Parliaments & Representatives
Sanae Takaichi just broke Japan’s highest glass ceiling.
The country’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party on Saturday voted Takaichi to be the party’s next leader, which is also effectively Japan’s next Prime Minister, setting her up to be the first woman to lead the country.
According to public broadcaster NHK, Takaichi, 64, secured 185 of 341 votes cast from the party’s sitting parliamentarians and current members. The race, much like last year’s party leadership contest that Takaichi initially led but ultimately lost to Shigeru Ishiba, went to a run-off vote between Takaichi and the would-be youngest-ever Prime Minister, 44-year-old Shinjiro Koizumi.
“Instead of just celebrating, I know the real challenge starts now,” Takaichi said. “I believe there is a mountain of work ahead and we must tackle it together with everyone's support. With all of you, I will strive to fire up the LDP and make it a positive party, which turns people's anxieties into hope.”
Following a premiership vote in Japan’s parliament, Takaichi will presumably take over from Ishiba, who resigned last month after the LDP suffered two election defeats since he took office in 2024. The party and its coalition partner lost majorities in both chambers of parliament for the first time since 1955, and are now operating under a minority government. The LDP’s successive election failures were in part caused by several political scandals that have in recent years tarnished the party’s reputation.
Takaichi, a more far-right pick for the typically center-conservative party, takes charge amid growing calls for the party to reform itself as Japanese voters have increasingly gravitated toward right-wing political movements.
Full article here.
NEW DELHI: India’s Muslim women politicians have been chief ministers, constituency managers, party faithfuls, party hoppers, managers of important ministries– in short, capable of every quality shown by men to be go-getters and parliamentarians. Missing from the House (Juggernaut), a new book by journalists Rasheed Kidwai and Ambar Kumar Ghosh, however, has come up with a shocker.
Since the first general elections of 1951-52, there have been, until 2024, only 690 women MPs. Of this only 18 have been Muslim women. Out of the 18 Lok Sabhas constituted till 2025, there were five that did not have a single Muslim woman member.
“Equally shocking is the fact that the number of Muslim women elected to Parliament in one tenure, never crossed a mark of four in the 543-seat Lower House of Parliament,” they write in the book.
Speaking at the book launch organised by Juggernaut Books and the Prabha Khaitan Foundation at Delhi’s India Islamic Cultural Centre on Wednesday, Iqra Hasan, Samajwadi Party’s Kairana MP, spoke of “having to play by the rules set”, but underlined the “need for reservations within the party’s workforce” for an organic leadership to emerge so that there are enough women around to benefit from the 33 per cent reservation in Lok Sabha that the Women’s Reservation Bill 2023 promises.
Full article here.
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Tajudeen Abbas, has declared that the persistent issue of women’s underrepresentation in Nigeria’s political space will soon become a thing of the past, as renewed efforts are underway to address it through collective action and legislative reform.
Speaking at the 9th Voice of Women Conference and Awards (VOW2025) themed ‘Nigerian Women and the Power of Collective Action’, Abbas reaffirmed the National Assembly’s commitment to the passage of the Reserved Seats Bill for Women.
Represented by the Chairman, House Committee on Women Affairs, Kafilat Ogbara, Abbas stated that: “The issue of women’s underrepresentation will soon be the tale of the past. We are engaging with our colleagues one-on-one. Whether in Abuja or in their constituencies, we are making sure they understand that the time is now. There is no better time than now.”
The speaker emphasized the importance of collective advocacy and legislative reform, saying: “The Reserved Seats Bill, which I am proud to co-sponsor, seeks to create 37 additional seats for women across the National Assembly, including three seats per senatorial district at the state level.”
He highlighted the recent national public hearing on the bill held on September 22, where Nigerian women turned out in overwhelming numbers to show solidarity.
Full article here.
CANADIAN High Commissioner to Zambia Emily Burns says some women in politics whom the Canadian government supports have been expressing concerns about some of the proposed constitutional reforms. Burns also says Canada is upgrading its presence in Zambia to a full High Commission. Speaking during a courtesy call to the Ministry of Justice, Thursday, Burns said she wanted the government’s thoughts on the concerns of women in politics. “I will be going to Chipata. It will be my first visit to announce winners and support women who are aspiring or in active political leadership so that they can develop projects in the municipality.
Czech lawmaker Martina Ochodnicka is quitting after a single term, upset with hateful, misogynistic comments and a general lack of support for women politicians.
The 41-year-old deputy head of the right-wing coalition party TOP 09 is one of several women leaving parliament after serving four years, ahead of this weekend's general election.
"Women in Czech politics face unnecessary obstacles," Ochodnicka, who has looked to raise awareness of the attitudes and other issues women face, told AFP.
Rather than over her role as a lawmaker, she was under public scrutiny as a mother of three, said Ochodnicka, who had worked as a village mayor before becoming a lawmaker in 2021.
Theonila Roka Matbob, one of the most prominent female candidates in the Bougainville election, has lost her seat.
Matbob, the member for Ioro in Central Bougainville - a region encompassing Panguna - was "very confident" of holding the seat despite being up against ten male candidates.
She was one of 34 women out of a field of more than 400 candiates contesting seats in the Bougainville House of Representatives.
In 2020, she was one of only two women to win an open seat.
Matbob was a vocal advocate who led a successful campaign to have Rio Tinto, a mining multi-national, to consider the damage caused by the mine it used to own.
She was at the forefront of the push for an assessment into the damage caused by the troubled Panguna gold mine - one of the world's largest copper and gold mines - in the autonomous Papua New Guinea region.
In Ghana, the recent push for a gender equality bill is a crucial step toward enhancing women’s political representation. However, its effectiveness hinges on overcoming entrenched gender biases and ensuring robust implementation to truly transform the political landscape.
On 30 July, Ghana’s parliament passed the Affirmative Action (Gender Equality) Bill, ending a process that began in 1998. Despite women constituting the majority of Ghana’s population, they hold less than 15 percent of parliamentary seats and remain underrepresented in managerial roles, even though they represent a majority in the service sector. The passage of the bill represents remarkable progress towards enhancing gender equality and inclusivity in the country and thus rightfully deserves all the attention it has garnered.
Additionally, this legislative milestone is especially significant for a country that has consistently ranked low on the Global Gender Gap Index in recent times. For example, in 2021, Ghana ranked 117 out of 156 countries; in 2022, 108 out of 146 countries; and in 2023, 100 out of 146 countries. What are the potential challenges that could impede the successful implementation of the bill (when it becomes law), and what are the prospects for this legislation in advancing gender equality and inclusivity in Ghana?
Read here the full article published by the Australian Institute of International Affairs on 20 August 2024.
Image by Australian Institute of International Affairs
How Instagram is failing women and public officials
New research by CCDH shows that Instagram failed to act on 93% of the abusive comments targeting high-profile US women politicians we reported, including death and rape threats.
Meta’s Instagram is becoming a weapon in this assault, failing to step up to make its platform safer as the US election approaches.
CCDH reported 1,000 abusive comments targeting women politicians running for office in 2024 including:
Democrat: VP Kamala Harris, Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Jasmine Crockett, Nancy Pelosi and Senator Elizabeth Warren.
Republican: Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene, Maria Elvira Salazar, Anna Paulina Luna, Lauren Boebert and Senator Marsha Blackburn.
A week later, Instagram had taken no action against 926 of these hateful comments, which contained sexist and racist abuse, and death and rape threats.
An intro from CCDH CEO Imran Ahmed
Online spaces are now the primary places where societal norms and values are negotiated and normalized, and where we learn about and discuss current events, social issues, and politics. In 2024, with democracy hanging in the balance, social media platforms are under heightened scrutiny for their role in rising polarization, stoking division, and our increasingly toxic political environment. So how are they doing? In the case of Instagram, this report finds that they may as well not be trying at all. Abuse is endemic, and there is evidence they fail to act in over 9 in 10 instances even when alerted...
Read here the full report published by the Center for Countering Digital Hate on 14 August 2024.
Image by Center for Countering Digital Hate
The underrepresentation of Nigerian women in governance and politics has been a longstanding issue in political discourse.
Currently, women occupy only a small fraction of the seats in Nigeria’s National Assembly, with 3 out of 109 senators and 15 out of 360 members of the House of Representatives being female while, there are five appointed women ministers out of 45. Since gaining independence in 1960, Nigeria is yet to have a female president.
On the 9th of July the House of Representatives advanced a bill to its second reading, aiming to create 74 seats for women in the National Assembly.
The bill, sponsored by Deputy Speaker Benjamin Kalu and 12 others, proposes amendments to Sections 48, 49, 71, and 117 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) to establish “Special seat reserved exclusively for women in the Senate and House of Representatives for each state of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).”
The news stirred mixed emotions as the 9th National Assembly dismissed all 5 gender bills, leaving women perplexed about the obstacles they face in achieving equal representation to contribute their share to national development, akin to their male counterparts.
Read here the full article published by Radio Nigeria on 19 July 2024.
Image by Radio Nigeria
Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike, the first woman to lead Japan's capital, clinched a third term on Sunday to extend her time in office running one of the populous cities in the world.
Dozens of candidates were competing to unseat her, with female opposition lawmaker Renho Murata one of the main challengers — a rarity in Japan's male-dominated political scene.
In the country's 47 prefectures, only two governors are women. At the national level, the ratio is similar — only about 11% of members in the lower house of parliament are female. Japan does not currently have mandated gender quotas for politicians.
According to Mikiko Eto, a political science professor at Hosei University, such law would be "the most important point" to address the disbalance.
Have gender quotas worked?
Unlike Japan, many political systems around the world have implemented gender quotas to increase the number of women in politics.
In Taiwan, where there are reserved seats for women and candidate quotas in place, women now make up 41.6% of parliament — the highest percentage of female lawmakers in Asia.
In Indonesia, women's representation in parliament was quite low before the 30% candidate gender quota was introduced. In 1999, fewer than one in 10 lawmakers was female. Two decades later, that number had risen to one in five.
"In countries where women's descriptive representation is still very low, affirmative actions like gender quotas seem to be the first step to take," Nankyung Choi, a scholar who specializes in women and politics in Southeast Asia, told DW.
Read here the full article published by DW News on 10 July 2024.
Image by DW News
During the same period, it was also found that while women’s representation in top executive positions in government has increased, their presence in local government across Africa has declined. In East Africa, women's representation in local government declined by 11%, alongside a 16% increase in women holding top executive positions. The acknowledgment remains that progress in advancing meaningful political participation for women in Africa is still slow.
The WPP Barometer is a resource tool that demonstrates the status of women's political participation in Africa. It aims to provide evidence, particularly to legislators and policymakers, to advocate for and strengthen women's political participation and leadership.
On 10 July 2024, the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA), through the Women in Political Participation Project, in collaboration with Gender Links, will mark a milestone by launching the second edition of the WPP Barometer.
The presentation of the WPP Barometer Topline findings follows the publication of the 1st Edition of the WPP Barometer in 2021, providing insights into the status of women's political participation in Africa. This event underscores the achievements of the Women in Political Participation Consortium, which was launched in 2019 with support from the Embassy of Sweden in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Through this initiative, the consortium is advancing the project titled "Enhancing the Participation of Women in Political Participation in Africa".
Central to the project's mission is the promotion of women's political participation and representation across Africa. Drawing inspiration from the Maputo Protocol of 2003, sub-regional protocols, and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the project aims to amplify the voices of women in political spheres.
To achieve its objectives, International IDEA and its partners engage with a diverse range of stakeholders, including political parties, media organizations, election management bodies, parliaments, and governmental ministries focused on gender and women's issues. By collaborating with policymakers and regional bodies such as the African Union and regional economic communities, the project aims to effect meaningful change throughout the continent. Currently operational in eight African countries—Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eswatini, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Senegal, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe—the Women in Political Participation (WPP) project is making significant strides towards its goals.
Click here to read and download the Women’s Political Participation: Africa Barometer 2024.
This article investigates legislators’ willingness to talk about gender and women during policy making discussions, asking whether it is conditional on their sex or partisanship in environments where party discipline does not constrain their speech. The Canadian Senate offers a case of a legislature with low or absent party discipline. A quantitative content analysis of nearly 1,000 Senate committee meetings confirms that sex is a primary indicator of legislators’ inclination to talk about gender and women. Moreover, women senators who sit on committees with a critical mass of women members (30% or greater) are more likely to talk about gender and women, making the case for the importance of women’s descriptive representation. Partisanship and independence had no significant effect on senators’ propensity to discuss women. The findings suggest that partisanship does not constrain legislators’ representation of women in environments with low party discipline.
Read here the full article published by the Cambridge University Press on 15 May 2024.
Image by Cambridge University Press