Parliaments & Representatives
Fear, harassment, and institutional silence continue to shape the political experience of women in The Gambia, a new study has revealed, exposing how violence, intimidation, and systemic neglect are undermining women’s participation and leadership in public life.
The findings, validated on Monday at a stakeholder workshop convened by the Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD), highlighted violence against women in politics as a deeply entrenched barrier that silences voices, deters participation, and weakens democratic governance.
The validation exercise, held at the Bakadaji Hotel, brought together policymakers, National Assembly members, political party representatives, civil society organisations, and development partners to review and validate the findings of the study, which is expected to be officially launched in January 2026.
WFD opened its country office in The Gambia in 2018 with the aim of supporting the consolidation of democracy, with the National Assembly serving as its main partner and host institution. Globally, WFD works to promote political systems that are inclusive and accountable, ensuring that all citizens regardless of gender, origin, disability, ethnicity, or religion are able to participate meaningfully in political processes and hold leaders to account.
The Violence Against Women in Politics study is being implemented under WFD’s Women in Political Leadership (WPL) project, supported by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) through the Gambia Inclusive and Accountable (GIA) Programme for 2025–2026.
Opening the workshop, the Country Director of WFD in The Gambia, Ms. Tobaski Njie Sarr, described the validation as a critical milestone in advancing democratic inclusion. She explained that independent consultants were contracted to carry out the research in order to ensure credibility and objectivity, drawing comparisons with WFD’s earlier study on the cost of politics in The Gambia.
Nearly 60 female lawmakers in Japan, including the prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, have submitted a petition calling for more toilets in the parliament building for women to match their improved representation.
Japanese politics remains hugely male-dominated, although the number of women in the parliament rose at the last election – and Takaichi became the first female prime minister in October. This is reflected by there being only one lavatory containing two cubicles for the lower house’s 73 women to use near the Diet’s main plenary session hall in central Tokyo.
“Before plenary sessions start, truly so many women lawmakers have to form long queues in front of the restroom,” said Yasuko Komiyama, from the opposition Constitutional Democratic party.
She was speaking after submitting the cross-party petition signed by 58 women to Yasukazu Hamada, the chair of the lower house committee on rules and administration, earlier this month.
The Diet building was finished in 1936, nearly a decade before women got the vote in December 1945 after Japan’s defeat in the second world war. The entire lower house building has 12 men’s toilets with 67 stalls and nine women’s facilities with a total of 22 cubicles, according to the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper.
Japan ranked 118 out of 148 this year in the World Economic Forum’s global gender gap report. Women are also grossly under-represented in business and the media.
Tirana, 15 December 2025 – Media monitoring of Albania’s 2025 parliamentary elections found persistent gender imbalances and violence against women in politics, particularly in media coverage and online discourse.
The monitoring, conducted by Equality in Decision Making and BIRN Albania with the support of UN Women and the Government of Sweden, analysed online media, television and social media platforms during the campaign and post-election period. The report shows that women candidates, Members of Parliament and ministers were more frequently targeted with sexist language, personal attacks and discriminatory narratives, especially in digital spaces.
“Gender equality in politics is not only a women’s issue; it is a matter of democracy, representation, and citizens’ trust in institutions. A democracy in which half of society remains on the margins of decision-making cannot be considered a full democracy,” said the Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Ms. Klodiana Spahiu. She added that the monitoring report should not be seen as a critique, but rather as a tool for reflection and action aimed at improving the current situation.
Women accounted for 38.9 per cent of all candidates and secured 35 per cent of parliamentary mandates, yet they won only 25 per cent of mandates through preferential voting. Their media visibility also remained significantly limited. Across 41 national and local television stations monitored by the Audiovisual Media Authority during the campaign, male candidates accounted for 89.8 per cent of airtime, compared to just 10.2 per cent for female candidates. This stark imbalance was consistent across all broadcasters and program types, leaving women candidates with far less visibility to explain their campaign platforms.”
“Albania continues to benefit from positive women representation both in parliament and central government. Yet, their ability to substantively share leadership and decision making around key national priorities is profoundly compounded by negative gender stereotypes, little to no access to the media, as well as online violence. When a woman runs for office, she faces the irony of being a lot less visible, and a lot more exposed”, said Michele Ribotta, UN Women Representative in Albania.
“The report presents a fact-based analysis that contributes to a deeper understanding of how the electoral process, within the media and digital environment, shapes women’s political participation in Albania. While positive regulatory developments have been recorded, women politicians continue to face both long-standing and emerging challenges that undermine their opportunities for meaningful and equal engagement”, said Erik Illes – Head of Development Cooperation at the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida).
The pre and post campaign period was characterized by recurring gender bias and online violent attacks against women candidates, including sexist language, personal insults and discrediting narratives, often focusing on physical appearance, private life or preconceived moral judgments, rather than on their political positions. Such practices contribute to a hostile environment that discourages women’s engagement and participation, narrowing the scope of the democratic debate.
Following the elections, women were assigned 47.1 per cent of ministerial spots in the new Government, confirming Albania’s strong record of equal gender participation in central cabinet positions.
Marigona Shabiu, executive director at YIHR
In Kosovo, women’s participation in politics is often presented as a success story. The 30 percent gender quota, the increase in the number of women in the Assembly, and their presence in municipal assemblies are regularly cited as evidence of democratic progress. In the last legislature, women made up over a third of the members of the Assembly, a figure that on paper positions Kosovo better than many countries in the region. However, beyond the statistics and official statements, the political reality remains much more complex, especially when this participation is viewed from the perspective of youth and other marginalized groups.
From our many years of experience at Youth Initiative for Human Rights - Kosovo (YIHR KS), it is clear that women’s political representation does not automatically translate into a policy that speaks for and with young people. Young women and men in Kosovo continue to perceive politics as a closed, hierarchical and often hostile space to critical thinking. This sense of distance is particularly pronounced among young people from non-majority communities, LGBTIQ+ young people, people with disabilities and those living in poverty or marginalized areas. For many young people, women’s representation in institutions is not necessarily seen as representing their interests, especially when policies continue to be produced without an inclusive approach.
In the discussions we have with young people in cities and rural areas, a silent question often arises: are women in politics truly allies of youth, or simply part of the same system that reproduces exclusion? This dilemma is not an accusation, but a critical reflection on the way our political culture works and on the limits of a representation that remains largely formal.
Full article here.
1912: New Mexico becomes the 47th state admitted to the Union.
1917: Suffragist Nina Otero-Warren is appointed superintendent of Santa Fe County schools. She would win a race to retain the position in 1918.
1919: Congress passes the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, granting women the right to vote. It guarantees “the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.”
1920: After years of advocacy by local suffragists like Otero Warren, the New Mexico Legislature votes to ratify the 19th Amendment. By August 1920, at least two-thirds of states adopted the constitutional amendment, making it the law of the land.
Full article here.
Would you take a job where abuse and violence were almost guaranteed? This is the reality of modern political life, making it less appealing to women - especially younger women - leading to even less representative democracies. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Parliaments around the world are taking practical steps to prevent violence, protect women, and prosecute offenders.
Read the full article here.
As women increasingly participate in political decision-making around the world, the research emphasizes the need to further understand how informal barriers shape women's political participation. At the same time, the persistent stability of hybrid political regimes calls for additional inquiry into the impact of hybrid regimes on gender politics and its actors. Based on the case of Turkey, a hybrid regime, this study explores how women MPs navigate gendered, informal obstacles in parliament and to what extent their navigation strategies reflect the broader implications posed by the hybrid regime context. This exploratory study draws on qualitative, in-depth semi-structured interviews with eight women MPs in the Turkish parliament from government and opposition parties. The findings illustrate that navigating the informal barriers women MPs experience in the Turkish parliament happens both individually and in collective ways. Individually, women MPs choose to navigate the informal barriers of gender norms by either assimilating or contrasting the masculine way of doing politics. Collective navigation strategies of women MPs in the Turkish parliament illustrate their approaches to representing women's interests, seeking women's solidarity across the parliament, and linkages with civil society to empower women, which also reflect the different positionings of government and opposition within the Turkish hybrid regime dynamics. The findings reveal the need to further research the complex, dynamic interplay of how informal practices and hybrid regime tactics target gender politics and its actors, while also giving more attention to women's agency in tackling and countering obstacles to their political power within and beyond political institutions.
Read here the full article published by Frontiers on 1 July 2024.
Image by Frontiers
Abstract
This study draws together theories of women’s substantive representation and research on politicians’ knowledge of constituent preferences. We ask whether politicians are better at predicting their constituents’ policy preferences when they share the same gender. In doing so, we contribute to knowledge about the mechanisms underlying substantive representation. Using original surveys of 3,750 Canadians and 867 elected politicians, we test whether politicians correctly perceive gender gaps in their constituents’ policy preferences and whether women politicians are better at correctly identifying the policy preferences of women constituents. Contrary to expectations from previous research, we do not find elected women to be better at predicting the preferences of women constituents. Instead, we find that all politicians — regardless of their gender — perform better when predicting women’s policy preferences and worse when predicting men’s preferences. The gender of the constituent matters more than the gender of the politician.
Read here the full article published by the Cambridge University Press on 25 March 2024.
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Women’s participation in politics is essential to advancing women’s rights and contributes to countries’ overall stability and economic prosperity. According to a 2023 report by UN Women and the Inter-Parliamentary Union, one-fourth of parliamentary positions worldwide are held by women. Although current representation is still far from equal, it represents a significant increase over the last 20 years.
However, a new paper from Washington University in St. Louis — published in the journal International Organization — shows that the progress women have made in politics is threatened when conflict strikes.
A team of WashU researchers led by Margit Tavits, the Dr. William Taussig Professor in Arts & Sciences, conducted an analysis of Ukrainian politicians’ engagement on social media in the months leading up to and after the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine — a rare opportunity to observe the effect conflict has on politicians’ behavior in real time.
Their research provides evidence that violent conflict pushes politicians to conform more strongly with traditional gender stereotypes, so that men become more politically engaged than women, and politicians gravitate toward their respective gendered communication styles and issue spaces. They also show that gender biases among the public are magnified during war.
“Our findings suggest that women leaders’ voices may be drowned out by their male counterparts during conflict, which is troubling,” Tavits said. “We know that who engages, and how, in response to conflict can have significant consequences for how the conflict unfolds, how long it lasts, whose concerns are heard and represented and so on.”
Read here the full article published by the Washington University in St. Louis on 29 May 2024.
Image by Washington University in St. Louis
The IPU grew in 2023 with the accession of the parliaments of Liberia and the Bahamas, its 179th and 180th Members respectively, as well as many observers and partners signing up to join or rejoin our global parliamentary community.
Read here more highlights of the year in the Impact Report 2023 published by the Inter-Parliamentary Union on March 2024.
It’s no secret that women have made unprecedented strides in seeking and attaining elected office over the last decade. Twenty-eight percent of elected officials in Congress are women (compared to 19 percent 10 years ago), nearly one-third of our state legislature seats are held by women, and we have our first-ever woman vice president.
But while more women are winning elected positions, the looming gender bias within our political system persists. And according to a number of women elected throughout various levels of government — it’s one hurdle to win an election, but quite another to thrive in office.
That was the consensus among more than 60 women across the political spectrum — including Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., former Georgia House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey and Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego — who were interviewed for a year-long reporting project by Cosmopolitan, “How to Succeed in Office.” The report was produced in partnership with Melinda French Gates-founded Pivotal Ventures.
Read here the full article published by MSNBC News on 16 May 2024.
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Gendered disinformation is being used across Africa as a tactic to silence critics and exclude women from online civic discourses, new research shows.
A new book ‘Digital Disinformation in Africa: Hashtag Politics, Power and Propaganda’ explores this further. It is written by Nkem Agunwa, a digital campaigner focusing on human rights activism based in Nigeria and member of the African Digital Rights Network (ADRN), hosted by IDS.
In an unprecedented year for elections in Africa – with 17 countries heading to the polls, the fear is that digital disinformation poses a rising threat to women’s political participation.
The book references the 2016 study by the Inter-Parliamentary Union of female lawmakers globally which revealed that 41.8 per cent of participants said they have been subjected to degrading or sexual images of themselves being circulate on social media. While gendered disinformation is not new, digital technology allows for collective and coordinated anonymous targeting of people with disinformation. As a result, digital spaces across Africa are increasingly being used to manipulate the public and spread disinformation, or to harass and intimidate individuals, creating an atmosphere of fear and distrust.
Not only does gendered disinformation keep women from participating in democratic processes, but as the book details, it directly threatens the fight for gender equality and inclusivity across Africa.
Read here the full article published by the Institute of Development Studies on 10 May 2024.
Image by Skorzewiak via Shutterstock
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