In the latest Global Gender Gap Index published by the World Economic Forum, Israel was ranked 104th out of 148 countries in the category of political empowerment. This category examines the extent of women’s representation within government and parliament, and the low ranking reflects a troubling reality: Only 16% of government ministers are women, and only 24% of Knesset members are women.
Parliaments & Representatives
From Bolivia to Kyrgyzstan, some countries are proving that, with the right rules and political will, real progress towards gender parity in parliaments is within reach.
Slow progress, but with snapshots of inspiration: that’s the picture to emerge from the IPU’s recently published annual Women in parliament in 2025 report. Based on data from the 49 countries that held parliamentary renewals for 62 chambers last year, it is the definitive barometer of women’s representation in parliament.
Overall, the report paints a worrying picture of the world’s progress towards the goal of gender parity in politics. Women hold 27.5% of national parliamentary seats worldwide after a mere 0.3 percentage point rise from 2024’s rate. The proportion of women Speakers of Parliament, meanwhile, has dipped by almost 4 percentage points on the previous year.
Yet, despite sluggish progress at the global level, countries across all seven continents continue to make strides. They set valuable examples that we hope to see emulated by others in the coming years.
Violence against politicians is a part of politics, but experimental studies find that its effect on citizens is muted. Rozemarijn van Dijk and Joep van Lit argue those null results are nevertheless meaningful: they should push scholars to study the conditions under which political violence results in (de)mobilisation
Violence against politicians is, regrettably, a part of political life. Politicians are harassed and intimidated on social media, campaign materials are vandalised, and many politicians work under constant security protection. Sometimes this climate of hostility escalates into direct physical attacks on politicians. At its extreme, political violence is fatal. Substantial evidence shows that such experiences change how politicians behave. Experiences of violence influence the ways politicians interact with constituents, what issues they are willing to speak about publicly, and whether they choose to remain in political life.
As such, political violence (which we define as violent acts by individuals, not international violence or terrorism) is directly threatening democracy. The perpetrators intend it not only to silence its immediate targets but also to send a signal to bystanders (‘normal citizens’): stay in line, stay quiet, stay out of politics. This is the demobilising effect of political violence, inducing fear and self-censorship. Conversely, if political violence provokes outrage rather than fear, we might expect it to have a mobilising effect.
"Woman is the builder and moulder of the nation's destiny. Though delicate and soft as a lily, she has a heart far stronger and bolder than that of a man. She is the supreme inspiration for man's onwards march; no doubt, it is her commanding personality that is, nevertheless, grimly solemn,” wrote the great Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore.
Of the 8.06 billion people living on the Earth in 2024, 4.09 billion are men and 4.05 billion are women, constituting nearly half of the world’s population. Yet, the world of politics remains overwhelmingly male-dominated; hence, women at national, regional, and international levels have experienced social discrimination and persistent scepticism regarding their leadership capabilities.
Data compiled by UN Women reveal that only 27.2 per cent of parliamentarians in single or lower houses worldwide are women. It has been a global tendency that in various forms of political systems, women’s representation is substantially low. As of September 2025, across 29 countries, there were only 32 women who have served as heads of state and/or government. This tenacious gap is largely rooted in structural barriers, gender stereotypes, and limited access to the political institutions.
Brussels – Women occupy the top positions in three of the seven main EU institutions for the first time, but the base of female political representation is losing ground. This is the contradiction facing the European Union in 2026, according to the latest report from the European Parliament’s Think Tank.
Ursula von der Leyen heads the Commission, Roberta Metsola the Parliament, Christine Lagarde the ECB, while the role of EU High Representative for Foreign Policy (and the diplomatic service of the European External Action Service EEAS) is entrusted to Kaja Kallas. Yet, the overall number of women in the institutions is declining. In the European Parliament, after uninterrupted growth from 1979 to 2019 (when it stood at 41 per cent), the proportion of female MEPs fell to 38.5 per cent after the 2024 elections, marking a worrying halt to a trend that seemed well established. As the research shows, progress towards equality has not only slowed but, in some cases, has literally come to a halt.
The data analysis reveals a two-track continent: on the one hand, countries such as Sweden, where women account for over 60% of European parliamentary representation, and Finland, which boasts a national government with 57.9% of ministers female. On the other hand, pockets of extreme resistance remain: Hungary has no women in its Council of Ministers, while Cyprus did not elect a single woman to the European Parliament in the last election.
Not included in this already low ranking is women’s representation in senior public service positions. Currently, not a single woman serves as director general of a government ministry, and only 14% of deputy directors general in government ministries are women.
The sexualization of women in the political sphere has taken on a new and dangerous form that threatens democracy itself, a CSU professor argues.
For 25 years, Karrin Vasby Anderson, Colorado State University professor of communication studies, has researched gender and politics, focusing on how women politicians are framed in news coverage, political ads, internet memes and pop culture.
“I kept running into this very strange sexualization of political candidates, a very extreme sexualization,” Vasby Anderson said. “Then I noticed that it wasn’t just candidates who are being framed in overtly sexualized ways. It was also women voters as a group.”
This phenomenon, which Vasby Anderson calls the “pornification frame,” represents a backlash against women’s political progress in the United States by linking female candidates, politicians and voters to pornographic imagery and themes. It undermines their capacity for leadership and diminishes their credibility as a voting bloc, ultimately eroding the quality of democracy itself, she said.
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
A resource tool that demonstrates the status of women's political participation in Africa.
JOHANNESBURG - Women’s representation in the African Parliament has increased by one percentage point, from 25% in 2021 to 26% in 2024, as revealed in the Topline findings of The Women in Political Participation Barometer (WPP).
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
Gender equality in politics has faced both notable achievements and enduring obstacles in Pakistan, a nation with a multifaceted sociopolitical environment. It is believed that a democratic society must prioritize gender equality in politics. For many years, women’s rights have been the focus of heated discussion and agitation in Pakistan. Even with notable progress in social and legal systems, Pakistani women still confront formidable obstacles in their pursuit of equality. The need of equalizing women’s participation in politics, the economy, and public life is becoming more and more apparent in developing nations as they want to build their country. With the low representation of women in positions of decision-making, Pakistan still has a long way to go political power remains firmly the domain of men, except a small number of elite women with dynastic political backgrounds.
To eliminate the gender discrimination our nation’s fathers once remarked “Acquire education and participate in politics because you are the architects of the nation’s future” the statement represents the Quaid-e-Azam’s encouragement of women to enter politics; he had progressive ideas on the status of women in politics and society. Similarly, Allama Muhammad Iqbal’s poetry and prose, demonstrate a deep regard for women’s roles in society and their potential contributions to a variety of fields including politics, he said:
“The existence of woman adds color to the picture of the universe It is her lyre that adds passion to the flame of life” “Zarb-e-Kalim” By incorporating these viewpoints, both political figures promote and assist Pakistani women’s active political engagement with men.
Read here the full article published by Pakistan Today on 2 July 2024.
Image by Pakistan Today