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Elections

THE lack of women representation in parliaments across the world remains a vexed and contentious issue.

In Fiji, this problem again surfaced for debate in response to Deputy Prime Minister Manoa Kamikamica’s call for a quota system to increase women’s representation in Parliament.

Mr Kamikamica was speaking at the “Capacity building training for prospective women and youth candidates in local elections” workshop in Suva in November last year.

The workshop was organised by Suva-based civil society organisation, Dialogue Fiji, in collaboration with Emily’s List Australia and funded by Misereor.

Mr Kamikamica noted that women’s representation in Fiji’s Parliament peaked at 20 per cent in 2018, only to drop to 14 per cent after the 2022 elections.

Read here the full article published by The Fiji Times on 11 Janurary 2025.

Image by The Fiji Times

 

Handicraft market trader Tui Johnson has barely had time to think about politics ahead of Vanuatu’s national election as she struggles to survive after last month’s earthquake. 

Fourteen people were killed, more than 200 seriously injured and 80,000 people displaced or adversely affected when the 7.3 magnitude quake struck just off the capital Port Vila on Dec. 17.

As the Pacific nation comes to terms with the devastation of its major city, it will still go to the polls on Jan.16 after a snap election was called in November

The city center – where Johnson’s handicraft market is located – suffered major damage and access is still restricted for safety reasons.

Read here the full article published by Benar News on 13 January 2025.

Image by Benar News

 

 

In recognition of the gender gap in political representation, the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) Nigeria has expressed support for the passage of a bill before the National Assembly to reserve special seats in national and state legislatures for women.

As part of its commitment to strengthen the country’s democracy, the group has also resolved to intensify its role in promoting credible elections and democratic governance, by supporting more electoral reforms.

IPAC has also resolved to uphold the rule of law, adhere to constitutional provisions by political parties and help to address issues such as voter apathy, electoral violence, and vote-buying through advocacy and civic engagement initiatives.

These resolutions were part of the communique issued by IPAC Nigeria, at the end of a three-day constitution review session held in Ikeja, Lagos recently.

Read here the full article published by The Nation Online on 8 January 2025.

Image by The Nation Online

 

Only 28 women stood for parliament out of 258 contestants, representing 10.85 per cent. Only three women won their seats. This represents 4.92 per cent of the 61 seats. It’s a drop from 5.26 per cent in the 2019 elections.

In Botswana, women make up 54 per cent of the eligible voters. Yet few occupy the corridors of power, where decisions and policies that affect them are made.

The country has been praised for being a model democracy. One of the reasons is that it has held regular elections since independence in 1966.

There are, however, flaws in Botswana’s democracy. One is that women are woefully under-represented in government.

I am a scholar of public policy in southern Africa. I am also a proponent of equal representation of women, who are a marginalised majority. In my research, I argue that women’s limited participation hinders the consolidation of democracy.

Democracy is inconceivable without political parties. They put into practice the principle of representation. They select, nominate and support candidates for political office. Botswana needs to focus attention on improving the role of political parties as gatekeepers to the democratic space.

Read here the full article published by The Eastleigh Voice on 15 December 2024.

Image by The Eastleigh Voice

 

Nearly half the world's population - 3.6 billion people - had major elections in 2024, but it was also a year that saw the slowest rate of growth in female representation for 20 years.

Twenty-seven new parliaments now have fewer women than they did before the elections - countries such as the US, Portugal, Pakistan, India, Indonesia and South Africa. And, for the first time in its history, fewer women were also elected to the European Parliament.

The BBC has crunched numbers from 46 countries where election results have been confirmed and found that in nearly two-thirds of them the number of women elected fell.

The data is from the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) - a global organisation of national parliaments that collects and analyses election data.

There were gains for women in the UK, Mongolia, Jordan and the Dominican Republic, while Mexico and Namibia both elected their first female presidents.

However, losses in other places mean that the growth this year has been negligible (0.03%) - after having doubled worldwide between 1995 and 2020.

Read here the full article published by the BBC on 29 December 2024.

Image by BBC

 

There’s a question that has consistently gripped Botswana’s politics: bomme ba kae? (where are the women?). It became even more urgent with the country’s 2024 general elections.

Only 28 women stood for parliament out of 258 contestants, representing 10.85%. Only three women won their seats. This represents 4.92% of the 61 seats. It’s a drop from 5.26% in the 2019 elections.

In Botswana, women make up 54% of the eligible voters. Yet few occupy the corridors of power, where decisions and policies that affect them are made.

The country has been praised for being a model democracy. One of the reasons is that it has held regular elections since independence in 1966.

There are, however, flaws in Botswana’s democracy. One is that women are woefully under-represented in government.

I am a scholar of public policy in southern Africa. I am also a proponent of equal representation of women, who are a marginalised majority. In my research I argue that women’s limited participation hinders the consolidation of democracy.

Read here the full article published by The Conversation on 13 December 2024.

Image by The Conversation

 

Nearly half the world's population - 3.6 billion people - had major elections in 2024, but it was also a year that saw the slowest rate of growth in female representation for 20 years.

Twenty-seven new parliaments now have fewer women than they did before the elections - countries such as the US, Portugal, Pakistan, India, Indonesia and South Africa. And, for the first time in its history, fewer women were also elected to the European Parliament.

The BBC has crunched numbers from 46 countries where election results have been confirmed and found that in nearly two-thirds of them the number of women elected fell.

The data is from the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) - a global organisation of national parliaments that collects and analyses election data.

There were gains for women in the UK, Mongolia, Jordan and the Dominican Republic, while Mexico and Namibia both elected their first female presidents.

However, losses in other places mean that the growth this year has been negligible (0.03%) - after having doubled worldwide between 1995 and 2020.

Read here the full article published by the BBC on 29 December 2024.

Image by BBC

 

Ahead of 2024, political experts and commentators were calling this “the year of democracy”. It was deemed a “make or break year”, as around 1.5 billion people went to the polls in more than 50 countries, which held significant elections.

For women, who are already underrepresented in global politics, there were some critical victories and losses. 

Based on statistics from UN Women alongside current election updates, Women’s Agenda has calculated there are 30 countries where 31 women serve as Heads of State and/or Government. Just 20 countries have a woman Head of State, and 17 countries have a woman Head of Government.

At the current rate, gender equality in the highest positions of power will not be reached for another 130 years.

As authoritarianism is on the rise worldwide as well, national elections grappled with challenges involving voter participation, free speech, and electoral independence. 

Here’s a look back at some of this year’s most influential election results for women.

Read here the full article published by the Women’s Agenda on 16 December 2024.

Image by Women’s Agenda

 

On Election Day, Donald Trump beat the second woman to ever win a major-party nomination for the presidency — just eight years after he beat the first. Did Kamala Harris’ loss this year, and Hillary Clinton’s loss in 2016, have anything to do with their gender? Or was it something else? We asked a group of leading women in journalism, politics and academia to explain why a woman has still not been elected president in the United States.

There is plenty of evidence that voters could have gendered biases that factored into their votes in 2016 and 2024, and our contributors know it well. One pointed to studies in which participants judged a personnel file with a woman’s name as less competent than that with a man’s name — and then, when more information was included to show her superior competence, the same participants found her more competent but less likeable.

There were others, though, who thought that gender might be at play, but not necessarily in a way that would make voters less likely to vote for a woman. “Harris didn’t lose the election because she’s a woman, but she was put into the position to lose this election because she was a woman,” one former Trump official wrote.

Many of the women blamed a mix — gender, yes, but gender combined with the Democratic Party’s failure to win working-class men and how voters see the party in general. “No woman in the United States has yet been able to clear that bar,” one contributor wrote. “The first to do so may well come from the right.”

Read here the full article published by Politico on 15 November 2024.

Image by Politico

 

In the final week of the US presidential election campaign, there is a real possibility a woman will make it into the top job. But why has it taken so long – and has Kamala Harris got what it takes to make history?

My research examines celebrated women in history and how, collectively, they represent women’s changing status in society. In particular, I have looked for the historical themes and patterns that explain the rise of the first elected women leaders.

Women in politics are generally assumed to be a minority, emerging from a position of disadvantage. When successful, they are considered exceptions in a masculine system that was previously out of bounds.

But due to the complex workings of gender, race, class and culture, it’s not quite that straightforward, as discussion of Harris’s biracial identity shows.

I have identified three broad groups of women who have succeeded in becoming elected leaders of their countries since Sirimavo Bandaranaike of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) became the world’s first female prime minister in 1960.

Does Kamala Harris fit within any of these groups? And, if so, based on the pattern so far, does she have what it takes to become president? Or does being a global superpower mean the US demands a new form of female leadership?

Read here the full article published by The Conversation on 28 October 2024.

Image by The Conversation

 

In Chile, the last municipal elections were held on the 15th and 16th of May of 2021. In these elections, authorities responsible for local administration were elected, including mayors of 345 municipalities that administer 346 communes, the smallest administrative division in the country, and 13 regional governors. This was the first-time in Chile’s history that governors were democratically elected given they were previously always designated by the President of the Republic.

The next municipal and regional elections are set to take place on the 26th and 27th of October 2024.

International Conventions

​​Chile is signatory of the main international instruments on gender equality and women’s empowerment, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), that upholds women’s right to participate in public life, and the Beijing Platform for Action adopted in 1995, which calls for removing all barriers to equal participation.

The CEDAW Convention was signed and ratified in 1980 and 1989, and the CEDAW Optional Protocol in 1999 and 2020 respectively.

National Legislation

Political participation

Gender quotas to promote women’s representation at local levels have not been legislated in Chile. Other temporary special measures to address youth and indigenous peoples underrepresentation in local decision-making have also not been legislated to date.

However, a draft law (Bulletin No. 11994-34) establishing gender quotas for regional governors and local councillors, that establishes a maximum representation of 60 per cent for either sex in candidate lists is currently in the second stage of constitutional review in the Senate.[1]

Chile also introduced parliamentary gender quotas in the the 2015–2016 electoral reforms establishing at least 40 per cent of candidates standing for Parliament must be women. This temporary measure established under Act No. 20.840 is set to last until the parliamentary elections of 2029. It also provides that at least 10 per cent of state funding contributed to each political party must be used to promote the political participation of women.

Chile is also the first country in the world to carry out a constitutional electoral process with a gender parity mechanism for both lists of candidates and election results, as provided in 2020 by Act No. 21.216 on constitutional reform. As a result, the body currently has a membership of 77 women and 78 men. In addition, in 2020 the inclusion of 17 seats reserved for representatives of indigenous peoples was approved, 9 of which are occupied by women.[2]

Read here the full article published by GWL Voices on 24 October 2024.

Image by GWL Voices

 

For decades, a key goal of activists and policymakers has been involving women in politics. Achieving gender parity in the political realm – that is, seeing more women running for and winning political office – is not merely a rhetorical goal. In fact, research has shown that women bring unique perspectives and focuses to lawmaking. A seminal study by Raghabendra Chattopadhyay and Esther Duflo showed that when women are given a seat at the table, they implement policies more relevant to the needs of women generally. 

Many countries have implemented targeted electoral laws, known as “gender quotas,” as part of an effort to increase women’s political participation. These laws vary in the size of the quota, whether the quotas are legally enforced, at what stage of the election process they are enforced, which branch of government they are applied to (legislative, executive, judicial) and what level of government they are applied to (local, regional, federal). India reserves a minority of districts for women to lead, while in France, it is mandated in municipal elections that half of the candidates each party nominates must be women. Designing each system requires trade-offs: while a reserved seat system like India’s guarantees that at least some women will be elected, such strict systems could face legal opposition in their implementation. 

Read here the full article published by Boston University Global Development Policy Center on 1 October 2024.

Image by Boston University Global Development Policy Center