Parliaments & Representatives
Women working in politics have spoken of the challenges of juggling work with their family life and caring duties.
Cumbria's constituencies are among the furthest away from London, adding to the demands on MPs who have caring responsibilities.
Julie Minns, MP for Carlisle and Lizzi Collinge, who represents Morecambe and Lunesdale, have spoken to BBC Radio Cumbria for a series looking at issues that affect women in politics.
They said balancing the demands of the job while caring for their families was challenging, but having diversity in politics was "fundamental".
Mrs Collinge's constituency straddles the border between Cumbria and Lancashire, where she lives with her husband and two children.
She said: "Travelling and being away from your family can be quite difficult for the kids and to be honest, I'm so busy in Westminster that it's easy to partition off, but you get the occasional pangs of missing your family."
'Diversity is fundamental'
Mrs Collinge said her casework often hits home, with recent examples including helping a homeless constituent and being involved with a debate around baby loss.
"This hits very close to me having lost a couple of pregnancies," she said.
However, she said diversity in Parliament was fundamental.
"I think if you only have one sort of person in Parliament then you don't get the action that's needed for everyone in the country," she said.
Ms Minns is an unpaid carer for her 90-year-old mother and her 99-year-old aunt and said she "hasn't caught her breath" since being elected in July.
Read here the full article published by the BBC on 7 September 2024.
Image credits: BBC
Abstract:
The media significantly influences the formation of public opinion as well as the development and maintenance of gendered stereotypes of men and women. Given this impact, understanding gender representation is crucial for evaluating news credibility and addressing gender stereotypes. In addition, media plays a key factor in the development of democratic societies. Apparently, women are underrepresented in the news, which suggests that although they make up about half of the world's population, they are not equally represented in the reality that the news generates. Thus, this study aims to investigate factors that might influence news reporting, especially about female politicians. Adopting a qualitative approach, 11 Malaysian journalists were interviewed on their journalism practices.
Read here the full article published by the Taylor's University on 6 September 2024.
Image credits: Taylor's University
The representation of women in Ghana's Fourth Republic Parliament has remained notably low.
According to Table 1, the percentage of female parliamentarians elected in the 2020 election 40/275(14.55%) marked the highest figure since 1996.
Yet, it falls significantly below the global and sub-Saharan averages of 26.7 per cent and 27.1 per cent respectively. Without deliberate measures, this percentage is likely to decrease by the upcoming elections on December 7.
While both the NDC and the NPP have nominated 39 and 36 female parliamentary candidates (FPCs) respectively for the 2024 elections, indicating a higher number compared to the 2020 figures, the expected representation of female MPs following the upcoming elections is anticipated to decrease.
Female candidates
The question is: Why should this be the case? The increased number of FPCs suggests a likelihood of electing more female MPs. However, the dynamics are different this time. First, many incumbent FPCs lost their primaries in their party strongholds to male in-party contestants. Consequently, these seats are expected to be occupied by male in-party counterparts.
Second, a significant number of seats being contested by FPCs are not within their parties' traditional strongholds where victory would be more easily attainable. For instance, out of the 36 seats to be contested by NPP FPCs, only 13 (36.11%) are within their stronghold, while the corresponding figure for the NDC is 9 out of 39 (23%).
This suggests that many FPCs are contesting primarily to bolster the votes for their party's presidential candidates.
Read here the full article published by Graphic Online on 6 September 2024.
Image credits: Graphic Online
Once celebrated for its progressive strides towards gender equality in politics, Nepal is now witnessing a troubling regression. Despite constitutional guarantees, the representation of women in key political positions is declining, exposing the persistent grip of patriarchal norms and the superficial commitment of political parties to genuine gender inclusivity.
Nepal now needs to ensure that it sustains earlier gains. The percentage of women in its parliament remains above the global average of 25%, and over the past decade, women have held the positions of president, chief justice and speaker of the House of Representatives.
Compared with its South Asian counterparts, Nepal has progressive constitutional provisions for promoting gender equality. The Constitution of Nepal guarantees 33% participation of women at every level, and the local level election act mandates a minimum of 36.71% female participation.
The World Bank Women, Business and Law Index 2024 gives Nepal the highest score in the region for closing the gender gap. More broadly in the South Asia region, the picture is grim. Pakistan has reserved only 17% of its parliamentary seats for women; in Sri Lanka the figure is just 5.33%.
Across the globe, only 13% of countries apply effective gender quotas, according to the World Economic Forum's Gender Gap Report 2024. The study states that if the current trend continues, it will take 134 years to achieve full gender parity.
Read here the full article published by Nikkei Asia on 4 September 2024.
Image credits: Nikkei Asia
MEXICO CITY (AP) — In a U.S. electoral campaign punctuated by jibes about “childless cat ladies,” some might wish there were rules against mocking candidates based on their gender. Mexico — which just elected its first female president — has such a law but, surprise, it’s not that easy.
The debate centers around a hard-fought race between two female candidates for a Mexico City borough presidency. An electoral court overturned an opposition candidate’s victory, ruling that she had committed “gender-based political violence” against the losing, ruling-party candidate.
Outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador suggested Monday the ruling could create a dangerous precedent, even though the losing candidate belonged to his own Morena party.
“We should be careful about this,” López Obrador said. “When insults, real or imagined, can be cause, or could be a cause, for overturning or nullifying a victory, that is something else altogether.”
The dispute arose after opposition candidate Alessandra Rojo won a narrow victory over Morena’s Caty Monreal in the race for the borough that includes downtown Mexico City. During the campaign, Rojo brought up the fact that Monreal’s father, Ricardo Monreal, is a leading Morena party politician, suggesting she may have been the candidate because of her dad’s influence.
Read here the full article published by the Associated Press on 3 September 2024.
Image credits: Associated Press
Sri Lankan women make up over 51% of the population as well as the number of registered voters; they contribute immensely to state revenue through tea and garment trades and inward foreign remittances; manage family budgets; and run homes, but in the political arena they remain but a footnote.
“The men in politics haven’t done anything meaningful for women in this country,” says 26-year-old primary school teacher from Colombo, Mariam Sadique. She is among several women that the SundayTimes spoke to on what women expect from political leaders.
Ms. Sadique said that it’s frustrating to see the same faces making empty promises, knowing that once they’re in power, they won’t lift a finger to help women. “My biggest concern is that women’s voices will continue to be ignored and our struggles will just get worse,” she said, adding that the current lot of politicians are more focused on finding ways to line their pockets than addressing real issues like reforming the MMDA (the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act), which has been controversial for its oppressive laws against women or the scrapping of period tax.
“I have had to reprioritise what essentials mean to me in this economy. I grew up wanting to be a teacher, and I’ve achieved that dream of mine, but I’ve had to cut down on so many things, since the teacher’s salary is not that great in Sri Lanka,” she said.
Read here the full article published by The Sunday Times on 1 September 2024.
Image credits: The Sunday Times
Gender mainstreaming has been embraced internationally as a strategy towards realizing gender equality. Gender mainstreaming has a double dimension: it requires both integrating a gender perspective to the content of the different policies, and addressing the issue of representation of women and men in the given policy area. Both dimensions – gender representation and gender responsive content - need to be taken into consideration in all phases of the policymaking process.
Equality between women and men is recognized by the EU as a fundamental right, a common value of the EU, and a necessary condition for the achievement of the EU objectives of growth, employment and social cohesion. Since 1996, the Commission committed itself to a “dual approach‟ towards realizing gender equality. This approach involves mainstreaming a gender perspective in all policies, while also implementing specific measures to eliminate, prevent or remedy gender inequalities. Both approaches go hand in hand, and one cannot replace the other. Within the European Parliament, the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM Committee) is the main body in charge of promoting gender equality and gender mainstreaming in all the EP‟s policy and legislative processes. Click here to access the report of the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality on gender mainstreaming in the work of the European Parliament for 2015.
The UCLG Standing Committee on Gender Equality monitors and promotes the participation of women at local level across the world. The Committee firmly believes that the participation of women in local decision-making is the foundation of global development. The Standing Committee works with local elected women and grassroots organizations to build their capacities and increase women’s representation.
Local and regional governments have a long track record of working internationally for gender equality, with a particular focus on increasing the representation of local elected women and the promoting the participation of all women in local decision-making:
[[{"fid":"11048","view_mode":"default","fields":{"format":"default","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":false,"field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false},"type":"media","link_text":null,"field_deltas":{"1":{"format":"default","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":false,"field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false}},"attributes":{"style":"display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;","class":"media-element file-default","data-delta":"1"}}]]
Click here to read the UCLG Standing Committee on Gender Equality's report on the role of local governments in advancing and promoting gender equality for sustainability.
The aim of the project was to examine the advisability of creating a new mechanism to address laws that discriminate against women. The terms of reference specified two key objectives. The first was to overview existing UN mechanisms to ascertain the extent to which they addressed the issue of discriminatory laws. This involved interviewing UN human rights and agency officials working in both Geneva and New York1 and also reviewing the reports and jurisprudence of human rights committees and special procedure mechanisms. The second was to try to get national data on laws that discriminate against women. This was to be done by means of a questionnaire. On the basis of the data gathered, the consultant was required to advise on whether a special mechanism addressing discriminatory laws was needed (...)
Co-organized by the Inter-parliamentary Union (IPU) and the National Assembly of Zambia, and building on the theme “Agenda 2030: Youth leading the way, leaving no one behind”, the third edition of the IPU’s Global Conference of Young Parliamentarians was held on 16 and 17 March 2016 in Lusaka, Zambia, with the attendance of 130 young men and women parliamentarians from 50 countries. Click here to access the outcome document of the conference.
The Inter-parliamentary Union has recently published a report reviewing the developments made in women's participation in parliaments in the last 20 years, globally, regionally and at the country level. The report shows that the past 20 years have witnessed an impressive rise in the share of women in national parliaments around the world, with the global average nearly doubling during that time – and all regions making substantial progress towards the goal of 30 per cent women in decision-making. The global average of women in national parliaments has increased from 11.3 per cent in 1995 to 22.1 per cent in 2015 (+10.8 points). All regions registered some increase in their share of women in parliament, the greatest strides being made in the Americas. The countries that achieved the greatest progress between 1995 and 2015 in their single or lower houses are Rwanda (+59.5 points, achieving 63.8% by 2015), Andorra (+46.4 points with 50% in 2015), and Bolivia (+42.3 points with 53.1% in 2015).
[[{"fid":"10618","view_mode":"default","fields":{"format":"default","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":false,"field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false},"type":"media","link_text":null,"field_deltas":{"1":{"format":"default","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":false,"field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false}},"attributes":{"class":"media-element file-default","data-delta":"1"}}]] [[{"fid":"10617","view_mode":"default","fields":{"format":"default","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":false,"field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false},"type":"media","link_text":null,"field_deltas":{"2":{"format":"default","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":false,"field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false}},"attributes":{"style":"font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;","class":"media-element file-default","data-delta":"2"}}]]
The number of women Speakers of Parliament reached an all-time high by the end of 2015 at 49 (or 17.9% of the total number of Speakers), reports the Inter-parliamentary Union (IPU) in “Women in Parliaments in 2015: The year in review”. That is up from 43 at the beginning of the year. Elections in Argentina, Denmark, El Salvador, Finland, Lesotho, San Marino, Switzerland and Trinidad and Tobago resulted in the appointment of women Speakers. Women also became Speakers for the first time ever in Namibia, Nepal and the United Arab Emirates. Despite the significant increase in the number of women Speakers of Parliament, the number of women parliamentarians globally rose by a mere 0.5% from 2014. Bigger improvements were seen in the Americas (+0.8%), sub-Saharan Africa (+0.7%) and Europe (+0.4%); but those were tempered by timid increases in the Arab States (+0.3%), Asia (+0.1%) and the Pacific (+0.1%). The Americas remain in the lead in terms of regional averages, with women’s parliamentary representation standing at 27.2%. There was a slight decrease in the Nordic countries (-0.4%), which have now stagnated at 41.5%. It was also reported that in elections where quotas were legislated in 2015, women took almost a quarter of the parliamentary seats available. More women appear to have won seats where political parties adopted voluntary quotas. Only 13.6% of seats were won by women in countries without quotas. Click here to see the report.