Parliaments & Representatives
We could not agree more with female members of parliament (MPs) in Bangladesh who have advocated for a dedicated law to enhance female participation in politics and empower women leaders.
Bangladesh’s journey towards development and progress will reach its full potential only with greater representation of women in the nation's political landscape. Despite having a woman at the helm of the government, the underrepresentation of women in politics remains a concerning issue that must be addressed for our future well-being.
Indeed, with female candidates often facing financial constraints and insufficient party support compared to their male counterparts, it is vital to achieve a level playing field, where all candidates are then selected based on their merit and not by the support and finances they are able to generate for their campaigns.
The low rate of participation of women in politics is clear when looking at the number of women candidates that contested the 12th general election where, according to the Election Commission, 92 contestants out of 1,891 vying for 300 seats were women, making up less than 4.86%.
Increasing women's participation in politics is crucial for ensuring that the diverse needs and concerns of women, who constitute half of the population, are adequately addressed.
Read here the full article published by the Dhaka Tribune on 1 June 2024.
Image by Dhaka Tribune
Abstract
This study draws together theories of women’s substantive representation and research on politicians’ knowledge of constituent preferences. We ask whether politicians are better at predicting their constituents’ policy preferences when they share the same gender. In doing so, we contribute to knowledge about the mechanisms underlying substantive representation. Using original surveys of 3,750 Canadians and 867 elected politicians, we test whether politicians correctly perceive gender gaps in their constituents’ policy preferences and whether women politicians are better at correctly identifying the policy preferences of women constituents. Contrary to expectations from previous research, we do not find elected women to be better at predicting the preferences of women constituents. Instead, we find that all politicians — regardless of their gender — perform better when predicting women’s policy preferences and worse when predicting men’s preferences. The gender of the constituent matters more than the gender of the politician.
Read here the full article published by the Cambridge University Press on 25 March 2024.
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Women’s participation in politics is essential to advancing women’s rights and contributes to countries’ overall stability and economic prosperity. According to a 2023 report by UN Women and the Inter-Parliamentary Union, one-fourth of parliamentary positions worldwide are held by women. Although current representation is still far from equal, it represents a significant increase over the last 20 years.
However, a new paper from Washington University in St. Louis — published in the journal International Organization — shows that the progress women have made in politics is threatened when conflict strikes.
A team of WashU researchers led by Margit Tavits, the Dr. William Taussig Professor in Arts & Sciences, conducted an analysis of Ukrainian politicians’ engagement on social media in the months leading up to and after the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine — a rare opportunity to observe the effect conflict has on politicians’ behavior in real time.
Their research provides evidence that violent conflict pushes politicians to conform more strongly with traditional gender stereotypes, so that men become more politically engaged than women, and politicians gravitate toward their respective gendered communication styles and issue spaces. They also show that gender biases among the public are magnified during war.
“Our findings suggest that women leaders’ voices may be drowned out by their male counterparts during conflict, which is troubling,” Tavits said. “We know that who engages, and how, in response to conflict can have significant consequences for how the conflict unfolds, how long it lasts, whose concerns are heard and represented and so on.”
Read here the full article published by the Washington University in St. Louis on 29 May 2024.
Image by Washington University in St. Louis
Electoral gender quotas in Uganda – first introduced in 1989 – have increased women’s numbers in Uganda’s parliament to 34%. Today there are 189 women out of 557 members of parliament.
But women politicians in Uganda continue to be restricted to minority representation. They are constantly battling stereotypes that seek to maintain the status quo of male dominance in political spaces. The electorate has additionally grown accustomed to believing that since women have seats reserved for them, they should stay out of the race for open seats.
One of the reasons for this continued marginalisation is that the country’s political parties have done little to empower women. Yet they are the first hurdle that women politicians have to clear, not only to get into parliament but to become effective.
The reality is that political party affiliation provides one of the most viable avenues for women’s entry into politics – the alternative would be to vie as an independent candidates with no affiliation to a political party. Party support provides the much-needed financial resources for successful campaigning that women are normally unable to access. Political parties therefore act as gatekeepers by determining who gets into political office.
Read here the full article published by The Conversation on 26 May 2024.
Image by The Conversation
Politics has historically been a male-dominated space. Men hold the majority of power in the political sphere globally due to entrenched patriarchal norms that prioritize male leadership and decision-making. Historical traditions and cultural beliefs often position men as natural leaders. Institutional structures and political systems have been designed and perpetuated by men. This systemic male dominance is maintained through the ongoing support and reinforcement of these established norms and structures.
In Nepal, however, the past few decades have seen a gradual shift towards greater gender inclusivity. In 2007, Nepal made significant strides by adopting an interim constitution that mandated a minimum of one-third representation of women in all state mechanisms. This provision was further strengthened in the 2015 Constitution, reiterating the commitment to ensuring women's participation in political decision-making processes.
The increased presence of women in political roles can be largely attributed to legal obligations. Article 38 of Nepal's Constitution of 2015 guarantees women’s fundamental rights, including special provisions for education, healthcare, employment, and social security, through positive discrimination. Article 84(8) mandates that one-third of all members elected to the Federal parliament from each political party must be women.
Read here the full article published by República on 22 May 2024.
Image by República
The IPU grew in 2023 with the accession of the parliaments of Liberia and the Bahamas, its 179th and 180th Members respectively, as well as many observers and partners signing up to join or rejoin our global parliamentary community.
Read here more highlights of the year in the Impact Report 2023 published by the Inter-Parliamentary Union on March 2024.
Pakistan’s constitution makes no distinction between genders but women in parliament know that’s not the reality in politics. Despite impressive records of women in the legislative assembly, female parliamentarians still face barriers to entry that their male colleagues don’t - keeping many women, save for a few with family members in politics, out of these positions.
The current makeup of Pakistan’s parliament is only 21 percent female. In the National Assembly, which consists of 342 members, female representation is only around 3 percent if reserved seats are excluded; There are 60 seats reserved for women. These numbers are emblematic of a male-dominated political culture which - along with other socio-economic factors - creates a glass ceiling for women’s political advancement.
Click here to read the full article published by the Tribune Magazine on 6 February 2022.
How do quotas for women in Sri Lanka’s local government institutions affect key governance indicators such as perceived fairness, institutional trust, and perceived performance? These dimensions of governance are underexplored in the context of gender quota policies in patriarchal societies like that of Sri Lanka. The study hypothetically varied the quota provision for women (decrease to 10%, increase to 45%, or keep at the current 25%) in local government, and then tried to understand people’s opinions about the three governance indicators. When examining the results of the experiment (around 1,200 samples), it was found that perceived fairness, institutional trust, and perceived performance increased along with the greater quota provision. Possible mechanisms for the increases in institutional trust and perceived performance may be associated with the signal of fairness generated by the increase of quota provision for women.
Click here to download the report.
This working paper presents data and analysis on women’s representation in local government by UN Women as the sole custodian agency for Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) indicator 5.5.1b. It provides a comprehensive overview of women’s political participation at the local level for the first time, helping to shift the global narrative from national to local decision-making power, a less known but critical level of governance.
Data available for 133 countries and areas indicate that women’s representation in deliberative bodies of local government is higher than in parliament, but still not on equal terms with men. The paper also analyses the use of legislated gender quotas and types of electoral systems in local elections as factors impacting women’s political participation.
Remaining data gaps on women’s political participation at local level, including data disaggregation issues, underused electoral data, and the need for new data collection tools to capture women’s full and effective participation in local government are also discussed.
Click here to access the report.
Representing more than 447 million people across 27 countries, the European Parliament should be the poster child for the European Union’s “united in diversity” motto. However, the representation of women in the parliament and its key positions remains weak and change is slow. While the parliament has seen a steady increase in the proportion of female members (MEPs) over the years, from 16% in 1979 to 39.5% in 2021, this is far from the whole picture when it comes to women’s representation.
Click here to download the paper.
By Anoa Changa
For Rep. Barbara Lee, part of Chisholm's legacy is how she inspired and empowered other Black women to reach higher.
Fifty years since Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm announced her run for president, she remains a shining example for Black women in politics and beyond. More than simply a campaign slogan, “unbought and unbossed” has become a mantra for Black women in politics and their daily lives.
Click here to read the full article.
The 13th Summit of Women Speakers of Parliament (13SWSP) was held on 6 September 2021 in Vienna (Austria) on the theme Women at the centre: From confronting the pandemic to preserving achievements in gender-responsive recovery. Over 26 of the world’s leading women legislators took part in the Summit which was organized by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in partnership with the Parliament of Austria and the United Nations.
Click here to read the report.