In the latest Global Gender Gap Index published by the World Economic Forum, Israel was ranked 104th out of 148 countries in the category of political empowerment. This category examines the extent of women’s representation within government and parliament, and the low ranking reflects a troubling reality: Only 16% of government ministers are women, and only 24% of Knesset members are women.
Parliaments & Representatives
Violence against politicians is a part of politics, but experimental studies find that its effect on citizens is muted. Rozemarijn van Dijk and Joep van Lit argue those null results are nevertheless meaningful: they should push scholars to study the conditions under which political violence results in (de)mobilisation
Violence against politicians is, regrettably, a part of political life. Politicians are harassed and intimidated on social media, campaign materials are vandalised, and many politicians work under constant security protection. Sometimes this climate of hostility escalates into direct physical attacks on politicians. At its extreme, political violence is fatal. Substantial evidence shows that such experiences change how politicians behave. Experiences of violence influence the ways politicians interact with constituents, what issues they are willing to speak about publicly, and whether they choose to remain in political life.
As such, political violence (which we define as violent acts by individuals, not international violence or terrorism) is directly threatening democracy. The perpetrators intend it not only to silence its immediate targets but also to send a signal to bystanders (‘normal citizens’): stay in line, stay quiet, stay out of politics. This is the demobilising effect of political violence, inducing fear and self-censorship. Conversely, if political violence provokes outrage rather than fear, we might expect it to have a mobilising effect.
"Woman is the builder and moulder of the nation's destiny. Though delicate and soft as a lily, she has a heart far stronger and bolder than that of a man. She is the supreme inspiration for man's onwards march; no doubt, it is her commanding personality that is, nevertheless, grimly solemn,” wrote the great Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore.
Of the 8.06 billion people living on the Earth in 2024, 4.09 billion are men and 4.05 billion are women, constituting nearly half of the world’s population. Yet, the world of politics remains overwhelmingly male-dominated; hence, women at national, regional, and international levels have experienced social discrimination and persistent scepticism regarding their leadership capabilities.
Data compiled by UN Women reveal that only 27.2 per cent of parliamentarians in single or lower houses worldwide are women. It has been a global tendency that in various forms of political systems, women’s representation is substantially low. As of September 2025, across 29 countries, there were only 32 women who have served as heads of state and/or government. This tenacious gap is largely rooted in structural barriers, gender stereotypes, and limited access to the political institutions.
Brussels – Women occupy the top positions in three of the seven main EU institutions for the first time, but the base of female political representation is losing ground. This is the contradiction facing the European Union in 2026, according to the latest report from the European Parliament’s Think Tank.
Ursula von der Leyen heads the Commission, Roberta Metsola the Parliament, Christine Lagarde the ECB, while the role of EU High Representative for Foreign Policy (and the diplomatic service of the European External Action Service EEAS) is entrusted to Kaja Kallas. Yet, the overall number of women in the institutions is declining. In the European Parliament, after uninterrupted growth from 1979 to 2019 (when it stood at 41 per cent), the proportion of female MEPs fell to 38.5 per cent after the 2024 elections, marking a worrying halt to a trend that seemed well established. As the research shows, progress towards equality has not only slowed but, in some cases, has literally come to a halt.
The data analysis reveals a two-track continent: on the one hand, countries such as Sweden, where women account for over 60% of European parliamentary representation, and Finland, which boasts a national government with 57.9% of ministers female. On the other hand, pockets of extreme resistance remain: Hungary has no women in its Council of Ministers, while Cyprus did not elect a single woman to the European Parliament in the last election.
Not included in this already low ranking is women’s representation in senior public service positions. Currently, not a single woman serves as director general of a government ministry, and only 14% of deputy directors general in government ministries are women.
The sexualization of women in the political sphere has taken on a new and dangerous form that threatens democracy itself, a CSU professor argues.
For 25 years, Karrin Vasby Anderson, Colorado State University professor of communication studies, has researched gender and politics, focusing on how women politicians are framed in news coverage, political ads, internet memes and pop culture.
“I kept running into this very strange sexualization of political candidates, a very extreme sexualization,” Vasby Anderson said. “Then I noticed that it wasn’t just candidates who are being framed in overtly sexualized ways. It was also women voters as a group.”
This phenomenon, which Vasby Anderson calls the “pornification frame,” represents a backlash against women’s political progress in the United States by linking female candidates, politicians and voters to pornographic imagery and themes. It undermines their capacity for leadership and diminishes their credibility as a voting bloc, ultimately eroding the quality of democracy itself, she said.
Women from minority ethnic and religious groups in Sri Lanka continue to be systematically discriminated against and marginalized in mainstream politics, new research shows.
Quotas for women’s representation have not enabled enough minority women to enter politics; just 3 minority women sit in Parliament among 22 women – less than 2 per cent of all MPs, despite majority women’s representation having improved. Only 11 minority women have ever been elected.
‘Minority women in politics are not just underrepresented — they are systematically excluded. Though determined to represent their communities, they are shut out by cultural, religious, language and patriarchal barriers from their own communities and all political parties’, said lead author Dr Farah Mihlar of the Centre for Development and Emergency Practice, Oxford Brookes University.
The report finds that the quotas have not circumvented the specific obstacles faced by minority women, such as tokenistic nominations, exclusion from leadership and limited access to financial resources and networks. A crucial finding is that minority women unanimously identified their own community as presenting the greatest obstruction to their political careers.
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.
-
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.
-
Key Facts & Regional Snapshot
Global & South Asia Overview
-
Women in national parliaments (global): 27.2%
-
South Asia average:
-
Lower/Unicameral Houses: 14.7%
-
Upper Houses: 19.9%
-
-
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.
-
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.
Global and regional commitments over the last thirty years provide solid support for promoting gender equality in politics. In recent years, the growth of women’s representation has stagnated, and the OSCE region is now witnessing escalating narratives against gender equality, which are having a detrimental effect on women’s political participation. Temporary special measures are being abolished, and no new ones are being introduced. Political polarization is steadily increasing, while sexism and violence against women in politics is pervasive, impacting female politicians’ decisions on whether to run for office, advocate certain policy solutions or leave their elected posts.
In this publication, ODIHR presents a seven-step roadmap for OSCE participating States — their parliaments, governments, political parties and other state agencies — to work towards achieving gender parity. It complements the results of the Inter-Parliamentary Union’s 2025 Global Conference of Women Parliamentarians with its visionary approach to parity as parity in numbers, influence and culture. These steps aim to inspire participating States to draft their own, national roadmaps to gender parity, tailored to their specific circumstances and needs.