Elections
A recent UN Women and CRRC Georgia study has found that the vast majority of Georgians find it important to work towards a more equal society.
The survey focused on a wide range of issues related to gender equality in Georgia, from the need for quality childcare services to women’s representation in politics and business.
According to the data collected, between 79%–98% of respondents believed that improvements in social and police rights, more equal sharing of domestic work, and a greater representation of women in leadership positions were important for Georgia’s future.
Looking at the role of women in leadership positions specifically, 79% believed that more opportunities for women in business was important; 77% believed the same for women in politics; and 75% believed it was important for women to have more opportunities in decision-making roles writ large.
The survey also assessed attitudes toward fundamental rights and social policies. A large majority (83%) considered improved access to higher education for women important. A similarly large majority (84%) supported affordable healthcare for women. The idea that respect for women’s rights in all areas is essential for the country’s success had 91% agreement.
Read here the full article published by OC Media on 22 April 2025.
Image by OC Media
Despite progress towards gender equality in Australian elections, women remain underrepresented among candidates vying for office on May 3. They are also overrepresented in “glass cliff” seats, which are the ones that are difficult to win and precarious to hold.
The Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at the Australian National University has analysed 591 candidates in the election by gender, political party, and the seats they are contesting.
Our report published today finds that while the major parties are increasing the number of women they pre-select, they are more likely to be running in harder-to-win seats.
From the glass ceiling to the glass cliff
Women are inching towards gender parity and now make up 45% of candidates across all parties and independents.
Labor has made the strongest gains. More than half (56%) of its candidates are women, a jump of about 10 percentage points on the previous election. By comparison, only 32% of Coalition candidates are female, an increase of just 3% on the 2022 poll.
Coalition women are not only outnumbered two to one by male candidates – 84% of them are running in risky glass cliff seats.
Read here the full article published by The Conversation on 9 April 2025.
Image by The Conversation
While some progress has been made towards gender equality in Australian elections, women remain underrepresented among candidates in the 2025 federal election, a new report from The Australian National University (ANU) shows.
The report published today by the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at ANU shows fewer women than men running in the election. They’re also more likely to be running in ‘glass cliff’ seats that are hard to win and precarious to hold.
While women make up more than half (56 per cent) of the candidates being put forward by the Australian Labor Party (ALP), less than a third (32 per cent) of the Coalition’s candidates are women.
According to report co-author, Dr Elise Stephenson, there has been a notable increase in women’s representation for Labor this election compared to the last one, when 46 per cent of its candidates were women.
Read here the full article published by ANU Reporter on the 9 of April 2025.
Image by Australian National University Reporter
Virginia will likely elect its first woman governor this year.
Why it matters: The Commonwealth's gubernatorial race, which has long been eyed as an early political test after a presidential election, is set to be one of the most historic elections in state history.
Driving the news: Over the weekend, the state GOP announced that Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears will be the party's nominee for governor in November.
No one filed to oppose former Rep. Abigail Spanberger for the Democratic ticket, which means the Republican and Democratic nominees for governor are both women for the first time in Virginia history.
The big picture: Just 51 women have served as governor in the nearly 250-year history of the United States, Axios Denver's Esteban L. Hernandez reports.
Read More here.
Despite progress towards gender equality in Australian elections, women remain underrepresented among candidates vying for office on May 3. They are also overrepresented in “glass cliff” seats, which are the ones that are difficult to win and precarious to hold.
The Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at the Australian National University has analysed 591 candidates in the election by gender, political party, and the seats they are contesting.
Our report published today finds that while the major parties are increasing the number of women they pre-select, they are more likely to be running in harder-to-win seats.
Read More here.
When women enter the voting booth, what matters more—policy or identity? The debate over whether female voters prioritize gender representation or political substance has fueled political discourse for years. Some argue that women rally behind female candidates for symbolic progress, while others insist that ideology and policy take precedence. But do women truly vote based on identity, or is there more at play?
The Pew Research Center has documented this trend. Women have historically leaned more Democratic than men. Issues such as healthcare, education, and gender equality rank high among their electoral priorities. However, while female candidates may benefit from a gender advantage in certain contexts, this trend is more pronounced in Democratic primaries than in general elections.
Read the full article here.
The ” Women legislators and economic performance” working paper by researchers at the universities of Essex, Michigan, Siegen, and Youngstown has found that Indian constituencies that elected women recorded “significantly higher growth” in economic activity over those that elected men.
The paper written by Thushyanthan Baskaran, Sonia Bhalotra, Brian Min, and Yogesh Uppal looks at 4,265 state assembly constituencies across India between 1992 and 2012, focusing on those where the woman candidate’s margin of victory was very small. This let the researchers look at cases where the legislator’s gender was effectively randomly assigned and not influenced by factors like a generally progressive constituency.
Click here to download the research.
NDI collaborated with the Federation of Women Lawyers - Kenya (FIDA-K) to review the performance of women in the 2017 general elections in A Gender Analysis of the 2017 Kenya General Elections. Through an examination of the legal and social environment within which the elections took place, and in comparison to the 2013 elections, the report provides data and analysis on women as candidates during the 2017 elections, and draws conclusions on the barriers to their success. These conclusions form the basis of recommendations for increasing meaningful women’s representation in Kenya’s elective bodies in the future.
Click here to read the report published by NDI on 28 February 2018.
Pakistani women face unique and frequently more severe challenges to their political participation than men do. In particular, the violence faced by Pakistani female political candidates, and voters is a serious barrier to their full participation in civic life. These challenges are especially difficult to address because they often go unrecorded and unreported. Security actors and public bodies such as Electoral Management Bodies (EMBs) may struggle to respond to protect and promote women’s public participation because of the absence of documentation and understanding of the nature and magnitude of the problem, as well as lack of specific programming responses that may be appropriate to the context.
The present study seeks to fill this knowledge gap by documenting the distinct challenges to women’s political participation in Pakistan, specifically examining the issue of violence against women in politics (VAWP) during electoral processes. The aim of the study is to produce an evidence base and identify the types of VAWP in Pakistan to encourage appropriate policy measures through legislative reforms by Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), and other key stakeholders. Specifically, the aim of this baseline study is to identify the forms of VAWP and to document its prevalence and magnitude in the country.
Based on this analysis, the study offers a number of policy options to address the issue of VAWP as well as providing recommendations to develop effective measures for eliminating VAWP in consultation with Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), media, political parties, women candidates and voters, the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) and ECP. The study concludes with recommendations for the development of mechanisms to monitor incidents of VAWP ahead of elections.
Click here to read the report.
Abstract
Proportional electoral systems tend to be more beneficial for women's descriptive representation than majority systems. However, within proportional systems the gender equality of election outcomes differs, highlighting the importance of studying the actual use of electoral provisions in proportional representation (PR) systems. Therefore, we investigate the determinants of voting for female candidates in Belgium's local elections. This case is particularly interesting given the equal number of men and women on the candidate lists due to quota regulations, the possibility to cast multiple preference votes (lowering competition), and the high visibility of these local elections and its candidates. At the individual level, we find that women are more likely than men to vote for several women, yet same-sex voting is more common among men. Politically sophisticated respondents vote more often for candidates of both sexes. Against our expectations, a left-wing orientation does not increase the likelihood of voting for women. At the electoral district level, a larger supply of women at the top list position increases the chance to vote for this top woman, but there is no spillover effect to women lower on the list. District magnitude affects the number of preference votes but, against expectations, not the likelihood of voting for women.
Click here to access the paper.
The National Conference on “Gender and Electoral Reform: Making A Difference” in Malaysia was envisioned to look at current debates and obstacles as well as innovative strategies and alternative models in women’s representation in the Malaysian electoral process. This Conference introduced a panel of scholars and specialists to share their experiences and expertise, leading the discourse into the Malaysian context in hope of facilitating electoral reform together for a higher representation of women in politics.
This report covers the conference background and then explores the following areas: current debates, alternative models, the Malaysian context, experiences of politicians, barriers and strategies, and finally the conference recommendations.
Click here to access the report.
The research presented in this paper provides useful insights into how increasing women’s descriptive representation within a legislature affects citizens’ interest and engagement in the political process, or their symbolic representation. Uruguay’s first quota law was implemented in the 2014 elections, resulting in significant increases in the number of women serving in both houses of Uruguay’s Parliament. Surveying citizens before and after the elections, the research team found strong evidence that increases in women’s descriptive representation had a positive effect on citizens’ symbolic representation, and that this effect was stronger for women than for men. Before election day, women were significantly less likely than men to say they were interested in politics, less likely to state that they understood political issues in Uruguay, and less likely to report having trust in elections; after election day, these differences disappeared and women were as likely as men to be interested in politics, understand current political issues, and trust the electoral process.
This publication was produced by USAID in partnership with Arizona State University and the Institute of International Education as part of the Research and Innovation Grants Working Papers Series.
Click here to read to read the study.