Parliaments & Representatives

CANADIAN High Commissioner to Zambia Emily Burns says some women in politics whom the Canadian government supports have been expressing concerns about some of the proposed constitutional reforms. Burns also says Canada is upgrading its presence in Zambia to a full High Commission. Speaking during a courtesy call to the Ministry of Justice, Thursday, Burns said she wanted the government’s thoughts on the concerns of women in politics. “I will be going to Chipata. It will be my first visit to announce winners and support women who are aspiring or in active political leadership so that they can develop projects in the municipality.

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Czech lawmaker Martina Ochodnicka is quitting after a single term, upset with hateful, misogynistic comments and a general lack of support for women politicians.

Theonila Roka Matbob, one of the most prominent female candidates in the Bougainville election, has lost her seat.

Matbob, the member for Ioro in Central Bougainville - a region encompassing Panguna - was "very confident" of holding the seat despite being up against ten male candidates.

She was one of 34 women out of a field of more than 400 candiates contesting seats in the Bougainville House of Representatives.

In 2020, she was one of only two women to win an open seat.

Matbob was a vocal advocate who led a successful campaign to have Rio Tinto, a mining multi-national, to consider the damage caused by the mine it used to own.

She was at the forefront of the push for an assessment into the damage caused by the troubled Panguna gold mine - one of the world's largest copper and gold mines - in the autonomous Papua New Guinea region.

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Women face an uphill battle to political election, and they continue to confront barriers to success afterward. But the type of legislature in their states can make a difference.

A new study from Virginia Commonwealth University researcher Jatia Wrighten, Ph.D., and colleagues finds that women are more effective lawmakers than men when serving in professional state legislatures, which are generally in session full-time, than when serving in part-time legislatures that have lower barriers to entry, lower salaries and fewer staff.

Once elected, women in professional legislatures are often more effective even when given less notable committee assignments, Wrighten finds. She said that means that voters in general are better served by professional legislatures, where more diverse voices, including those of women, are represented. Wrighten, an assistant professor in VCU’s Department of Political Science in the College of Humanities and Sciences, recently spoke about her findings, which were published in The Journal of Politics.

What does it mean for a state legislator to be effective?

Legislative effectiveness can be measured in several ways. In our article, we measure legislative effectiveness by the lawmaker’s ability to “act for” their constituents in policymaking. In other words, are women able to have their voices heard in legislatures, does their committee work matter, and do resources constrain them due to the level of professionalism in the legislature?

What roadblocks do women face before and after election?

As one can imagine, living in a patriarchy, women who run for office face sexism, which manifests in many ways. Many voters hold women to a higher standard than men who run for office and do not see them as leaders. Women running for office have been critiqued on their physical appearance, criticized for their voices being “too high” or “annoying,” questioned for their ability to both run for office and manage their families, and questioned when they do not have families. Once women are elected, they face much of the same from their male peers. They are also placed on lower-ranked committees, which have fewer resources than other committees, and are relegated to those labeled as focusing on “women’s issues,” such as education, criminal justice or health.

Full article here.

An apparent bottleneck exists in women’s participation in politics: the number of female party members exceeds the number of female candidates, which in turn is almost double the number of women elected, who, on average, account for less than one-fifth of all winners at the polls. This is shown by a survey conducted by Valor based on data from the Superior Electoral Court (TSE). 

This pattern, repeated in every election, is not restricted to a particular ideology. It occurs in parties on both the right and the left and is unrelated to party size; from the largest to the smallest, the funnel phenomenon remains.

To become a candidate, a woman must first be a party member. Gender inequality in politics begins there. Women account for an average of 46.4% of party members—a figure that may seem high but does not reflect the reality of Brazil’s population. According to the 2022 Demographic Census, 51.5% of the population is female.

Full article here.