Parliaments & Representatives
Voters in Ghana elected the country’s first woman vice president, Naana Jane Opoku Agyemang, in early December 2024. Voters also elected John Mahama as president, a man who had served as president before, from 2013 to 2017.
In that first term as president, Mahama had also appointed the most women cabinet ministers ever in Ghana – six out of 19. But in the December parliamentary elections, women candidates barely improved upon the 2020 election result. Whereas 40 women – 20 from each of the two major parties – had been elected in 2020, only 43 women were elected in 2024 – 33 from the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and 10 from the New Patriotic Party (NPP) according to provisional results. There are 276 seats in the country’s parliament.
This won’t change much until the west African nation addresses certain stumbling blocks, notably Ghana’s single member district or “first past the post” electoral system and its lack of a gender quota for parliament.
Read here the full article published by The Conversation on 11 December 2024.
Image by The Conversation
Despite some progress, women remain seriously underrepresented in politics globally. As of 2023, women held only 26% of parliamentary seats and 15.8% of the positions as heads of state or government.
My new research with colleagues raises one possible factor in this representation that goes beyond discrimination in selection procedures. It is simply more dangerous for women to pursue careers in politics than men. They are far more likely to become targets of violence.
In Italy, where we conducted our study, elected female mayors are approximately three times more likely to experience an attack than their male equivalents.
The reasons behind women’s ongoing underrepresentation in the corridors of power are multifaceted. Research has explored factors from political parties sidelining women and voter discrimination, to cultural norms and traditional familial expectations. Political violence might be part of the story.
Read here the full article published by The Conversation on 26 November 2024.
Image by The Conversation
As the sound of anti-abortion pro-life campaigners raging against women accessing health care quietens down thanks to new buffer zones being introduced to protect women making difficult choices, so too do the voices of women in Afghanistan who are no longer able to talk to each other due to new laws being introduced which are literally silencing women.
Women here looked on aghast as the US voted emphatically for a man and a campaign that denigrated women. Notwithstanding the crimes of which he has been accused and convicted, Trump has a heinous track record of disrespecting women. He is a man who has already been instrumental in the rollback of women’s rights, with the forfeiting of Roe v Wade. Women in the US are so scared that they are being advised to stock up on birth control and file for divorce immediately if they are in an unhappy or abusive marriage. This shows the level of fear about what could come to pass.
Read here the full article published by the Stylist on 21 November 2024.
Image by Stylist
As more African nations seek to encourage gender parity in government positions, some African countries are struggling to fully integrate women into the political sphere. A recent report by the Policy and Legacy Advocacy Centre (PLAC), an independent, non-partisan, non-profit capacity-building organization that works to strengthen democratic governance and citizens’ participation in Nigeria, revealed that Nigeria ranks lowest among Sub-Saharan African countries in terms of women’s representation in parliament.
Out of the 185 countries analyzed in the report, Rwanda ranked highest in Africa, with women making up 61.3 percent of its parliament, while Nigeria ranked 180th, with only 4.4 percent female representation.
The data shows that Nigeria's 360-member House of Representatives currently has 16 women, and the 109-member Senate has just four women. Furthermore, 14 of Nigeria's 36 states have no female state legislators. Even in states with female legislators, their numbers remain disproportionately low. The situation is similarly bleak for elective executive positions: since the return to democratic rule in 1999, no woman has been elected president, vice president, or governor in Nigeria.
Read here the full article published by Global Voices on 20 November 2024.
Image by Global Voices
Stakeholders have raised concerns about the critical state of women’s political participation in Nigeria.
They noted that the country ranks near the bottom in terms of women’s parliamentary representation, placing 184th of 193 countries globally.
At a one-day media capacity-building workshop in Lagos, managing partner at WGC Co, Dunsin Olusanya, underscored Nigeria’s dismally low female representation, with women holding only seven per cent of leadership roles and parliamentary seats.
This gender gap extends to federal appointments, where women make up just eight of 48 ministerial positions, further reflecting the gender disparity across state and federal levels.
Historically, Nigerian women have faced setbacks in political roles post-independence, with cultural, economic, and institutional barriers limiting opportunities for active involvement in government positions.
To address this issue, ARDA Development Communication, in partnership with UN Women, organised a training session titled “Advance Women in Political Participation.” The initiative aimed to equip journalists with skills to effectively report on women’s political engagement, thereby fostering societal growth and equal representation.
Read here the full article published by Leadership Nigeria on 17 November 2024.
Image by Leadership Nigeria
At the Bakadaji Hotel in Bijilo yesterday, November 13, the Centre’s Executive Director Sait Matty Jaw presented a study report that sheds light on the deep-rooted cultural norms and societal pressures that hinder women’s participation in public and political life, alongside significant challenges facing youth.
In his presentation, Mr Jaw highlighted that societal expectations often limit women to traditional domestic roles, discouraging them from entering political spheres.
Many women pursuing leadership face resistance from their families and communities, who see political involvement as clashing with conventional gender roles, he reports, saying interviews from the study emphasised that these expectations hinder women’s ability to actively engage in politics.
Additionally, the report shows that more than half of Gambian citizens (58%) disagree with the stereotype that women lack leadership abilities, although 41% believe that men often impede women’s political ambitions. Similarly, youth face obstacles to National Assembly elections that mirror the challenges women encounter.
Read here the full article published by The Point on 14 November 2024.
Image by The Point
This guide demonstrate that women’s collective efforts in the legislature are crucial not only because of their impact on public policies that effectively respond to citizens’ demands and interests, but also because of their effect on the consolidation and progress of women’s leadership. Nonetheless, cross-party work within the legislative branch faces many challenges: building consensus while maintaining equilibrium between commitment to gender issues and party visions; keeping gender issues on the public agenda; and creating a sustainable critical mass of women legislators committed to advancing a gender equality agenda.
Women in legislatures worldwide have used diverse practices to make progress on priority issues and decrease the gender gaps in their countries. This should serve as an incentive to increase the number of women in parliaments and support their efforts so they can propose actions that ensure the continuation of the achievements of their predecessors.