022, and the greatest gains in terms of women’s representation in the Americas. The new government includes Francia Márquez, the country’s first Afro-Colombian vice-president and only the second woman to hold this position. Women now hold 29.6% of the seats in the upper house (+8.3 percentage points) and 28.9% in the lower house (+10.2 percentage points).

In 2022, Australia achieved record-breaking shares of women in both chambers of parliament, making it, along with New Zealand, the subregion with the highest average proportion of women MPs across both houses (46.4%).

A new law in Sierra Leone will ensure that at least 30% of parliamentarians are women and impose similar quotas in other institutions, including government, local councils, the diplomatic corps and the civil service. The Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment Act was signed into law by President Julius Maada Bio on 19 January, a few months before the country's next general election scheduled for July 2023.

Beirut, 12 December 2022 – Today, UN Women and ESCWA jointly launched a report on women’s political participation entitled “Women at the Table: Insights from Lebanese Women in Politics”. The report analyses a set of seven in-depth interviews with female Lebanese political actors and explores the challenges and opportunities they faced in office.

International IDEA, in collaboration with the European Commission (EC) and the Youth Political and Civic Engagement Cohort of the Summit for Democracy (S4D), held on 15 November 2022, an online peer-to-peer dialogue, Promoting the role of youth in political and democratic spaces. The event explored commitments on youth presented by governments at the S4D, drawing lessons learnt and identifying opportunities for further engagement for the Year of Action.

On 29 November, the Action Coalition on Feminist Movements and Leadership, together with UN Women and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, held their first official commemoration of International Women Human Rights Defenders Day to centre the voices and experiences of women human rights defenders and call on the international community to provide them necessary public, political and financial support and protection.