Elections
WASHINGTON (AP) — Voters for the first time elected two Black women to serve simultaneously in the Senate and sent an openly transgender lawmaker to Congress on Tuesday. They’re among historic choices in nearly a dozen races showing Americans opting for more diverse representation even with issues such as affirmative action and LGBTQ inclusion driving deeper divisions.
Delaware’s Lisa Blunt Rochester and Maryland’s Angela Alsobrooks prevailed in their races, doubling the number of Black women ever elected to the Senate – from two to four. And Delaware voters elected Sarah McBride in an at-large House race, making her the first openly transgender person elevated to Congress.
The victories come in an election year defined in part by historic firsts.
“Marking these milestones does two things: One, it celebrates the increasing diversity that we are seeing in women’s political representation, whether it be in a state or nationally,” said Kelly Dittmar, director of research at Rutgers University’s Center for American Women and Politics.
“But at the same time, it reminds us that we have more work to do,” said Dittmar, noting that U.S. women overall aren’t represented equitably in elected offices and that Black, Hispanic and Asian Americans, as well as Native Americans, lag behind their share of the population.
Other historic firsts in the Senate on Tuesday include New Jersey’s Andy Kim, who became the first Asian American elected to represent the Garden State in the Senate and also the first Korean-American elected in the Senate. Republican Bernie Moreno of Ohio became the first Latino to represent the state.
Read here the full article published by AP News on 5 November 2024.
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The global movement for gender equality has driven change across many sectors, but political representation remains one of the most formidable challenges.
Although women make up nearly half of the world’s population, they are underrepresented in political offices, decision-making bodies, and leadership roles within political parties. This imbalance reflects more than cultural bias; it signals a gap in democratic governance.
Despite legislative measures globally and in countries like Pakistan to increase women’s political participation, a significant disparity persists between legal provisions and outcomes. Advancing gender equity in politics calls for a closer look at the structural barriers preventing women from fully participating in democratic processes, as well as a commitment to breaking down these obstacles.
Some regions have achieved promising progress. As of 2024, the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) reports that women hold 26.5 per cent of parliamentary seats globally. Rwanda’s legally mandated 30 per cent quota has resulted in women occupying 63.75 per cent of parliamentary seats, while Sweden’s ‘zipper system’ ensures men and women candidates alternate on electoral lists, yielding 47 per cent female representation in parliament.
Read here the full article published by The News Pakistan on 4 November 2024.
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Moldova's pro-EU President Maia Sandu has claimed a second term after a tense election run-off seen as a choice between Europe and Russia. The Moldovan Central Electoral Commission confirmed Sandu's victory on Monday morning. With most votes counted Sandu had won 55%, and in a late-night speech on Sunday she promised to be president for all Moldovans. Her rival Alexandr Stoianoglo, who was backed by the pro-Russian Party of Socialists, had called for a closer relationship with Moscow. During the day the president's national security adviser said there had been "massive interference" from Russia in Moldova's electoral process that had "high potential to distort the outcome".
Russia had already denied meddling in the vote, which came a week after another key Eastern European election in Georgia, whose president said it had been a "Russian special operation". Stoianoglo, who was fired as prosecutor general by Sandu, has denied being pro-Kremlin. In a joint statement congratulating Sandu on her re-election, the European Commission and the EU's top diplomat Josep Borrell said there had been "unprecedented interference by Russia". As polls closed, both Sandu, 52, and her rival thanked voters, with Stoianoglo speaking in Russian as well as Romanian. Although Romanian is Moldova's main language, Russian is widely spoken because of its Soviet past.
Read here the full article published by the BBC on 4 November 2024.
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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.
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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.
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A record number of women have been elected to Japan's house of representatives, projections showed on Monday (October 28, 2024), but at less than 16% they remain a minority.
Public broadcaster NHK projected that women had won 73 of 465 lower house seats up for grabs, figures expected to be confirmed in official results later in the day. In Japan's 2021 general election, some 45 women were elected to the lower house.
The broadcaster and other outlets had previously reported that a record number of women were running in the election, accounting for around a quarter of candidates.
Women leaders are still rare in business and politics in Japan, which ranked 118 out of 146 in the 2024 World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap report. Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's 20-strong Cabinet includes just two women.
Read here the full article published by The Hindu on 28 October 2024.
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Women ran for and were elected to office in record numbers in the 2018 election. They made historic gains across levels of office and reached new milestones for women’s political representation. But not all women achieved record levels of success in 2018. Republican women’s representation dropped across offices and within their party.
The progress for all women in election 2018 should also be put into important context. First, despite breaking records for candidacy and officeholding, women – who are just over half of the population – were still underrepresented among all candidates and remain less than one-third of elected officials.
Finally, measuring progress for women in electoral politics means looking beyond the numbers. When considering the gender and intersectional dynamics at play in U.S. campaigns, it is clear that there is much progress left to make in creating equitable conditions for success for women and men in American elections.
Click here to see the report.
The report on “The Empowerment of Women in Politics and the 6 th Legislature National Assembly Elections 2018” is an analysis of the data and views of Cambodian women’s participation in politics, especially the process of the 6th Legislature National Assembly (NA) Elections 2018.
This report looks in particular at the women’s political empowerment and elections; number of women candidates, measures for how to select women candidats, policies of political parties for promoting women’s political participation, political party platforms on women’s and children’s issues, challenges facing women both as voters and candidates including violence against women in politics. Also, it shows about women’s opinions on electoral progress, and activities related to promoting women’s participation in politics as well as the outcome of elected women representative from the single party CPP which dominated the election and the outcome. It also provides an overview of a rapid survey on “The reason of women voters who voted or have indelible ink on their finger and women voters who did not go to vote or have no indelible ink on their finger” conducted by Women Volunteer Citizens throughout the four provincial target area of COMFREL a day after the election and two case studies. The report closes with a set of recommendations to improve gender equality and women’s political empowerment in Cambodia.
Click here to see the report.
This policy paper aims to reconsider the concept of parity democracy in the current context of the EU and focusing on the elections to the EP in May 2019. As developed in the Athens Declaration, adopted at the European Summit of Women in Power in 1992, parity democracy stands on 5 basic arguments (equality, democracy, good use of human resources, needs and interests of women and quality of policy-making) which are recalled and updated with a view to provide stakeholders, including democrats standing for gender equality and feminist movements, with useful ammunitions to inform and convince EU citizens (women and men) to vote and to vote for women defending equality. This policy paper is, therefore, part of broader Gender Five Plus’ efforts to inform EU citizens and influence stakeholders for greater gender balance in the EU. The analysis in this policy paper is based on desk research, literature review and includes diverse forms of experience in EU policy-making. It is divided into four different parts and a list of recommendations. Part I tries to answer the question of why parity democracy is important to the EU; Part II focuses on why the EU and parity democracy are important to women; Part III analyses gender balance in the EU decision-making (focusing in the EP); Part IV examines the possible challenges and opportunities for fostering parity democracy in the current EU context and the conclusion provides space for a reflection on the EU that we want and need to build. Finally, derived from the analysis of the whole policy paper, a noncomprehensive list of recommendations is provided.
Click here to see the report.
IMF examines the impact of gender equality on electoral violence in Africa using micro-level data from the sixth round of Afrobarometer surveys. The sample covers 30 countries. IMF finds that gender equality is associated with lower electoral violence. Quantitatively, their estimates show that an increase in female-to-male labor force participation ratio by 1 percentage point is correlated with a reduction of the probability of electoral violence across the continent by around 4.2 percentage points. Their results are robust to alternative ways to measure electoral violence and gender equality, as well as to alternative specifications. The findings of this paper support the long-standing view that women empowerment contributes to the reduction of violence and underscore the urgency of addressing gender inequality in Africa.
Click here to see the report.
Understanding and explaining outbreaks of election-related violence is a complex task; predicting whether forthcoming elections will turn violent, which factors may underlie or trigger violence, and what can be done to prevent violence is even more difficult. One way to address the problem is to empower those who have immediate responsibility to prevent and mitigate election-related violence, such as electoral management bodies, security sector agencies and other state and non-state agencies.
The Electoral Risk Management Tool (ERM Tool) is designed to empower people to ensure peaceful and credible elections. The software aims to build the capacities of users to understand, analyse and mitigate electoral risks. Specifically, the ERM Tool can build users’ capacity to understand electoral risk factors; collect and analyse risk data; design prevention and mitigation strategies; and record the results of actions.
The software is accompanied by three Guides. This Prevention and Mitigation Guide aims to assist and inspire users to tailor strategies and actions for the prevention and mitigation of election-related violence. It is complemented by an Internal Factors Guide and an External Factors Guide which provide guidance to the users of the ERM Tool in identifying electoral risks in a given country and electoral context.
Click here to see the academic article.
Women around the world are playing increasingly visible roles in the political processes of their countries as voters, candidates, representatives, protesters, journalists and as civic educators in the home, the community and beyond. However, as emerging democracies struggle to consolidate, overcome violent pasts and address crippling poverty, they often falter and breed disillusionment. Religious and ethnic divisions may appear or intensify. In these complex contexts, electoral violence threatens – or beckons – women in new ways.
In Breaking the Mold: Understanding Gender and Electoral Violence, IFES introduces the concept of gendered electoral violence in transitional democracies and presents a new framework which accounts for all forms of public and private violence committed by and against women. Where current frameworks fail to fully take women into account by neglecting or stereotyping gender-specific forms of violence, IFES’ new framework draws on research in domestic violence and feminist security studies to expand our understanding of types of violence and victim and perpetrator roles. This framework can help ensure that practitioners meet short and long-term needs, such as the protection and education of women candidates and voters in the short term, and better documentation and therefore responses to gendered electoral violence in the long-term.
Click here to see the white paper.