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https://eng.lsm.lv/article/politics/saeima/05.03.2026-women-still-under-represented-in-european-politics-despite-improving-trend.a636920/
Women still under-represented in European politics, despite improving trend
Women still under-represented in European politics, despite improving trend
In 2025, women held 33.6% of the seats in national parliaments across the EU, marking a 5.4 percentage points (pp) increase compared with 2015. Latvia fared slightly worse than this at 31% – despite famously having more women than men than anywhere else, as a proportion of the population. 

Finland (46.0%), Sweden (44.8%) and Denmark (44.7%) had the highest shares of female representatives in parliament in 2025, while Cyprus (14.3%), Hungary (15.6%) and Romania (22.0%) had the lowest.

When it comes to women in government, Latvia does a bit better. Across Europe, women held 31.9% of national government seats, an increase of 4.2 pp compared with 2015. In Latvia the share was 36% – up from a lowly 17% in 2015. It's also worth recording that Latvia's Prime Minister and Parliamentary speaker are both women.

The share of women in government was highest in Finland (60.0%). Parity was achieved in Sweden (50.0%), and in France, almost half of the members of national governments were female (48.6%). 

In contrast, Hungary had no women in its national government, Romania had only 10.5% and Czechia 11.8%. 

In most EU countries, the share of women in national governments has grown since 2015.  Finland recorded the largest increase (+26.7 pp), followed by Lithuania (+20.4 pp) and Estonia (+17.5 pp). Decreases were registered in 6 EU countries: Romania (-24.5 pp), Slovenia (-7.7 pp), Czechia (-5.8 pp), the Netherlands (-4.2 pp), Belgium (-1.1 pp) and Poland (-0.8 pp). 

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https://lac.unwomen.org/en/stories/noticia/2026/05/catherine-juvinao-luchar-por-la-igualdad-y-transformar-la-politica-en-colombia
Catherine Juvinao: “Fighting for Equality and Transforming Politics in Colombia”
Catherine Juvinao: “Fighting for Equality and Transforming Politics in Colombia”

Catherine Juvinao Clavijo is a Colombian congresswoman, journalist, and civic activist currently serving as Representative to the Chamber for Bogotá with the Alianza Verde party. Since her election to Congress in 2022, she has championed initiatives focused on transparency, accountability, the fight against political privilege, the protection of women and children, as well as education reforms and oversight of public officials. In her interview, Catherine shares some of the challenges she faced as a woman in politics but also highlight the important legislative wins and achievements for gender parity in Colombia.

Catherine Juvinao the calling of politics early on. “I probably knew that politics was my path from the age of six,” she recalls. “My father, who is my political role model, taught me what it meant to feel pain at injustice. I saw him cry for the first time when presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galán was assassinated. From that moment, I understood that those of us who have had privileges, family, home, food, education, have a personal, ethical, and moral duty to fight so that everyone has the same opportunities.”

Her conviction is clear: “We cannot settle for living in privilege. When some of us break through glass ceilings, we must do everything we can to level the playing field for the rest of society.”

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https://www.globalissues.org/news/2026/05/25/43126
How the Global Anti-Rights Movement Is Targeting Women’s Rights in Africa Through Family Laws
How the Global Anti-Rights Movement Is Targeting Women’s Rights in Africa Through Family Laws

NAIROBI, Kenya, May 25 (IPS) - The theme of Africa Day 2026, “63 years of unity, integration and development,” offers a stark reminder of the gap that often exists between rhetoric and reality. While commendable regional legal frameworks have advanced legal protections for millions of women and girls, injustice remains written into the fabric of national family laws in many African countries, entrenching gender inequality in the home.

Such is the reality for the young woman in Kampala whose marriage was never legally registered and who, in the eyes of the State, does not exist as a wife.

For the woman in Lagos whose husband took their children after a divorce she did not want, and the law backed him.

For the Muslim widow in Nairobi who cannot inherit the home she shared with her husband for thirty years because property passes to his male relatives.

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https://www.alignplatform.org/resources/report-online-violence-against-women-in-politics
Online violence against women in politics: what shapes political party responses to technology-facilitated gender-based violence?
Online violence against women in politics: what shapes political party responses to technology-facilitated gender-based violence?

Over the last decade, a new threat to democracy has emerged in the form of technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV). While women in politics and LGBTQI+ people have long faced barriers to their participation in public life rooted in unequal gender norms, the scale and spread of TFGBV poses a significant threat to democracies worldwide because of its silencing and chilling effects.

Political parties have a primary role to play in tackling online violence against women and gender diverse politicians. While the prevalence and impact of TFGBV, such as coordinated disinformation campaigns, deepfake image-based sexual abuse or trolling are well documented, many parties are still building their knowledge on how to respond effectively and have not put in place internal practices and policies that respond to the rapidly evolving, poorly regulated digital ecosystem.  

In order to promote and protect fair and democratic participation in politics, this ALIGN Report explores what political parties are doing in response to TFGBV and what factors shape their action. The findings, based on existing literature and interviews with gender and politics professionals, indicate there are three sets of factors which donors, civil society and practitioners should consider when designing action to support political parties to respond to TFGBV internally. These are: (1) gender norms; (2) socio-political environment; and (3) internal party factors.

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https://lac.unwomen.org/en/stories/noticia/2026/04/yuliana-garcia-mesa-tambien-se-espera-que-las-ninas-y-las-mujeres-guarden-silencio
Yuliana García Mesa: “Young girls and women are also expected to stay silent, to avoid conflict. Entering politics means breaking those norms.”
Yuliana García Mesa: “Young girls and women are also expected to stay silent, to avoid conflict. Entering politics means breaking those norms.”

Yuliana García Mesa’s path to politics began with community work. “Since I was 14, I’ve been involved in social processes,” she recalls. “I started in my parish youth group, collecting food for the elderly and organizing activities for young people. Later, I joined the Municipal Youth Platform and became a youth councillor. That experience showed me the importance of young voices in decision-making spaces, especially women’s voices. She went on: “We often think our voice doesn’t count. We complain about what happens in our territories, but we don’t take responsibility. So I decided to run for municipal council and received the second-highest number of votes. Today, there are only two women among 11 councillors. That makes our presence even more important.”

But entering politics as a young woman was tough: “The hardest part has been making space in arenas dominated by men. Historically, women have been silenced, afraid to speak for fear of mockery or stigma. When I speak or present arguments, they invalidate me, question me, and ask how I can teach them when they’ve been in office for years. My training helps me stand firm, but it affects my personal life.” The hostility extends beyond council sessions. “In my community, people started making negative comments, spreading rumors to discredit me. Politically, I’m not part of the majority, so standing up to those who have held power for years is hard. They believe they have the only legitimate power and use it to influence people, creating rumors and stigma against me. This has affected me emotionally”.

During her first year as a councilwoman, this situation led her to decline a professional opportunity in Neiva in order to fulfill her public duties. Although she has endeavored to organize her academic schedule around the standard session days, these schedules are not always observed; adjustments depend largely on internal decisions that do not consistently take her personal circumstances into account.

Full article.

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https://borgenproject.org/gender-inequality-in-azerbaijan/
Gender Inequality in Azerbaijan
Gender Inequality in Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan, in southwestern Asia, has a population of more than 10.2 million people, with more than 5 million women. While progress has been made through projects by the United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF) and the Women’s Association for Rational Development (WARD), patriarchal values and gender stereotypes continue to hinder socioeconomic and political equality.

Gender Disparity in the Workforce

Azerbaijan has made legal progress on women’s employment, but gender segregation and pay inequality limit women’s economic participation. Women make up 17% of the workforce in transport and storage, 11% in energy and 8% in construction. According to the World Bank, women in Azerbaijan earn 35% less than men on average.

According to the United Nations (U.N.) Women’s data, gender inequality in Azerbaijan remains a structural problem across both public and private sectors. Women and girls aged 15 and above spend an average of 25.4% of their daily time on unpaid care and domestic work. This unequal burden limits women’s ability to participate in paid employment, education and public life.

Women in Politics

According to the Baku Research Institute, the level of women’s political participation remains low. In 2024, women’s representation in Milli Majlis, the national parliament, reached 20.8%. In 2025, women’s representation in municipalities was 39.34%. According to 2025 statistics, there are no female heads of executive authorities or ministers in Azerbaijan, and there are only six female deputy members. According to the Global Gender Gap Index, Azerbaijan ranked 133rd out of 146 countries in 2024 in terms of political participation.

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The Cost of Leading: Violence against Women in Kenyan Politics in the Lead-up to 2027
The Cost of Leading: Violence against Women in Kenyan Politics in the Lead-up to 2027

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.

Full article.

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When the public turns hostile: Political violence against parliamentarians
When the public turns hostile: Political violence against parliamentarians

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.

Full report.

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GQUAL Ranking
GQUAL Ranking

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.

Source: GQUAL

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Dissecting Nigeria’s Reserved Seats Bill for Women
Dissecting Nigeria’s Reserved Seats Bill for Women

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.

Full article.

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Women’s Political Participation in South Asia
Women’s Political Participation in South Asia
  1.  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.

  1. 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.

  1. 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 

     

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Navigating Backlash: Iran’s ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’ Protests and its Aftermath
Navigating Backlash: Iran’s ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’ Protests and its Aftermath

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.

Full article here.

 

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