Parliaments & Representatives
In March last year, soon after giving birth to her twins, Susan Kihika was subjected to a campaign of online abuse. Kihika, who is governor of Nakuru county in Kenya’s rift valley, was accused of abandoning her country because she took her maternity leave in the US after being treated there for a high-risk pregnancy.
The criticism quickly escalatedto attacks and sexist smears. Soon social media commenters were accusing her of sleeping her way into politics. Her location was shared.
Kihika’s deputy, David Kones, and the Kenya Women Parliamentary Association (Kewopa) defended her but the abuse continued, online and offline, calling for Kihika’s removal from office because she has dual Kenyan-US citizenship. Kewopa argued that the scrutiny Kihika faced reflected a double standard: male leaders are rarely criticised for taking time off for personal reasons.
It was not the first time Kihika had been subjected to sexist abuse. In 2018, when she divorced her first husband, she was criticised for choosing politics over monogamy. Twitter (now X) users demanded that she release nude photographs to show that she was not a man.
The Women’s Quota Act of 2023 has officially been implemented, marking a significant step towards increased representation of women in legislative bodies. This legislation aims to reserve 33 per cent of seats for women in the Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies, thereby promoting gender equality in political participation. The Act is a landmark development in addressing long-standing disparities in political representation across India.
Following extensive discussions and debates in Parliament, the Act was approved on March 29, 2023. The move is expected to encourage more women to engage in politics, facilitating their active involvement in decision-making processes. Proponents of the Act view it as a crucial measure for empowering women and ensuring their voices are adequately represented in the political arena.
To enforce the provisions of the Women’s Quota Act, the Election Commission of India will begin the process of delineating constituencies to accommodate the new seats reserved for women. The Commission is tasked with ensuring a transparent and fair allocation process, which is vital for the successful implementation of the Act.
The discourse surrounding the Women’s Reservation Bill, or Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, shows how masculine politics has weaponised women’s issues. It reduces longstanding debates about women’s political representation to symbolism rather than focusing on substantive empowerment.
This article argues that a persistent gap exists between rhetoric and real inclusion. Structural limitations of the state and party system have restricted women’s access to decision-making roles for decades. Despite nearly a century of advocacy by the women’s movement, the system has not ensured the equitable representation of women in power.
In response, this work calls for a rethinking of political representation, including the possibility of imagining alternative political formations such as women-led and women-centric platforms to eliminate entrenched exclusion. This work concludes that women’s political inclusion is not only about numbers but about strengthening their political agency by following the bubble-up approach. It reiterates that women’s rights are non-negotiable. While aiming for substantive justice by strengthening grassroots politics, it calls for eliminating patriarchy at all levels.
Each year on 8 March, International Women’s Day is marked with speeches, seminars, public pledges, and celebratory slogans. Government bodies, political leaders, and civil society organisations speak passionately about gender equality, empowerment, and progress. The day generates visibility and symbolic commitment. Yet when the ceremonies end, the urgency often fades, while the daily realities confronting women remain stubbornly unchanged.
This stark contrast between formal promises and lived experience raises a pressing question: beyond the rhetoric, how much genuine progress is being made for women’s rights and empowerment in Bangladesh.
Women’s socio-economic, cultural, and political empowerment remains one of the country’s most significant unfinished challenges. Over the years, Bangladesh has built an international reputation for supporting women’s development. It has constitutional guarantees of equality and is party to major global human rights agreements. On paper, this framework signals commitment. In practice, however, millions of women still navigate lives shaped by insecurity, exclusion, discrimination, and multiple forms of violence. The distance between legal recognition and everyday reality exposes a deep contradiction within the nation’s democratic and development journey (source: Constitution of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh).
THIMPHU – In 2016, when Kinley Zangmo first put her name forward for the Mangmi post in Talo Gewog, Punakha, many still whispered that politics was a man’s domain.
She was competing against three male candidates and stepping into a space she once believed was not meant for women. Yet when the ballots were counted, the villagers had chosen her.
The victory did more than hand her a seat; it reshaped her understanding of what was possible. Five years later, encouraged by the confidence she had earned and the trust she had built with voters, she contested again in 2021. This time, she said, she was not surprised by the outcome. She won.
For the 41-year-old, winning two consecutive terms represents more than personal milestones. “They signal a quiet shift in voter attitudes,” she said. “People are beginning to see that women are capable. But we have to prove ourselves when we are given the chance.”
While women make up more than half of Bhutan’s population, they are largely underrepresented in leadership positions. Yet, in recent years, women have become more visible in leadership roles, from local government positions to senior public appointments, suggesting that perceptions toward women in leadership may be gradually evolving.
In Uganda, women continue to occupy a growing share of parliamentary and leadership positions, reflecting deliberate policy efforts and affirmative action initiatives aimed at narrowing the gender gap
KAMPALA - Gains in women’s political representation across the Great Lakes region are increasingly being overshadowed by a troubling rise in gender-based violence (GBV), raising concerns about the depth and sustainability of gender equality progress.
According to Jean Paul Kimonyo, the regional director at the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR), the region has registered notable improvements in the inclusion of women in political and governance structures.
In Uganda, women continue to occupy a growing share of parliamentary and leadership positions, reflecting deliberate policy efforts and affirmative action initiatives aimed at narrowing the gender gap.
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, African Union, and government of Kenya are taking steps to analyze 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.
When the public turns hostile: Political violence against parliamentarians reveals that members of parliament (MPs) are facing a worrying rise in intimidation and harassment from the public. The report draws on a broad survey of 519 MPs globally and case studies focused on five countries: Argentina, Benin, Italy, Malaysia and the Netherlands, to reflect diverse political and regional contexts.
The GQUAL Ranking, released annually, is one of our most powerful advocacy tools. It tracks data from 145 countries whose nationals serve in international bodies and mechanisms tied to the development of international law and justice and disaggregates this information by gender and geographical representation.
The three rankings we produce offer valuable insights into trends in the nomination practices of States and United Nations Regional Groups, as well as into representation records. Together, the Rankings provide a global and regional overview of women’s representation in international bodies at a given point in time, grounded in systematically collected, gender-disaggregated data.
This type of data is essential to advancing gender parity in international decision-making spaces, as it makes visible patterns of inclusion and exclusion that would otherwise remain obscured. The dataset allows for a clearer understanding of where women are being nominated and appointed, which bodies are performing better, and which countries are conducting nomination processes that take gender parity into account. This is critical to shedding light on one of the main obstacles to women’s equal participation in international decision-making: the lack of transparency and the limited consideration of gender parity in nomination and international appointment processes. States rarely track or make public their nomination records, and the information available through international bodies is often fragmented, incomplete, or difficult to access.
The GQUAL Ranking responds to this structural gap by providing the only comprehensive, publicly accessible tool that consolidates this information in a systematic and comparable manner. Its consistent application over the past 9 years makes it possible to identify patterns and trends over time, offering an evidence-based foundation to assess progress, stagnation, or regression in States’ approaches to gender parity in international appointments.
Nigeria’s renewed push to correct decades of severe gender imbalance in political representation has thrust one proposal to the centre of national debate: the Reserved Seats Bill, a constitutional amendment legislation seeking to create additional elective seats exclusively for women in the Senate, House of Representatives, and State Houses of Assembly.
The idea is simple: To increase women’s representation because, clearly, if deliberate steps are not taken, women will remain excluded from Nigeria’s political system. But the process of implementing this bill, particularly how political parties will nominate candidates and the emerging concerns over cost, campaign size, and electoral fairness, is far more complex.
This explainer unpacks the bill, breaks down how parties may eventually select candidates, examines potential drawbacks, and situates Nigeria’s conversation in a global context.
It also interrogates the argument that women contesting state-wide seats will face gubernatorial-level campaign burdens and what that means for the cost of governance.
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Why Women’s Political Participation and Representation Matters
Women’s equal participation and representation in political life is fundamental to inclusive democracy, responsive governance, and sustainable development. Despite global commitments and some progress, women across South Asia remain significantly underrepresented in decision-making roles particularly in legislative leadership, executive office, and youth political spaces.
At the current pace, gender parity in national legislatures will not be achieved before 2063, and parity among Heads of Government may take until 21501.
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Key Facts & Regional Snapshot
Global & South Asia Overview
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Women in national parliaments (global): 27.2%
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South Asia average:
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Lower/Unicameral Houses: 14.7%
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Upper Houses: 19.9%
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South Asian countries with women in top government leadership: India, Sri Lanka
Key Takeaway
Advancing women’s political participation and representation in South Asia requires more than quotas. Sustainable change depends on transforming social norms that fundamentally define the role of women in the politics. Only through transformative gender social norms can we address critical issues like violence against women in politics, and create an inclusive political space for all, contributing to a strong democratic system.
Full snapshot available here.
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UN Commission on the Status of Women 65th Session on Women’s full and effective participation and decision-making in public life, as well as the elimination of violence, for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls: agreed conclusions E/CN.6/2021/3
Feminist scholars and advocates have long asserted that women’s rights and gender equality are fundamental prerequisites for democratic governance. The close correlation between women’s rights and democracy is becoming increasingly evident, as the erosion of women’s rights often signals early and unmistakable signs of democratic backsliding and the rise of authoritarianism worldwide (Allam 2019; Arat 2022; Chenoweth and Marks 2022). A gendered analysis of state institutions, policymaking, and elections provides crucial insights into the historical fluctuations in women’s rights and, by extension, the overall quality of democracy (Tajali 2022).
An overview of sexist repression in Iran highlights the depth of autocratic entrenchment, as evidenced by increasing gender-based repression and violence. These assaults on women’s fundamental rights are not new but are deeply rooted in the ideologies of Islamic fundamentalism, which have institutionalized patriarchal dominance and systemic gender discrimination (Hoodfar and Sadr 2010; Paidar 1995; Tajali 2024b). This analysis also exposes the contentious relationship between authoritarian elites and feminist advocates, who refuse to remain passive in the face of such attacks.
Feminist movements resisting systemic gender discrimination pose a significant threat to the Iranian regime, resulting in violent crackdowns on women’s rights advocates. A recent example is the regime’s harsh response to the nonviolent “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests, triggered by the killing of 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian Mahsa Jina Amini in September 2022 while in police custody for allegedly violating Iran’s conservative hijab laws. To reassert control, the conservative-dominated Iranian parliament passed a controversial Hijab and Chastity bill in September 2023. This bill introduces harsher penalties for improper veiling, utilizing enhanced surveillance and artificial intelligence to identify those who defy mandatory hijab laws.
While the bill awaits approval from the unelected Guardian Council, Iranian authorities launched the “Noor (Light) Operation” in April 2024, enforcing the bill’s provisions through violent crackdowns on improperly veiled women and girls.