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).

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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.

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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. 

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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.

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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.

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