Parliaments & Representatives
The Women’s Parliamentary Rights Act became law on 29 October 1919, allowing women to stand for election to the House of Representatives. This was just in time for the general election on 16 - 17 December 1919.
Three women stood for election – Rosetta Baume in Parnell, Aileen Cooke in Thames, and Ellen Melville in Grey Lynn. None were successful, though Ellen Melville came second in Grey Lynn.
Melville stood in a total of seven elections – polling well, but never winning a seat. She often faced discrimination because of her gender, even from her own party. She firmly believed that ‘women would get nothing done for them in legislation unless they had women in parliament.’
Melville did have success in becoming the first women in NZ elected to a city council however – sitting on the Auckland City Council from 1913 to 1946.
Ten more women candidates were also unsuccessful before Elizabeth McCombs finally became New Zealand’s first female MP in a by-election in 1933.
Appointment to the Legislative Council was not open to women until 1941, and the first two were admitted in 1946. The Legislative Council was abolished in 1950.
By 1980 only 16 women had succeeded in parliamentary elections, but from then onwards women began to have more success. At the first MMP election in 1996, 19 of the new MPs were women. Today we have 49 women MPs, making up 40.8% of the New Zealand Parliament.
The Commons women and equalities committee has decided to stop using X after the social media site’s AI tool began generating thousands of digitally altered images of women and children with their clothes removed.
The move by the cross-party committee places renewed pressure on ministers to take decisive action after the site was flooded with images including sexualised and unclothed pictures of children generated by its AI tool, Grok.
Sarah Owen, the Labour MP who chairs the committee, said that given preventing violence against women and girls was among its key policy areas, “it has become increasingly clear that X is not an appropriate platform to be using for our communications”.
In January, three women new to local politics will take leadership positions on Whatcom County Council and at the Port of Bellingham. Each has their own ideas for what they bring to the table. All agree stepping into leadership has been like standing in front of a firehose of information, but said they’re excited to learn.
“It’s pretty humbling,” said Whatcom County Council member-elect Jessica Rienstra.
Cascadia Daily News spoke with Elizabeth Boyle, Carly James and Rienstra about their hopes for their first year in office, the challenges they may face and how they view women in leadership.
These interviews have been edited and condensed for clarity.
Women in Ghana remain significantly underrepresented in political leadership and public decision-making, despite the passage of the Affirmative Action Gender Equity Act in 2024, the 2025 Status of Women Report has said.
The Affirmative Action Gender Equity Act, passed by Parliament in July 2024 and assented to in September 2024, required a minimum of 30 per cent representation of women in public appointments between 2024 and 2026, with a gradual increase to 50 per cent by 2034.
However, the report found that Ghana is already falling behind on these early targets and that as of the end of 2025, women make up 41 of the 276 Members of Parliament, representing 14.9 per cent.
“This is an increase of just one seat from the previous Parliament. Women’s representation in local assemblies stands at about 4.1 per cent, while women appointed to substantive ministerial positions account for less than 20 per cent,” the report added.
These figures, the report said, fall far below both international benchmarks and the requirements set out in the new law.
The Convenor of the Women’s Manifesto Coalition, Hamida Harrison, presented the report during Network for Women’s Rights in Ghana (NETRIGHT)’s End of Year review of the ‘Status of Women in Ghana’ at an event held in Accra last Friday.
Indian politics often behaves less like a modern constitutional system and more like a network of fiercely loyal clans. When a serious allegation of sexual violence or exploitation surfaces, the instinct of many is not to ask, ‘What happened to the woman?’ but to ask, ‘Which side is she on, and what does this do to us?’ That clan instinct is what keeps turning women’s complaints into political weapons rather than legal issues.
The recent allegations against opposition MLA Rahul Mamkootathil illustrate this clearly. A young woman first took her complaint not to a police station, but to the chief minister and CPI(M) leadership, seeking action on her allegations of rape, forced pregnancy and coerced abortion.
Only after this political route was exhausted was an FIR registered, and the criminal process formally set in motion. Another woman complained against K T Kunhumuhammad, a two-time CPI(M) MLA, to the chief minister, but an FIR was registered 12 days later, after the media broke the news.
Within the Congress, several women leaders and party functionaries have raised concerns about Mamkootathil’s conduct well before and alongside the current FIRs. Youth Congress leader Sajana B Sajan wrote to the party high command and Priyanka Gandhi, demanding his expulsion and seeking a committee of women leaders to record the survivor’s statement.
Fear, harassment, and institutional silence continue to shape the political experience of women in The Gambia, a new study has revealed, exposing how violence, intimidation, and systemic neglect are undermining women’s participation and leadership in public life.
The findings, validated on Monday at a stakeholder workshop convened by the Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD), highlighted violence against women in politics as a deeply entrenched barrier that silences voices, deters participation, and weakens democratic governance.
The validation exercise, held at the Bakadaji Hotel, brought together policymakers, National Assembly members, political party representatives, civil society organisations, and development partners to review and validate the findings of the study, which is expected to be officially launched in January 2026.
WFD opened its country office in The Gambia in 2018 with the aim of supporting the consolidation of democracy, with the National Assembly serving as its main partner and host institution. Globally, WFD works to promote political systems that are inclusive and accountable, ensuring that all citizens regardless of gender, origin, disability, ethnicity, or religion are able to participate meaningfully in political processes and hold leaders to account.
The Violence Against Women in Politics study is being implemented under WFD’s Women in Political Leadership (WPL) project, supported by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) through the Gambia Inclusive and Accountable (GIA) Programme for 2025–2026.
Opening the workshop, the Country Director of WFD in The Gambia, Ms. Tobaski Njie Sarr, described the validation as a critical milestone in advancing democratic inclusion. She explained that independent consultants were contracted to carry out the research in order to ensure credibility and objectivity, drawing comparisons with WFD’s earlier study on the cost of politics in The Gambia.
A survey on politicians in Japan has shown that many former and current female national legislators and local assembly members have been subject to sexual harassment.
"I was threatened that if I did not kiss them, they would not vote for me," and "I was told that young women win elections even if they are not qualified," are examples of some of the responses.
Released in February, the results were a part of a "politician harassment white paper" containing the results of a survey carried out by Tokyo-based Woman Shift, a network of young female lawmakers and assembly members, as well as Polilion, a Gifu Prefecture-based organization that conducts harassment training for legislatures and assemblies. The survey was carried out between August and October 2021, and 200 people (100 men, 98 women and 2 others) responded.
Click here to read the full article published by The Mainichi on 29 March 2022.
Recent conversations prompted by the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements have put issues of workplace sexism, sexual harassment and sexual assault into the global spotlight. This paper examines how members of the Australian Liberal Party made sense of, and responded to, accusations by female Liberal MPs of bullying and intimidation in their party. Transcripts of media interviews identified by searching the ParlInfo database (between August and September 2018) were analysed using a critical discursive psychology approach. Two discursive repertoires were routinely mobilised in Liberal politicians’ accounts: (1) a gender-neutral repertoire whereby reported incidents of bullying were argued to apply equally to men and women, and (2) a ‘politics is tough’ repertoire that served to downplay and legitimise bullying and intimidation as normative and unproblematic. We argues that such repertoires functioned to silence talk about the relevance of gender and the persistence of inequality. The bullying and intimidation experienced by women may continue to be the cost of their political engagement unless systemic change occurs that acknowledges the ongoing relevance of gender in politics.
Click here to access the paper.
In celebration of International Women's Day, we review the history of women in politics in Mexico. Gender parity electoral laws, leaders who value women's inclusion, and fierce women who have propelled Mexico's gender equality movement forward have altogether helped realize the major strides in women's representation, especially since the turn of the century. Women have not only vied for more elected positions; they have also secured a historic number of governorships and legislative seats, effectively reaching gender parity in Congress. President Lopez Obrador has also made a point to promote women to appointed positions, both in his cabinet and in the Supreme Court. While Mexico still has a way to go in reaching full gender equality and equity, gender quotas have had the positive effect of normalizing women's active role in politics and of welcoming them as viable and worthy contenders in the political arena, moving the needle in a necessary and positive direction.
Click here to read the full article published by The Wilson Center on 7 March 2022.
This is a House of Commons Committee report, with recommendations to government. The Government has two months to respond.
While there is still some way to go to achieve equal representation of women in the House of Commons, and in the wider political and public sphere, in recent decades the focus has broadened to encompass “gender sensitivity” in the House of Commons as a workplace. Steps have been taken to make the House a more welcoming and accommodating place for women. For example, there has been focus on its working hours and practices, and support for MPs who are parents. The planned restoration and renewal of the Palace of Westminster is an opportunity to design in greater accessibility and inclusion, for women and other underrepresented groups.
Click here to access the report.
Today’s parliament has more female MPs than ever but they remain a minority. What do they think is needed for equality in the corridors of power?
Viscountess Nancy Astor was the first woman to take a seat in parliament, receiving 2,000 letters a week from female voters desperate to finally have their voices heard.
More than 100 years later, women account for just a third of seats in the Commons and only a quarter of sitting peers in the House of Lords.
Click here to read the full article published by The Times on 8 March 2022.
The number of women in parliament is consistently low throughout the Asia-Pacific region. Many factors contribute to this situation, but studies suggest that one major factor relates to the way that women are treated on social media. This report aims to identify how women politicians fare against their male counterparts on social media and to evaluate whether women in politics face a greater challenge than men.
Overall, there were four times as much problematic content related to the Facebook pages of male politicians compared to their female counterparts. It is important to note that the vast majority of the problematic comments aimed at women politicians were in the sexist category. Compared to their male colleagues, female politicians are treated in a less serious manner on Facebook. Comments on their posts touch on their appearance and personal qualities rather than their politics.
Click here to access the report.