Parliaments & Representatives
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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In this on-the-record briefing, Professor O’Brien discusses gender and politics. She also speaks about the impact of electing more women, the importance of women’s representation in the political and economic decision-making process, if the number of women running for office globally are increasing or decreasing, and gender differences in voter turnout.
Diana O’Brien is the Bela Kornitzer Distinguished Professor of Political Science at Washington University in St. Louis. Her teaching focuses on the causes and consequences of women’s political representation across the globe. Her areas of study are gender and political parties, legislative politics, executive branch politics, and citizens responses to women’s presence in politics.
MODERATOR: Hello and welcome to the Washington Foreign Press Center’s virtual briefing on Women in Politics. My name is Doris Robinson and I am the briefing moderator. Our briefer today is Diana O’Brien; she is the Bela Kornitzer Distinguished Professor in the Department of Political Science at Washington University in St. Louis. Her research and teaching focus on the – focuses on the causes and consequences of women’s political representation in high-income democracies, including Western Europe and the United States, as well as across the globe. Her areas of study are gender and political parties, legislative and executive branch politics, as well as citizen responses to women’s presence in politics.
And now for the ground rules. This briefing is on the record. We will post the transcript and a video of the briefing later today on our website at fpc.state.gov. And a quick reminder, please make sure that your Zoom profile has your name and media outlet that you represent. And finally, before Professor O’Brien makes opening remarks, just a quick reminder that she is an independent subject matter expert and the views expressed by briefers not affiliated with the Department of State are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. Government. Their participation in FPC programming does not imply endorsement, approval, or recommendation of their views.
And with that, I will now invite Professor O’Brien to provide opening remarks. Over to you.
Read here the full briefing published by the USA Department of State on 16 April 2024.
Image by USA Department of State
Iceland has an excellent record on gender equality, topping the World Economic Forum’s ranking of most gender equal country for 14 consecutive years. It was also the first country to elect a female president, Vigdis Finnbogadóttir, who won the 1980 presidential election as well as the next three. The Parliament, the Althingi, almost became the first European country to elect a female-majority parliament in 2021, but after a recount narrowly missed the target, with women winning 30 out of 63 seats.
But gender equality goes further than numbers and rankings: it requires equal treatment and opportunity too. In 2017, for example, the #MeToo movement raised awareness around the world of sexual harassment, assault and abuse against women in all walks of life, including parliaments.
The IPU’s 2018 analysis on sexism, harassment and violence against women in European parliaments, published in partnership with the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, revealed that some 82.5% of respondents reported having suffered psychological violence during their time in office.
Read here the full article published by the IPU on 15 April 2024.
A historic law, the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, 2023, mandates the reservation of one-third of the total seats in the Lok Sabha, state Assemblies, and the Legislative Assembly of the National Capital Territory of Delhi for women.
In 2023, a historic law was passed to usher more women in governance. The Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, 2023, mandates the reservation of one-third of the total seats in the Lok Sabha, state Assemblies, and the Legislative Assembly of the National Capital Territory of Delhi for women. But representation in leadership isn’t the only sign of gender parity in politics — active participation of the women electorate is also paramount.
So, how has India fared in both regards so far? India Today’s Data Intelligence Unit analysed the turnout data from 1962 to 2019 and candidates’ data from 1957 to 2019 and found a mostly positive trend.
TURNOUT GAP NARROWED
In 1962, men's turnout stood at 63.3 per cent, while women's turnout was notably lower at 46.6 per cent, indicating a considerable gap of 16.7 per cent. This gap fluctuated over the subsequent decades but generally narrowed. For instance, in 2014, men's turnout was 67.1 per cent, while women's turnout increased substantially to 65.6 per cent, resulting in a smaller gap of 1.5 per cent.
Read here the full article published by India Today on 13 April 2024.
Image source: India Today
Federation of Women Lawyers in Kenya (FIDA Kenya) is engaging with the female leaders and citizens, to enlighten and make them understand their role in the democratic process and also for the women leaders to have the courage to interact with the public and take up political leadership.
The ongoing town hall meetings bring together FIDA, women leaders and grassroots women to interact and discuss the role of the citizens when it comes to promoting women in political participation.
FIDA Kenya programme Officer Virginia Kibunja, speaking in a meeting in Kirinyaga West Sub-County, said with support from other partners such as USAID and ElGIA, they have initiated a project that works towards eliminating the barriers that hinder the participation of women in politics.
“So today we are here to understand what is Kirinyaga doing in terms of promoting women in political participation, and what barriers are they experiencing, and how best they can be solved in order to increase the number of women joining political leadership in this region,” Ms Kibunja said.
Read here the full article published by the Kenya News on 8 April 2024.
Image source: Kenya News
On the eve of India’s independence on August 14th, 1947, a momentous gathering filled the parliament gallery, eagerly awaiting Jawaharlal Nehru’s iconic address, his famous Tryst with Destiny Speech.
However, the session commenced with Sucheta Kripalani, a revered freedom fighter and later India’s first woman Chief Minister, singing the patriotic anthem “Vande Mataram” to set the stage for the historic occasion.
Why are we discussing her today? Because since India gained independence, significant progress has been made, including the rise of women leaders, chief ministers, and even a woman Prime Minister.
However, despite these advancements, women’s representation in politics still lags behind. While women dominate local bodies at the grassroots level, the question remains: what about leadership positions at the highest levels?
Read here the full article published by Mahabahu on 5 April 2024.
Image source: Mahabahu
In this report, UNDP explores a long standing and important focus area - strengthening women’s political participation and gender equality in governance. This report aims to highlight the ways in which UNDP supports women's political participation across the globe. To understand the scale, scope, and range of UNDP's support to women's political participation, the mapping considered 73 current and recently closed projects and programmes.
The mapping and analysis cover key action areas like electoral assistance; parliamentary strengthening; civic engagement and women’s participation in the public administration. It also covers strategic priority areas in UNDP’s Gender Equality Strategy and global programme on governance, projects that address violence against women in politics including online violence; promoting gender quotas to advance women’s public participation; and projects that focus on transforming gender norms.
Click here to read the full report published by UNDP on 19 June 2023.
Women MPs are exposed to daily online harassment, and social media platforms provide unlimited scope for anonymous, hostile and aggressive behaviour to be targeted at them. As the unprecedented cyber abuse of female MPs is known to be detrimental to their personal and professional lives, today’s toxic virtual environment poses a real risk to the future of women in politics, argues Christina Julios.
Online abuse of Members of Parliament is nothing new. An occupational hazard for any public figure, elected representatives have long been targets of attacks and derision from the public. With the advent of mainstream social media, however, there has been an exponential growth of cyber abuse, which has also become more extreme and normalised.
Click here to read the full article published by The London School of Economics on 17 May 2023.
Representation of women in the field of legislative politics is remarkably small and the absence of women has wide-ranging ramifications. In Fall 2019, we surveyed 361 women that we identified as studying legislative politics within political science to understand why women’s representation in legislative studies is so low and what we can do about it. We found that many women study legislatures, but they do not always identify as scholars of legislative studies, often do not join the Legislative Studies Section, and tend to prioritize other journals over Legislative Studies Quarterly, the official journal of the section. In this article, we discuss several solutions to the problem of women’s underrepresentation in legislative studies, including the new Women in Legislative Studies initiative.
Click here read the article by Cambridge University Press on 15 May 2023.
In both politics and public life in the UK, women have historically been underrepresented. In recent years women’s representation has increased, although in most cases men remain overrepresented, especially in more senior positions.
This briefing presents statistics on a range of positions in UK politics and public life held by women. Data on the demographic characteristics of different workforces tends to be limited, so it is not always possible to include intersectional analysis, for example, on disabled women or women from minority ethnic groups.
Click here to access the report.
Despite progress towards gender equality, women’s representation in Canadian politics continues to fall short. With only 30 per cent of seats in the House of Commons held by women, there is still a long way to go for Parliament to capture the diversity of the population it represents.
There are several factors that contribute to the persistent gender disparities in the political process. Research on women in politics has identified multiple obstacles that hinder women’s representation, with three factors emerging as the most prominent explanations.
Three obstacles to women in politics
The first is that voters might have gender bias. This is the idea that, for various reasons, voters might prefer a man over a woman candidate.
The second is that women may not be interested to run as candidates. This is the idea that women might be more risk-averse when it comes to campaigns and elections, or that women may lack self-confidence and have lower levels of political ambition compared to men.
Click here to read the full article published by the Conversation on 10 March 2023.
This paper provides an overview of Lebanese women’s participation in political decision- making through a case study of women’s participation in the parliamentary elections of 2022 from a gender perspective. The paper asks, why are the vital voices of Lebanese women still missing in politics? What progress has been made? Who are the gatekeepers? How can we accelerate equality and improve women’s political participation?
Source: Lebanese American University