Elections
It is a striking paradox. For more than three decades, Bangladesh has been led by women—an exceptional continuity across the globe. Yet the outcome of the 13th national election tells a different story. Even with women at the top position, women's presence in Parliament has declined significantly day by day.
In the elections of 1991, 1996 and 2001, women's participation was gradually increasing. The 2008 election is often seen as a milestone in terms of women's representation in the National Parliament. That year, 5.9 percent of all candidates were women, and 19 women won in directly contested seats—a record that still stands.
But in the 2026 election—widely regarded as relatively free and competitive after a long period—the share of women candidates fell to 4.08 percent. Out of more than two thousand candidates, only 84 were women. In a 300-seat Parliament, just 7 women were directly elected—the lowest number since 2001.
As Assam, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, and Kerala prepare for Assembly elections, two decades of electoral data reveal a clear pattern: more women are entering the fray, but they are not winning in proportion to their participation. In contrast, men’s win percentages have remained relatively steady over the last 20 years.
Let’s look at this state by state.
West Bengal
While Mamata Banerjee, one of India’s most prominent women leaders, has been chief minister since 2011, women’s overall electoral performance in West Bengal has been bad. While more women contested elections, the number of women victors has only declined. They did not win proportionally to the increase in participation.
From 2001 to 2006, women’s victory rate increased. But after 2006, it began to decline steadily. By 2021, only 16.7 per cent of women contesting the election won seats — quite a fall from 24.6 per cent in 2001.
Despite this decline over the past two decades, women in West Bengal have consistently recorded higher winning percentages than men. In 2001, 17 per cent of male candidates won their seats, compared to 24.6 per cent of women candidates. This pattern has largely continued. In 2021, 13.4 per cent of men won, while that figure stood at 16.7 per cent for women.
Concerns Over Women's Political Representation
Member of the Forum for Women's Political Rights and Research Fellow at Aarshi Trust, Nafisa Raihana, on Sunday, expressed concerns about women's political representation following the 13th national parliamentary elections in Bangladesh. She alleged the existence of systemic barriers to women's participation in political parties. Speaking to ANI after the results were announced, Raihana said many women were unable to secure party nominations despite being politically active. "Many women could not get nominated this time, and many of the male members of their political parties did not or could not give their nomination. We met various women politicians, and all said that they are active, but it is difficult for them to reach a higher level or even talk to a higher authority," she told ANI...
On the morning of February 9, a large crowd gathered near the Mirpur-1 Eidgah field.
The air was filled with commotion and the festive rhythm of a band party. Rickshaws and cars came to a halt, and pedestrians stopped to watch.
Suddenly, an open-top vehicle emerged from the crowd. A woman stood inside, waving to people lining both sides of the road.
A five-year-old girl standing with her mother on the sidewalk waved back.
The mother, Swapna Akhtar, said their house was nearby. Her daughter insisted on coming out after hearing the band. When they arrived, they realised it was an election campaign procession for Sanjida Islam Tulee.
With an eye on attracting sectors considered decisive for the elections, President Lula has concluded that he needs to further calibrate his rhetoric and actions aimed at women in order to reverse disapproval of his administration among this electorate, which exceeds 40%.
The move comes as the Palácio do Planalto sees a kind of window of opportunity due to the absence, within the far-right camp, of a strong female leadership figure for the 2026 elections. Initially, one of the main bets in that field was former first lady Michelle Bolsonaro. However, her stepson Flávio Bolsonaro (Liberal Party, PL, São Paulo) emerged and was announced as a pre-candidate. Privately, the two disagree over the family’s electoral project for 2026, which, in the government’s view, weakens their presence on certain issues.
On women’s rights, the rift between them is even more evident. Michelle Bolsonaro heads PL Mulher, and on social media the women’s wing of the PL party has ignored Flávio’s pre-candidacy. Posts highlight Michelle and Jair Bolsonaro in particular, without reference to her stepson.
DHAKA – As the dust settles on Bangladesh’s 13th National Parliamentary Election, with the Election Commission (EC) declaring the 297 candidates elected to our parliament, a major source of disappointment remains: the systematic lack of women’s political participation. While a total of 85 women contested the polls last Thursday, including 66 with party nominations and 19 as independent candidates, only seven have been elected. Of the seven candidates, only one is independent; the rest are from BNP. Furthermore, as per pre-election stats from the EC, nearly a third of female candidates were relatives of influential men. Although in the ninth parliament, 21 women were directly elected, the total number of female contestants in this election was the highest on record. These numbers put the low participation of women politicians in perspective.
Myriad factors are cited by those who attempt to deny that a systemic exclusion of women persists in Bangladesh’s politics. But when a party announces outright that it will not include women in roles of leadership in a post-uprising Bangladesh, we must acknowledge the urgency of this problem.
Women played a crucial role in the ousting of the Awami League regime in 2024, yet hardly any female representatives were included in the July National Charter consensus discussions. When male politicians were subjected to enforced disappearance by Sheikh Hasina’s regime, it was the women in their families who led the fight for justice for years. The requirement by the Representation of the People Order, 1972, for political parties to reserve at least 33 percent of committee posts for women, including at the central level, was also not heeded by the major political parties in this election. Unsurprisingly, the recommendation by the Women’s Affairs Reform Commission to increase the number of reserved seats for women to 100 with direct elections was not accepted by political parties. Meanwhile, promises and sentiments about women’s empowerment by contesting politicians sound more like rote than out of a genuine wish to improve the persisting imbalance.
In in the context of promoting democracy, equality and equal opportunities, UNDP partnered with the Lebanese Association for Democratic Elections (LADE) to develop a report on observing parliamentary elections from a gender perspective in order to promote women’s rights and political participation.
The report highlights the obstacles and gaps women face and provides details the social, cultural, political and economic obstacles and challenges that restrict their access to Parliament. The report assesses the participation of female voters, women candidates and political parties in the electoral process.
This activity is funded by the European Union, United States Agency for International Development, and German Cooperation.
Source: UNDP
The 2022 midterms have led to some new records for women candidates for the U.S. House, U.S. Senate, and governor in various race and ethnicity groups, according to an analysis of candidate filings from CAWP. Asian American/Pacific Islander, Black, Latina/Hispanic, and white women have all set new candidacy records this year, though not at all levels of office.
CAWP began collecting data on candidate race in 2004 using a system of self-identification for candidate race and ethnicity determination. Because this data relies primarily on candidate response to CAWP’s self-ID query and our queries occasionally go unanswered, there remain a small number of candidates for whom we were unable to determine racial identification. This is alluded to when we say “at least” preceding a reported figure below. Additionally, because candidates may, for various reasons, exit political races and no longer appear on ballots, these numbers can change slightly moving forward.
Beginning this year, CAWP no longer reports an aggregate number of “women of color” in our data collections on candidates and officeholders and instead provides disaggregated data for all women by race and ethnicity. This change was guided by our desire to move away from treatment of women as monolithic and challenge the centering of whiteness as a default racial/ethnic category. Of particular note here, because multiracial women are included in counts for each group with which they identify, adding the numbers below will not yield the total number of women of color running for various offices in this year’s midterms.
Click here to access the data.
On 26 September 2021, Germans elected the 20th Bundestag. This election was special in many ways. The article analyses the electoral campaign, voting behaviour, turnout, and the formation of a new coalition government by using a gender and intersectional lens. Against the conceptual background of descriptive, substantive, and symbolic representation, we outline the implications of the election for gender and intersectional politics in the new German Bundestag and the government. In descriptive and symbolic terms, we find higher numbers of women (and of minorities) in the Bundestag and its leadership as well as in government; in substantive terms, we observe the presence of ‘critical actors’ and the commitment to progressive politics in the new ‘Ampel’ coalition. Hence, we see at least a chance for change in several key policy areas and social progress in the next 4 years.
Click here to read the full article published by Sage Journals on 7 July 2022.
With more and more women running for office, races between women candidates will become the norm — not a novelty. Shared Hurdles reveals how candidates’ race, political party, and gender interact to influence voter opinion when more than one woman is on the ballot.
Research on gender dynamics in politics has seldom studied races between two women candidates. This research helps to fill that gap — and give women the tools they need to resonate with voters in races against other women. Shared Hurdles shows that in an election between two women candidates, gender biases are still prevalent, and voters hold both women to a higher standard than they hold male candidates. Shared Hurdles is a timely update on how gender shapes politics, and it provides a framework for women candidates who are campaigning against other women.
Click here to access the report.
Despite repeated warnings, Australia’s two major political parties continue to make one big mistake – and one MP has issued a scathing rebuke.
The women chosen by Australia’s two major political parties to run in the upcoming federal election are predominantly chosen for seats they are unlikely to win.
Shocking statistics gathered by news.com.au reveal a huge disparity in the chances of women entering parliament compared to their male counterparts, with men more likely to be chosen to run for a seat already held by their party.
Click here to read the full article published by News.com.au on 23 March 2022.
In December 2020, a leading Kenyan political party official, Edwin Sifuna, made vulgar remarks against a woman member of parliament. While campaigning for their political allies in a by-election, Sifuna said the woman is “not attractive enough to rape”.
In January this year, controversial bishop David Gakuyo, who is seeking election as a member of parliament, made demeaning remarks about two women politicians. He accused them of seeking votes while “swinging bare behinds”.
Sifuna and Gakuyo later made half-hearted apologies through the police after complaints were lodged about the language they used. The National Cohesion and Integration Commission, a government agency tasked with taming the excesses of politicians, was largely silent.
Click here to read the full article published by Daily Maverick on 17 March 2022.