Parliaments & Representatives
Morocco’s significant progress in ensuring women’s full and equal participation and representation in political and decision-making spheres was showcased by the Interministerial Delegation for Human Rights (DIDH) during an event held Thursday in Geneva, on the sidelines of the 59th session of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC).
Speaking at the second preparatory political dialogue of Glion XI, Fatima Barkan, Secretary-General of the DIDH, highlighted the impact of constitutional and legislative reforms that have substantially increased women’s representation in elected assemblies and positions of responsibility in public administration.
Following the parliamentary, regional, and municipal elections of September 8, 2021, the proportion of women elected to prefectural and provincial councils rose to 35.6%, compared to only 4.5% in 2015. Similarly, the House of Representatives increased its female representation from 81 members (20.5%) in 2016 to 96 (24.3%) in 2021, she said.
Full article available here.
A UNITED NATIONS committee has highlighted the low representation of woman in the Dáil and at Cabinet as “priority issues” that must be addressed by the state.
The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission stated that it welcomed the findings of the UN Committee, which is tasked with “the Elimination of Discrimination against Women”.
The Irish Commission had previously provided submissions to the UN Committee on the issue and communicated its concerns. Today, the Committee has recommended that the government amend the Electoral (Amendment) (Political Funding) Act 2012 to require 50% gender parity in the quota on political party candidate selection.
At present, political funding available to parties is dependent whether the party meets the gender quota for candidates. Payments are reduced by 50% unless at least 40% of the candidates whose candidatures were authenticated by the party at the preceding general election were women, and 40% were men.
Full article available here.
In a video address to the Committee on Gender Equality, which is currently reviewing an initiative to increase the quota for the underrepresented gender in the electoral law from 30% to 40%—with the additional requirement that at least one out of every three candidates on electoral lists be from the underrepresented gender—Prime Minister Milojko Spajić expressed his full support.
I fully support raising the quota for the underrepresented gender from 30% to 40% in the electoral legislation, said the Prime Minister in his message to the Chair and members of the Committee.
Spajić stated his belief that Europe Now Movement (PES) is already living this principle, noting that 40% of the PES ministers in the current Government are women who, as he emphasized, lead their respective ministries with great competences – often outperforming their male counterparts.
Full article available here.
During a motion of no confidence in March 2025, opposition member of parliament Fuiono Tenina Crichton heckled Samoan Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata’afa, saying that her ‘leadership would have been remarkable’ if only she ‘had gotten married’ and had someone to ‘advise’ her.
Fiame defeated the motion comfortably by 32 votes to 19. The episode did not directly result in a prime ministerial resignation, but within three months, Samoa’s Head of State, His Highness Tuimaleali’ifano Vaaletoa Sualauvi II, dissolved Fiame’s minority-held parliament.
Though not new anywhere in the world, it remains important to consider the manifestations of, and motivations behind, these kinds of deliberately provocative, sexist statements in politics. Is there something peculiar to the expression of sexism in Pacific politics?
To unpack this, we must understand Samoan voter sentiment, the legacy advantage Fiame has always had and the purpose of sexist discourse in politics.
In a 2021 survey of over 1300 Samoans, 88 per cent expressed support for women’s involvement in politics. Even before Fiame was promoted to the highest office, 85 per cent of survey respondents agreed that a woman should become prime minister. At the local level, while 37 per cent agreed with the sentiment that women should not speak in village councils, 63 per cent disagreed.
These figures show that the Samoan community purports to be extremely welcoming of female political leadership. In 2021, Fiame became Samoa’s seventh prime minister, leading the newly established Faʻatuatua i le Atua Samoa ua Tasi party to a historic democratic victory. She was the first female Head of Government in the Pacific, following Hilda Heine’s lead as the region’s first female Head of State.
Plus, Samoa is the only sovereign country in the Pacific to institute a gender quota at the national level, ensuring that women hold a minimum of 10 per cent of parliamentary seats. Public contestation — both in parliament and in the courts, including public calls for clearer wording of the reform — over this quota following the 2021 election demonstrates local support.
Full article available here.
Extract
The 2024 elections made US history in numerous ways. Vice President Kamala Harris became the first Black and South Asian woman to be nominated by a major party for the presidency. Former president Donald Trump made history by becoming the oldest person and the first convicted felon to become president. 2024 marked the first presidential election following the historic Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision in 2022.
The 2024 elections made US history in numerous ways. Vice President Kamala Harris became the first Black and South Asian woman to be nominated by a major party for the presidency. Former president Donald Trump made history by becoming the oldest person and the first convicted felon to become president. 2024 marked the first presidential election following the historic Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision in 2022.
We asked leading experts in the field to reflect on the gender and racial dynamics of the 2024 election cycle and consider which aspects of the election are illuminated by gender scholarship. We asked what theories help explain the dynamics of the campaigns, voting behavior, and the outcome, as well as which election aspects were unanticipated. We asked about the larger lessons and challenges for the study of gender, LGBTQ+ identities, race/ethnicity, elections, and politics. As Politics & Gender celebrates its 20th anniversary, we wanted to know what new questions should be addressed and whether new theories about gender and US elections are needed.
Full article available here.
OpenAI has banned a network of ChatGPT accounts originating from the Philippines that used its platform to generate social media comments praising President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr as the crackdown highlights how artificial intelligence (AI) could be misused to conduct influence operations.
The US-based AI pioneer said it had identified the accounts using ChatGPT to generate short comments in English and Filipino, which were later posted on Facebook and TikTok. It dubbed the operation “High Five” because many of the comments included emojis, according to a report released on June 5.
“The comments this operation generated and posted online were brief but partisan. Typically, they praised President Marcos and his initiatives, or criticised [Vice-President Sara Duterte-Carpio],” OpenAI wrote in its report.
Full article available here.
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
The “Women in politics: 2023” map, created by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and UN Women, presents new data for women in executive positions and national parliaments as of 1 January 2023. Data show that women are underrepresented at all levels of decision-making worldwide and that achieving gender parity in political life is far off.
Women serve as Heads of State and/or Government in only 31 countries. Women make up 26.5 per cent of Members of Parliament. Globally, less than one in four Cabinet Ministers is a woman (22.8 per cent). New data show that women lead important human rights, gender equality, and social protection policy portfolios, while men dominate policy areas like defence and economy.
Source: UN Women