Elections

In 2026, women’s voices are more critical than ever. 

Across the United States, decisions about healthcare access, economic stability, education, workplace protections, and access to the ballot are being debated and shaped in real time. In moments like these, civic participation becomes more than a principle; it becomes a responsibility shared by communities across the country.

Women play a central role in that participation. As voters, organizers, community leaders, and advocates, women shape how democracy responds to the realities families and communities face every day.

Women are not a small voting bloc or a niche audience in American politics. They are one of the most influential forces in civic participation today; research shows they’re more likely to register to vote and to go to the polls than men. When women vote, organize, and engage in public life, they influence the direction of policies that affect millions of people nationwide.

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Kenyan women are at the forefront of defending their democracy. Their recent leadership reflects a long history of pivotal contributions, both to women’s rights and the rights of all Kenyans.

In a context of democratic backsliding, rising levels of gender-based violence (GBV), and accelerating human rights abuses in the lead-up to elections in 2027, women’s leadership is needed more than ever.

However, research shows that women’s leadership, especially in conflict or crisis, is often met with violent pushback. In Kenya and worldwide, violence targeting women in politics is deterring some women from seeking public office and punishing those who do run.

This problem is not new to Kenya, but the dichotomy between the achievements of Kenyan women leaders and the lack of accountability for their attackers, online and offline, is starker than ever.

The United Nations, the African Union, and the government of Kenya are taking steps to analyse the problem and offer recommendations, but tangible implementation lags. Meanwhile, bilateral partners that used to support women’s participation in politics and fund efforts to prevent election-related GBV have pulled back.

Despite the risks and limited tangible support, Kenyan women are pressing forward, but many fear the costs they are asked to bear are unsustainable, not to mention unconscionable.

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The European Union has intensified efforts to advance women’s political participation through a high-level strategy meeting held in Abuja, ahead of Nigeria’s 2027 general election.

Nigeria has long struggled with low female representation in politics despite being a signatory to several international and regional frameworks promoting gender equality, including the Beijing Declaration and the African Union’s Protocol on Women’s Rights.

Although women constitute nearly half of the country’s population and play significant roles as voters and grassroots mobilisers, their presence in elective and appointive positions has remained consistently low since the return to democratic rule in 1999.

According to a statement by the EU on Tuesday, the meeting was organised by the Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre and the Nigerian Women Trust Fund, both cohort members of the European Union’s flagship democratic governance programme, the European Union Support to Democratic Governance in Nigeria, in collaboration with the Nigerian Bar Association Section on Public Interest and Development Law.

The meeting, themed Advancing Women’s Political Leadership: Strengthening Pathways to Inclusive Representation in 2027, brought together lawmakers, civil society actors, development partners, and political stakeholders to assess progress on women’s inclusion and the proposed Special Seats Bill, while mapping strategies ahead of the next electoral cycle.

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The Indian government is seeking to expedite the implementation of a 2023 law that reserves 33 percent of seats in parliament and state assemblies for women, but has linked the move to a sweeping redrawing of parliamentary constituencies, sharpening political tensions.

“We’re set to take historic steps to empower women,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said before a special sitting of parliament on Thursday as his government introduced three bills to be debated in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of parliament.

While two of the three bills relate to extending the number of women in parliament and state assemblies, a third bill relates to “delimitation”, as the process to redraw parliamentary boundaries based on population is called in India. The bill aims to increase the overall size of parliament from 543 Lok Sabha seats to 850.

The bills are being taken up during a three-day special session and will require a two-thirds majority in both houses to pass. Modi’s National Democratic Alliance (NDA) holds 293 seats in lower house of parliament while a two-thirds majority would require 360 votes.

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Women voters have become a central point of discussion in elections in India in recent times. Rightly so, because parties in power roll out women-centric schemes, sometimes even direct cash transfer ones, to win their support. Opposition parties too make promises about initiating schemes for women’s welfare, if elected. These promises seem to making some impact, which is reflected in the rising turnout of women voters. Parties appear to have mobilised women through welfare schemes, and this mobilisation is seen as a key factor for electoral success.

The upcoming Assembly elections in Assam, Kerala, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu are unlikely to be different. Women, who constitute nearly half of the electorate in each State (and slightly more in Kerala), are a key focus of all political parties. Electoral trends show that while turnout has increased, women remain underrepresented in State assemblies. However, evidence from Lokniti-CSDS data suggest that their voting choices have somewhat shaped party strategies and political outcomes.

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The political history of Bangladesh is inseparable from mass resistance, popular movements, and struggles for freedom and rights. From the anti-colonial resistance against British rule to the Language Movement of 1952, the 1969 Mass Uprising, the anti-Pakistani movement, repeated student movements, and the Liberation War of 1971, women played active and visible roles. 

They were organizers, messengers, mobilizers, caregivers, cultural activists, and in many cases direct participants in confrontation with state power. Women were never silent spectators in the making of the nation. 

Yet in contemporary Bangladesh, despite women constituting half of the population and despite women having ruled the country for more than three decades, women remain largely absent from mainstream political power. 

This contradiction raises fundamental questions about democracy, representation, and justice.

Women’s political engagement in Bengal did not begin in 1952 or 1971. Even during the struggle against British colonial rule, women actively participated in protests, boycotts, underground organizing, and nationalist campaigns. 

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