Parliaments & Representatives
As women gain political ground around the world, there is hope that the election of more women might also mean cleaner government. But is this the case? This column examines thousands of close mixed-gender elections in Brazil across two decades and finds that electing a woman mayor neither increases nor reduces corruption. Instead, incumbents are consistently more corrupt across various metrics. Women continue to face substantial barriers on the path to office and dismantling these remains a fundamental democratic objective, but on the grounds of equity in representation, not because it will reduce corruption.
Corruption undermines public trust, distorts how governments spend, and weakens state capacity. As women have gained political ground around the world, a hopeful idea has taken hold: that electing more women might also mean cleaner government. But is it true?
This belief rests on a substantial body of correlational evidence: across and within countries, greater female representation has been associated with lower corruption (Dollar et al. 2001, Swamy et al. 2001, Jha and Sarangi 2018, Bauhr et al. 2019, Decarolis et al. 2023). These correlations are, however, hard to interpret causally: the women who reach office may differ systematically from male politicians, for instance in their political orientation or experience, and the places that elect them may differ too. More broadly, the evidence on whether female politicians govern differently is mixed (Hessami and Lopes da Fonseca 2020): electing more women does not necessarily translate into different policies (Campa and Bagues 2017, Carrer and De Masi 2026).
After three consecutive electoral cycles in which the double-quota system (the mechanism guaranteeing a minimum of 40% gender representation on candidate lists) brought a record number of women into Parliament and local councils, the political representation of other vulnerable groups remains deficient.
The competent authorities, together with civil society and development partners, met on 22 June 2026 to assess the current system and to underline the need for reforms ahead of the elections expected in 2027-2029 (general local, presidential and parliamentary elections). The public dialogue was organised by the Partnership for Development Center (CPD) in partnership with UNDP, with the support of Norway, Sweden and Denmark.
“The experience of recent electoral cycles shows that well-designed legislative measures can bring about real change in political representation. However, a genuinely inclusive democracy requires that every citizen have not only the formal right to participate, but also the real opportunity to be represented. From this perspective, it is important to continue the efforts to remove the barriers that limit the participation of women, persons with disabilities and other underrepresented groups in public and political life”, says Pavel Postică, Deputy President of the Central Electoral Commission (CEC).
Analysis of electoral processes in the Republic of Moldova shows that women’s political representation increases significantly when firm legislative rules are in place, such as the double-quota system applied in parliamentary and local elections. Nevertheless, the current “four out of ten” placement rule still allows women to be concentrated in the non-eligible sections of candidate lists. The CPD analysis finds that introducing a “zipper” system (alternating placement on lists, namely one woman and one man in turn) would have raised the share of women in Parliament to 48.5% and would have eliminated the technical errors found on lists with few registered candidates at local level.
Hundreds of women rallied in Nigeria’s capital city, Abuja, on June 11, urging lawmakers to pass the Special Seats Bill (also known as the Reserved Seats Bill), a constitutional amendment designed to tackle the severe underrepresentation of women in parliament.
Despite comprising 50 percent of Nigeria’s population, women hold just 4.5 percent of seats in the National Assembly. Nigeria consistently ranks near the bottom globally and in Africa in terms of women’s parliamentary representation.
The proposed law seeks to create 37 additional seats reserved exclusively for female candidates in both the Senate and House of Representatives (one per state plus the Federal Capital Territory), as well as three dedicated seats per state assembly. These new positions, to be contested only by women in general elections, are framed as temporary affirmative action to advance gender parity and inclusive governance.
Speaker of the National Parliament Major (Retd.) Hafiz Uddin Ahmad, Bir Bikram, MP, on Wednesday held a courtesy meeting with a delegation from UN Women to discuss measures aimed at advancing women’s rights, empowerment and gender equality in Bangladesh.
The UN Women delegation was led by Gitanjali Singh, Representative of UN Women in Bangladesh. Secretary of the National Parliament Secretariat Barrister Md Golam Sorwar Bhuiyan was also present at the meeting.
According to UN Women Bangladesh, the discussion focused on strengthening efforts to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment, including the establishment of an inter-party caucus on gender equality and women’s empowerment in the National Parliament.
Moroccan women’s rights organizations have criticized political parties over the limited number of women selected to head electoral lists for the September 2026 parliamentary elections, arguing that the nominations fall short of the country’s constitutional commitments to equality and parity.
In a joint statement, the 190 Coalition Against Violence and the Coalition for the Dignity and Rights of Women said male candidates continue to dominate electoral lists despite legal mechanisms designed to strengthen the political participation of women and young people.
The organizations stressed that the issue goes beyond numerical representation and raises broader questions about Morocco’s progress toward gender equality, a principle enshrined in the Constitution.
Like most households, mine has a morning routine.
As we wait for our baby to wake, my partner makes me a coffee and I open an app designed to shield me from the worst of the internet. It has become as routine as checking my emails.
Social Protect automatically filters and deletes sexist, abusive and threatening comments directed at me across social media platforms. Some days, it removes thousands of comments before I even see them.
But I still check it.
I scroll through what has been caught to identify anything that needs to be escalated to police or security. A good day is when there is only sexist abuse. A bad day is when there are death threats, wishes of sexual violence or detailed fantasies about harming me.
Since becoming a mother six months ago, there are also often messages targeting my family.
As women gain political ground around the world, there is hope that the election of more women might also mean cleaner government. But is this the case? This column examines thousands of close mixed-gender elections in Brazil across two decades and finds that electing a woman mayor neither increases nor reduces corruption. Instead, incumbents are consistently more corrupt across various metrics. Women continue to face substantial barriers on the path to office and dismantling these remains a fundamental democratic objective, but on the grounds of equity in representation, not because it will reduce corruption.
Corruption undermines public trust, distorts how governments spend, and weakens state capacity. As women have gained political ground around the world, a hopeful idea has taken hold: that electing more women might also mean cleaner government. But is it true?
This belief rests on a substantial body of correlational evidence: across and within countries, greater female representation has been associated with lower corruption (Dollar et al. 2001, Swamy et al. 2001, Jha and Sarangi 2018, Bauhr et al. 2019, Decarolis et al. 2023). These correlations are, however, hard to interpret causally: the women who reach office may differ systematically from male politicians, for instance in their political orientation or experience, and the places that elect them may differ too. More broadly, the evidence on whether female politicians govern differently is mixed (Hessami and Lopes da Fonseca 2020): electing more women does not necessarily translate into different policies (Campa and Bagues 2017, Carrer and De Masi 2026).
The 2020 U.S. Census found that Asian Americans were the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. population.1 Yet women and politics scholarship dedicated to Asian American women has been limited. In part, this situation may reflect the underrepresentation of Asian American women as officeholders in comparison to their presence in the population.2 Today Asian American women constitute nearly four percent of the U.S. population.3 The group “Asian Americans,” as defined by the U.S. Census, comprise people with origins throughout Asia – including from East Asia and the Indian subcontinent – with Chinese, Indian, and Filipino the largest population groups.4 Although scholars find that Asian Americans are more likely to self-identify with their ethnic origin group on surveys, many Asian Americans identify with the panethnic label “Asian American.”5
“Asian American women,” like Asian Americans as a group, are extremely heterogeneous; internal differences include language, immigration status, nativity, education, and income, in addition to national origin.6 Yet, grouping women analytically as “Asian American women” takes into account the historic processes of racialization and gendering that can create shared experiences and viewpoints.7
Dittmar, Kelly, Kira Sanbonmatsu, and Paru Shah. 2026. CAWP Research Inventory on Gender & Politics. Center for American Women and Politics, Eagleton Institute of Politics, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ.
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.