As part of the IPU series 'A conversation with...', we interview parliamentarians from all over the world to find out who they represent and what motivates them.
In this edition, we discover Seiko Noda, a parliamentarian from Japan.
Click here to listen the full conversation published by the IPU on 1 May 2024.
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THE HON JULIA GILLARD AC, HOST: Katy, it's not politics that brought you to Canberra, you were born and raised there, like no one's born and raised in Canberra. Can you tell me about that?
SENATOR THE HON KATY GALLAGHER, MINISTER FOR WOMEN: Yes, I'm one of those rare species at Parliament House that lives in the, you know, in the place where everyone comes to and then leaves. My parents came to Canberra in the late 60s. My dad had terrible asthma and had been told to leave the UK and he came and joined the parliamentary library actually and so started working there in the late 60s and I was born here in 1970. Yeah, it was a very small place and a place where a lot of people came to live, not where a lot of people had been born to live. But the kids that were born in the early 70s was sort of the first generation that were born and stayed. I mean, many went, but you know there's a good lot of us that were born in the 70s that stayed, and this became our home.
GILLARD: And tell me a little bit more about your mum and your dad. So, your dad's in the parliamentary library and I know that your mum has been honoured in a beautiful mural and through a mental health award that's named after her. Tell me about her story.
GALLAGHER: Yeah, so Mum was like this dynamo. She was born in the UK but I think had lived in a number of countries, so quite a kind of, for that time, probably someone who had you know all those international connections and found herself married with, in the end, four children, quite young, four under four, in the suburbs of Canberra with no car, no family, no friends and a husband that was working all the time. Very isolated. And instead of, I think, succumbing to that isolation, she turned around and started building a lot of connections and building up services and supports and really dedicated her life to that. Which is why, yeah, there's a mural of her close to where I grew up. But I think a lot of people when I'm going around and doing the work I do, always talk to me about how they remember my mum. Particularly services for women and women with children and people with a disability. She was just, she was one of those people that just rolled her sleeves up, got in, cause nobody else was doing it. And yeah, she was definitely a very powerful influence on all of our lives and many other peoples' as well.
Click here to hear the full interview published by the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet of Australia on 02 May 2024.
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In recent years, the share of women in public office has surged.
*In 2000, just 65 women served in Congress. Today, the number is 151, more than a quarter of the total 535 voting members.
*Likewise at the state level, women now make up about a third of elected officials.
Yet despite these historic gains, women—who make up roughly half of the population—remain starkly underrepresented in government. And for women of color, the disparity is even greater.
No single factor created this gap, and no single change will fix it. But part of the problem is how campaigns are funded—and changing that will make a significant difference.
It’s expensive to run for office: Political ad spending in the 2024 election cycle is expected to exceed $16 billion. And the price of campaigning is a greater barrier for women, who typically have less access than men to the wealthy donors who provide most of this money.
Enter: public financing, a simple but powerful reform that uses public funds to boost small donations to candidates. It’s a policy that can help any candidate willing to engage with a broad base of voters—but some of its biggest beneficiaries are women, particularly women of color, who make up 25 percent of the country’s population but less than 10 percent of state and federal elected offices.
Read here the full article published by Ms. Magazine on 25 April 2024.
Image by Ms. Magazine
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Vientiane (VNA) – Vietnamese and Lao female lawmakers on April 25 shared their experience in politics at a workshop in the northern Lao province of Luang Prabang.
In her opening remarks, Chairwoman of the Vietnamese National Assembly (NA)’s Social Affairs Committee Nguyen Thuy Anh said the workshop offers an opportunity for them to tighten their bonds.
She said the information, skills, and experience that they share on this occasion will help promote their common voices on issues relating to women, children, and gender equality at domestic and international forums, while building their images before the legislatures and voters of the two countries.
For her part, Chairwoman of the Lao NA's Committee for Cultural and Social Affairs Thummaly Vongphachanh said the workshop contributes to implementing the memorandum of understanding on cooperation between the two NAs, and strengthening the solidarity between the two countries, the legislatures, and the female lawmakers’ groups.
Read here the full article published by Vietnam Plus 25 April 2024.
Image by Vietnam Plus
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As part of the IPU series 'A conversation with...', we interview parliamentarians from all over the world to find out who they represent and what motivates them.
In this edition, we discover Gabriela Morawska-Stanecka, a Senator from Poland and a member of the IPU's Executive Committee.
Click here to listen the full conversation published by the IPU on 25 April 2024.
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According to the U.S. Census, the majority of Americans are women, yet only 31% of Wisconsin State legislators are women. According to the Pew Research Center, there were 1 million fewer men enrolled in college than women this past winter. Yet women earn $0.84 for every dollar earned by a man.
The implications of changing gender roles, which seemingly should empower women, do nothing to counteract America’s structural and ideological underpinnings of women. As a young woman in university studying politics, I am inspired by women who hold political office, but it becomes obvious that female candidates must prove themselves to a further extent than male candidates.
Oppressive ideology, as well as the perception of women within our society, exemplifies that a woman must jump impossible hurdles to be America’s president. These hurdles are deeply rooted in American ideology and the policies that uphold a discrepancy of power between men and women.
Read here the full article published by The Cap Times on 23 April 2024.
Image by The Cap Times
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Systemic and legal barriers to equal political participation persist at all levels and take different forms, including unfavourable electoral systems, lack of support from political parties, socio-economic, and cultural.
Women, people with disabilities, indigenous people, LGBT+ individuals, and young people face all of these barriers, particularly insufficient access to political finance. Campaigning has become an expensive affair, and political aspirants and candidates from these groups find it challenging to secure the substantial sums of money usually required to run a campaign and win an election. In order to address these barriers and level the playing field, several targeted political finance measures have been designed and adopted by some governments, political parties, and private initiatives, although they vary in their target and effectiveness.
This paper explores the challenges facing different groups in accessing political finance and it provides a set of recommendations to ensure that the quest for more accessible political finance includes consideration of other important aspects that are indispensable to more inclusive and representative politics.
Although significant progress has been made with regard to the participation of women in political and public decision-making in Europe, such progress is too slow and uneven. In addition, there is still a lack of participation and representation in political and public decision-making of women with disabilities, young women, LBTI women, Roma women, women of colour, women with an immigration background, women belonging to minorities and indigenous women, rural women and women with a lower socio-economic background.
Adopting a draft resolution based on the report prepared by Eglantina Gjermeni, (Albania, SOC), the Equality Committee called on member States to promote the participation of women from under-represented groups in political decision-making by acting at several levels, with particular emphasis on combating stereotypes, access to public decision-making and participation in political party structures. According to the committee, “an intersectional approach to decision-making as well as targeted measures can help to leaving no one behind”. Men are also called upon to further promote gender equality and the fight against violence against women, especially in politics.
Click here to read the full article published by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on 15 March 2021.
African countries are still far from achieving women’s equal and effective participation in political decision-making.
Women constitute only 24 per cent of the 12,113 parliamentarians in Africa, 25 per cent in the lower houses, and 20 per cent in the upper houses of parliament. While local government is often hailed as a training ground for women in politics, women constitute a mere 21 per cent of councillors in the 19 countries for which complete data could be obtained.
The Barometer is a key resource of the consortium Enhancing the Inclusion of Women in Political Participation in Africa (WPP) which aims to provide legislators and policymakers with data to assess progress in women’s political participation over time.
Source: International IDEA
The IPU-UN Women map, which presents global rankings for women in executive and government positions as of 1 January 2021, shows all-time highs for women heads of state and heads of government, women Speakers of parliament and women MPs and ministers.
Source: IPU
Elections in 2020 were profoundly marked by the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in delays and cancellations, logistical challenges for candidates and election administrators and often low turnout. Women’s leadership was frequently in the spotlight during the pandemic. The pandemic raised complex and deeply gendered challenges for citizens and created obstacles for MPs to communicate and engage directly with their constituents. It changed the ways parliaments operate, introducing flexibility and new technologies. A substantial number of MPs across the globe were infected, many lost their lives.
Click here to access the report.
Source: IPU
Abstract
The Canadian and British Houses of Commons have both recently adopted formal rules to address the problem of sexual misconduct in their parliaments. Using Feminist Institutionalism, we examine how these rules have been constrained or enabled by parliamentary privilege in both countries. As a result of their divergent historical approaches to privilege, we argue that the British House of Commons’ new rules are better suited to address this issue relative to its Canadian counterpart. This outcome has differential consequences for women and minorities who are the most vulnerable to abuse in each parliament.
Click here to read the paper published by Oxford University Press.
