Making Women’s Representation in Parliament Count: The case of violence against women

This policy brief sets out a framework in which to address the objective outlined in Millenium Development Goal (MDG) 3, which aims to promote gender equality and empower women. Of the three targets set for this goal, one relates to political empowerment of women as measured by the proportion of seats held by women in national parliaments1. This target is a global recognition that there is a close relationship between women’s political voice and policymaking capacities and gender equality outcomes. Women’s under-representation remains a persistent feature of politics; with only three years to go before the MDG target year of 2015 for significant progress towards the realisation of goals, women constitute only 18% of parliamentarians worldwide.