Elections
For a nation that has seen not one but two female prime ministers, the recently concluded elections showed a dismal reality. Although half of Bangladesh’s voters are women, the representation of women in politics continues to be low. Only 78 women candidates contested the February 12 elections, out of 1,981 candidates – a meager 3.93 percent. Just seven women actually won election, out of 300 directly elected seats.
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which won the elections handily, accounted for six of those women MPs – but it fielded only 10 women candidates for the elections out of the 300 contested constituencies. Only three women were sworn in as union ministers by the Tarique Rahman Cabinet, out of 50 Cabinet members in total.
The present political landscape of Bangladesh reflects a nation at odds with women’s place in public life. This was most evident in the case of the National Citizen Party (NCP), formed by student leaders who led the uprising against the ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. The NCP has few women leaders, although many women participated in the street protests of July-August 2024. The pre-poll alliance between NCP and Jamat-e-Islami (JI) was seen by many women leaders of the NCP as abandoning the cause of gender equality.
This free, non-partisan event will take place on Feb. 24 from 7-8:30 p.m. EST, and is open to participants across the province.
Building on the momentum of the Run Where You Are initiative, Say Yes is designed for those who are curious about running for office, actively considering a campaign, or seeking clarity on what leadership could look like in their community. The event focuses on breaking down barriers, addressing self-doubt and offering practical insight from those who have already said ‘yes’ to leadership.
“So many women are already leaders. They just haven’t called it that yet,” Amanda Kingsley Malo of Sudbury, founder of PoliticsNOW, said in a release. “This event is about naming what’s already there, and showing women that they do not have to leap alone. There is a whole ecosystem ready to support them.”
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The virtual panel will feature municipal leaders from across Ontario who will share candid reflections on their paths to public office, including lessons learned, challenges faced, and what they wish they had known before entering public office.
Confirmed panellists include Michelle Boileau, mayor of Timmins; Marilyn Crawford, councillor with the Town of Ajax; Tammy Hwang, councillor for the City of Hamilton; Joan John, councillor in the Township of Southgate; and Melanie Pilon, mayor of Wawa.
“If you have ever thought ‘maybe me,’ that is not random,” Kingsley Malo added. “That thought is information. Say Yes exists to help people take that whisper seriously and connect them with the training and support that makes it real.”
Despite progress in recent years, women and gender-diverse individuals continue to be underrepresented in municipal leadership across Ontario, critics say. Run Where You Are – Say Yes aims to help close that gap by offering accessible, community-driven entry points into politics.
Since gaining independence from the UK in October 1962, Ugandan women have played a critical role in shaping politics and governance throughout the country. From Joyce Mpanga, who served as Minister of Women in Development from 1988 to 1989, to Winnie Byanyima, who played a critical role in framing the 1995 Ugandan Constitution, women have shaped the political and governance landscape in Uganda, paving the way for countless young girls and women.
The 1995 Constitution introduced affirmative action. Article 21 of the Ugandan Constitution reserves one-third of local government seats and parliamentary positions for women, ensuring their active participation in the country’s decision-making processes.
In January 2026, Uganda held its general elections, and several women ran as candidates. However, women campaigners have to worry about more than giving speeches and rallying voters — they also have to navigate online violence that manifested as deepfakes, AI-generated images, gendered disinformation, and harmful narratives that were weaponised to target Ugandan women politicians during this year’s election.
Encouraging more women to seek public office — and helping them achieve that goal — is the focus of an upcoming virtual training event.
Set for Feb. 24, Run Where You Are – Say Yes “is calling on women and gender-diverse people to take the next step toward public leadership” by attending the free, non-partisan virtual event next week.
The news release about the event states women and gender-diverse people are still underrepresented in municipal leadership. One way to counter that underrepresentation is by supporting and encouraging women who are curious and interested but unsure.
The training “is designed for those who are curious about running for office, actively considering a campaign, or seeking clarity on what leadership could look like in their own community. The event focuses on breaking down barriers, addressing self-doubt, and offering practical insight from those who have already said ‘yes’ to leadership.
With the first primary elections of the 2026 midterms just two weeks away, the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP), a unit of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University, shares resources for covering women in this year’s elections and understanding their place in American politics.
These resources are available on CAWP’s newly-redesigned website. The most recent iteration of the CAWP website makes our research and data more accessible, refreshes the site’s visual identity, and makes it easier to navigate for all visitors.
Seven women candidates, majority of them from the BNP, have been elected to Bangladesh parliament in the 13th national election, a media report said on Friday. The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which is set to form the Government with an absolute majority, has seen six of its female nominees win their respective seats, The Dhaka Tribune said quoting unofficial results.
The BNP women candidates are Afroza Khan Rita from Manikganj-3, Israt Sultana Elen Bhutto from Jhalokati-2, Tahsina Rushdir Luna from Sylhet-2, Shama Obaid from Faridpur-2, Nayab Yusuf Kamal from Faridpur-3, and Farzana Sharmin Putul from Natore-1, it said. In addition, Barrister Rumin Farhana, who had previously been expelled from the BNP, has been elected as an independent candidate from Brahmanbaria-2.
The results are based on unofficial tallies announced after the conclusion of voting and counting across the country, the newspaper said. The BNP had fielded only 10 female candidates among 300 constituencies in the polls. With more than 151 seats in the 300-seat parliament, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) is cruising towards a sweeping victory in the landmark parliamentary polls held on Thursday, local media reports said.
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
Introduction
Women, and women of color in particular, face numerous challenges when running for political office in the U.S. These include attacks they are subject to in various online spaces that, like their peers, they must use to campaign and promote their work. These attacks often aim to undermine and prevent women’s participation in politics. Previous research by CDT found that women of color Congressional candidates in the 2020 U.S. election were more likely to be subjected to violent and sexist abuse, and mis- and disinformation on X/Twitter compared to other candidates. These forms of abuse might contribute to the underrepresentation of women of color in politics, and may also undermine the effectiveness of the US democratic system in reflecting the interest and priorities of all voters in policy-making.
In this research brief, we turn to the 2024 U.S. elections to examine the nature of offensive speech and hate speech that candidates running for Congress are subject to on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), which remains an important forum for political candidates. More specifically, we compare the levels of offensive speech and hate speech that different groups of Congressional candidates are targeted with based on race and gender, with a particular emphasis on women of color. We also examine these factors for U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris as a woman of color and presidential candidate.
Read here the full report published by Center for Democracy & Technology on 2 October 2024.
Image credits: Center for Democracy & Technology
2. Global Trends
2.3. Rights
2.3.4. Gender Equality
The Gender Equality subfactor measures power distribution by gender and female participation in civil society organizations, the ratio of female-to-male mean years of schooling and the proportion of lower-chamber legislators who are female. It also measures exclusion by gender, women’s empowerment and women’s political and economic rights.
While Gender Equality has not made notable improvements globally since 2018 (eight countries saw advances, and five saw declines), there have been important markers of progress. These include the passage of a bill to implement a gender quota for the lower house of parliament and state assemblies in India and a landmark bill that would guarantee extra seats for women in provincial assemblies in the Solomon Islands (Brechenmacher 2023; RNZ 2024; Solomon Islands Government 2024).
Mexico is also a noteworthy case, as it sets a high standard in terms of the range of mechanisms it has in place to ensure women’s political participation. In 2024 voters chose Claudia Sheinbaum to be Mexico’s first woman president. Additionally, at the time of the writing of this report, the heads of the Supreme Court and the Electoral Tribunal were both women, as were the presidents of the Senate, the Chamber of Deputies and the National Electoral Institute (INE). Building on previous amendments that had gradually introduced gender parity, a groundbreaking 2019 constitutional reform established ‘parity in everything’ as a permanent principle in all branches of government to guarantee women’s access to politics, government and the administration of justice (Ravel 2024; Piscopo and Vázquez Correa 2023).
Although high levels of violence, particularly against women, have been an issue in this election year (INEGI 2022; Piscopo and Vázquez Correa 2023; Harrison-Cripps 2024; Calderón 2024), strong legislation and policies have facilitated the monitoring and sanctioning of gender-based political violence, including through a National Registry of Sanctioned Persons for Violence against Women in Politics and the INE’s collaboration with platforms regarding digital-based political violence (INE 2024; Meta 2024).
Read here the full report published by International IDEA on 17 September 2024.
The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, The Carter Center, the National Democratic Institute, the International Foundation for Electoral Systems, and the Kofi Annan Foundation announced today the release of Model Commitments for Advancing Genuine and Credible Elections.
With democratic elections and institutions facing growing threats globally, it is critical to have actionable commitments that help improve, defend, and expand election integrity. The Model Commitments provides a resource with specific steps government leaders and democracy advocates can take to help strengthen democracy and elections, including ways to expand dialogue on key electoral issues. The Model Commitments are intended to benefit everyone involved in electoral processes and systems, including voters, candidates, election officials, election observers, and others.
The Model Commitments outline five sets of electoral integrity commitments — to protect Genuine Elections, Legal Framework, Election Administration, Electoral Accountability, and Information Integrity.
They draw on existing international norms, standards, and best practices for democratic elections, including most that are catalogued in the Carter Center’s Election Obligations and Standards Database and the Election Obligations and Standards Handbook.
Democratic electoral processes face constant pressures and changing circumstances in countries around the world. To help build public trust in election integrity and democratic governance, the Model Commitments are designed to reflect changing contexts and efforts to strengthen democracy in the face of new and evolving challenges.
This resource lays out ways for governments to affirm efforts to implement these commitments or to pledge an intention to apply them in a timely manner through appropriate electoral reform measures.
The Model Commitments for Advancing Genuine and Credible Elections is supported by like-minded organizations that share a commitment to the principles embodied in the Model Commitments. The organizations listed below have indicated their support for the Model Commitments. Additional supporting organizations will be added annually and announced around each International Day of Democracy.
·Asian Network for Free Elections (ANFREL)
·Election Watch EU
·Electoral Institute for Sustainable Democracy in Africa (EISA)
·European Partnership for Democracy (EPD)
·European Platform for Democratic Elections (EPDE)
·Experts in Democracy, Governance, and Elections (EDGE)
·Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy (NIMD)
·Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD)
Read here the full Models Commitments published by the NDI on 15 September 2024.
In Congress this term, 25% of senators and 28% of representatives are women, near record highs for both houses, but far below equal representation with men. As Kamala Harris runs for president, will being a woman cost her votes?
To learn more about the role of gender in American politics, we spoke with Brian Schaffner, a political science professor and Newhouse Professor of Civic Studies. He is also a principal investigator of the Cooperative Election Study, the largest academic survey focused on U.S. elections, and is writing a book about how political polarization is defined by social divisions.
How have attitudes toward electing women changed in America in the last 30 years?
People now are much more open to electing women to all levels of office, including to president, although obviously we haven’t seen a woman president yet. The number of women in Congress, for example, has hit historic highs, even though it’s well under parity with men. There are also a lot of women governors throughout the country.
Political science research shows that when women run for office, they are at least as successful as men are. The big problem is not that voters won’t vote for a woman for political office now; it’s that women don’t run as often as men do.
Why don’t women run for office as much as men?
This is not necessarily my area of expertise, but there’s a lot of research that focuses on this. It shows a range of factors, from how women and men are raised differently to the types of things people have to do to run for office, like raising money—having to put yourself out there.
Also, until recently, women weren’t recruited as much as men to run for office. The parties would go out and try to recruit men, because they were the people who were in their networks.
Read here the full article published by the Tufts University on 4 September 2024.
Image credits: Tufts University