Parliaments & Representatives
On this International Day of Parliamentarism, observed on 30 June under the 2025 theme ‘Achieving Gender Equality, Action by Action’, Pacific nations stand at a critical juncture. Parliaments across our region average just 8.2 percent women's representation, the lowest globally. In some Pacific Island countries, not a single woman sits in the chamber.
This is not just a crisis of numbers. It is a crisis of representation, policy inclusion, and missed potential.
In Vanuatu, only one woman sits among 52 Members of Parliament, the Hon. Marie Louise Milne. That’s less than two percent. Yet, despite this, her voice has been powerful. She has championed rural women’s concerns, pushed for stronger protections against gender-based violence, and called for equitable access to essential services in remote islands.
Systemic barriers remain: entrenched cultural expectations, campaign financing hurdles, and the lack of childcare support for MPs are just a few of the challenges. These barriers limit not only women’s entry into politics but also their full participation and leadership.
The Speaker of the Parliament of Vanuatu has previously emphasised that symbolic representation alone is not enough. We must pursue systemic inclusion.
Efforts are underway. Vanuatu’s Department of Women’s Affairs, civil society actors, and the Parliament’s own Civic Education Unit, with support from partners like UNDP, are working to advance legal reforms, conduct outreach, and train aspiring women candidates. Cross-party discussions on reserved seats and targeted financial support are also being initiated.
There is also much to learn from within the Pacific.
Read here the full article here.
Sonia Palmieri is Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Pacific Affairs in the College of Asia and the Pacific, The Australian National University. Her research examines the social and cultural factors influencing women’s leadership in political institutions, including gender-sensitive parliaments. Sonia Palmieri joined a two-day Expert Group Meeting organized by UN Women to address one of the most persistent barriers to gender equality in political and public life: discriminatory social norms. The event held on 4-5 February 2025 brought together feminist scholars, policymakers, activists, and practitioners to chart a path forward for transforming social norms and ensuring women’s full and effective political participation. This experts’ meeting was organized under the WYDE | Women’s Leadership, funded by the European Union, which is a collaborative global effort aimed at advancing women’s full and effective political participation and decision-making at all levels, especially those most often left furthest behind.
Can you explain what gender sensitive parliaments are and how they contribute to the political empowerment of women?
Gender-sensitive parliaments have become a new norm, a standard for what a good parliament should be. At its heart, it is a parliament that recognizes its responsibility to advance gender equality. In theory, this might sound simple. In practice, however, a gender-sensitive parliament must actively reorient and transform how it functions – legislates, represents, conducts oversight - and communicates, in a way that consistently prioritizes gender equality. This is challenging because politicians come from diverse backgrounds with varying perspectives, and not everyone enters Parliament with the goal of advancing gender equality.
How can parliaments make gender equality a concrete and central aspect of their institution?
First, parliaments seeking to become gender-sensitive make a public commitment to gender equality.
They can do this by developing strategic or corporate plan, or even a national strategy to embed gender sensitivity in their work.
However, becoming gender sensitive also requires practical transformation in parliamentary operations. For example, oversight bodies are necessary to ensure that parliament follows through on its gender equality commitments. A good example comes from Sweden, where a Speaker’s Reference Group [LP1] was established to continuously assess and evaluate Parliament’s strategic plans on gender equality. They explore how the parliament operates, review its outputs, and identify areas for improvement.
In summary, for a parliament to become gender-sensitive, it needs a clear commitment to gender equality, and transformation of working methods, including an accountability mechanism with monitoring and evaluation.
Pervading gender norms are one of the most enduring and difficult constraints women face in politics, including in parliaments. Could you tell us how these work?
Sadly, even after being elected, women still face social norms that cast them as different or less ideal representatives. They are often perceived as lacking the right skills or connections, which fuels critiques of their presence in political spaces. This belief translates into marginalization from decision-making—they may struggle to secure executive roles, chair committees, or serve as presiding officers.
Women are also delegitimized when they speak in the Chamber. It’s not uncommon for them to be interrupted, overpowered by noise in the chamber, or met with verbal objections and hostility, all tactics to undermine their authority. Even when elected, they are repeatedly made to feel that they are not the "ideal" political actor.
How can we challenge this?
We must resist in multiple ways and having allies is essential. Women need a support network of like-minded politicians to help navigate these challenges. Facing delegitimization alone can be disheartening and may even push women to leave politics altogether.
Of course, finding allies across political parties isn’t always easy, as party competition can sometimes prevent solidarity. However, women in parliament can unite against sexist or misogynistic behavior, creating a sense of collective resistance. It is also crucial for men to recognize and reject these behaviors. Parliaments need clear Codes of Conduct and enforceable rules to ensure a respectful environment for all. Unfortunately, enforcement is where politics often overrides the basic level of decency that should underpin any legislative body.
What advice would you give to women parliamentarians?
When entering public institutions, no matter in which part of the world you sit, find your friends and allies both inside and outside the parliament, because you are going to need a support network! Make sure to identify your own personal coping mechanisms that will keep you and your mental health in check while identifying reliable sources of gender-sensitive advice and information to help you do your job effectively.
Emma Muteka is currently the youngest Regional Councillor in Namibia and a member of Parliament. She serves as the Vice Chairperson of the Parliamentary standing committee on Health, Social welfare and Labour affairs. She joined a two-day Expert Group Meeting organized by UN Women to address one of the most persistent barriers to gender equality in political and public life: discriminatory social norms. The event held on 4-5 February 2025 brought together feminist scholars, policymakers, activists, and practitioners to chart a path forward for transforming social norms and ensuring women’s full and effective political participation. This experts’ meeting was organized under the WYDE | Women’s Leadership, funded by the European Union, which is a collaborative global effort aimed at advancing women’s full and effective political participation and decision-making at all levels, especially those most often left furthest behind.
“I am a Member of Parliament from Namibia and have been engaged in politics since the age of 13. My early involvement in advocacy helped me realize how politics shapes daily life, from the price of bread to basic survival. What truly drove me was the desire to be the voice of the voiceless, as I felt that my generation lacked the space to be heard. In 2020, I made the decision to fully commit to politics and ran for office. It was not an easy journey. One major challenge was bridging the gap between young and older generations. I took time to humble myself, study the situation, and realized I needed to embrace intergenerational leadership, as senior politicians carried memories and trust from society. Senior politicians also needed assurance that young leaders were prepared to lead, so I engaged to ensure they were also mentoring us and creating an environment for this transition.
Another challenge was personal identity - my age, gender, and marital status were scrutinized. People doubted whether I could lead simply because I was unmarried and without children. To navigate these biases, I focused on building trust while staying true to myself. I studied my environment and engaged in one-on-one conversations with senior politicians, recognizing that personal discussions were more effective in earning their trust. I also consulted extensively with young people, who sometimes questioned my capabilities based on personal perceptions rather than competence. My goal now is to inspire youth, especially young women, to step into politics.
In terms of advice to young politicians, especially young women: first and foremost, believe in yourself. Have confidence and self-esteem but remain humble. Make sure you know your constituency and the cause you wish to champion, while remembering that it is all about serving others.
I especially encourage young women to empower themselves through education. Learning never goes out of style. Take every opportunity to educate yourself, whether through formal studies or short courses. Don’t limit yourself to political knowledge; understand economics, global affairs, and other areas that impact governance.
We have long debated women’s participation in politics, it is time for implementation. Policies and laws must be enforced to support women in leadership. Talking is not enough; now, we must walk the talk.”
In the fight for better policies for mothers and families, Rep. Brittany Pettersen (D-Colo.) has also had to fight to have her own voice heard on Capitol Hill.
Last October, five months pregnant with her second child, Pettersen proposed a change to the House Rules Committee for “a narrow exception to the prohibition on proxy voting” that would allow members of Congress to vote by proxy while on parental leave, a push begun by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) after giving birth to her first child in 2023. This would have ensured, Petterson said in a recent interview with Ms., that as a member of Congress “you’re able to have your voice, your constituents’ voices represented” during a critical time for your family and health.
Despite Republicans’ stated opposition to proxy voting, Pettersen and Luna scored a rare bipartisan win to move forward with the measure on April 1, representing an embarrassing defeat for House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.). In response, Johnson “adjourned the entire House for the rest of the week,” buying himself time to broker a deal to kill the effort that would have enabled remote voting for new moms in Congress.
Full article published by Ms. Magazine.
Image by Ms. Magazine
One of the challenges facing local governments—and institutional politics in general—is reversing the historically negligible presence of women in political parties and administrations. Although the number of women on electoral lists and in council and mayoral positions has multiplied over the last decade, significant gaps still exist in the types of responsibilities men and women assume in city councils, and parity has not been achieved in the mayoral positions.
According to data from the Catalan Women's Institute (ICD), the portfolios of Social Services, Education, Health, and Community Welfare are typically headed by women. Social Services is particularly notable: in 75.3% of Catalan city councils, a woman holds the portfolio. In the case of Education, Health, and Community Welfare, the percentage of women is 65%.%. In contrast, in Security, Sports, Housing and Urban Planning, Infrastructure, and Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, there is a man in charge in two out of three cases.
Full article published by ARA.
Image by ARA
A heated debate on affirmative action versus merit-based appointments to increase women’s participation, including in the media, took centre stage at a BBC World Questions episode recorded live in Petaling Jaya last night.
The episode featured seven questions from the audience, including one that asked: “We can observe now most bosses in Malaysian media corporations are men. Where are the women?”
Full article by Malaysia Kini
Image Malaysia Kini
In 2022, women’s leadership in the world’s parliaments continued with a slow pace of incremental growth as the world re-emerged after two years of COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns and losses. Women reached new milestones in parliamentary representation around the globe and the context for women’s political leadership continued to expand.
Click here to see the report.
Women’s representation in India’s Parliament is an important metric to evaluate progress in bridging gender inequities in the country. India has a female population of 662.9 million and is the largest and one of the most resilient parliamentary democracies in the world. As the country completes 75 years of independence, this paper gives a historical account of the progress in women’s representation in Parliament over the past decades. It compares women’s parliamentary representation with their share in legislative positions at the lower levels. It notes that despite impressive increase in turnout of women voters in elections, opening up spaces for participation of women in electoral politics has been a slow process as a result of deep-rooted structural constraints. It argues that institutional transformation, coupled with socio-economic emancipation holds the key to increased participation by women in electoral politics.
Click here to read the full article published by Observer Research Foundation on 16 November 2022.
Ensuring GSP principles are embedded in political institutions is vital for a healthy democracy. It highlights that women’s inclusion and equality does not just stop at the ballot box. All groups must be able to fully participate within our elected institutions for our democracies to work effectively and to the good of all in our societies. This interim report comes at a timely moment for the GSP agenda.
More recently, the CPA and CWP updated its gender sensitive guidelines providing a ‘checklist’ for parliamentary change. Not only this, but COVID-19 has offered a moment of significant reform (albeit temporary in many cases) to parliamentary practices and procedures across the Commonwealth and many political institutions around the world are reflecting on the experience and the lessons learnt.
The 2020 CPA Gender Sensitising Parliaments Guidelines set out four dimensions of Gender Sensitive Parliaments (Figure 1). This interim report focuses on the first two dimensions: ‘Equality of participation within Parliament’ and ‘Parliamentary infrastructure’. It documents the current state of play regarding GSP practices in institutions across the British Islands and Mediterranean region (BIMR), particularly in light of institutional responses to COVID-19 and recommends ‘best practice’ reforms for the short and medium term.
Click here to access the report.
Gender and politics scholars are increasingly making appeals to ethnographic methodology to bring important contributions to understand the reproduction of gender, gender hierarchies, gendered relations, and their redress in parliamentary settings. This article draws upon fieldwork conducted in the U.K. House of Commons and the European Parliament and finds distinctive gendered cultures and norms in debating and working parliaments. Focusing on one dimension of this distinction—the parliamentary debating chamber—the article argues that parliamentary ethnography provides novel empirical insights into this conceptual distinction and into empirical understandings of gendered debating and working parliaments. While parliamentary ethnography is a fruitful innovation, the article discusses the drawbacks of this methodology and provides feminist reflection on ways to make it more accessible.
Click here to read the full article published by Cambridge University Press on 3 August 2022.
This report highlights the key findings from research conducted by Equal Voice on sexual harassment in Canada’s legislative Assemblies.
Click here to access the report.
The performance of women legislators is analysed by looking at the nature of questions posed by them over a span of 20 years (1999–2019) in the lower house of the Indian Parliament. The analysis, however, is a contestation of claims that suggest women act as silent members, and if at all they speak, they do on “softer issues” like women and child development, food processing, health, and sanitation, thus trying to escape the discussions on national security, finance, agriculture, railways, etc. These are otherwise considered as male bastions. This paper is a quantitative analysis of women’s political performance during the Question Hour session, which is considered as an important plenary space where legislators act on their own, free from the party regulation.
Independent India claims to be the world’s largest democracy, turbulent and vigorous but ever so evolving. Elections form the animating spirit of Indian democracy. It is held religiously every five years with enough pomp and show. Indian democracy flourishes with exceptional rates of citizen participation. The Lok Sabha elections of 2019 manifested 67% voter turnout with decreasing rates of gender gap (ECI 2019). These figures indicate the undying credence citizens have in Indian politics and its democracy, despite the limitations of electoral democracy. The Indian Parliament acts as a theatre of democracy regardless of the people’s sneering disbelief and despondency in political institutions of the country to which Parliament is no exception (Rai and Spray 2019: 2). Electoral democracies all over the world are faced with criticism about their substantive representation1 to which they retort by translating democracy into electoral representation. How can the democratic institutions in India include all its citizens? In other words, how can these institutions be representative of its entire population? (Jayal 2013: 25). Here, what concerns this paper is the study of the impact of systematic exclusion of women from the political life on their political representation and in turn on their political performance.
Click here to read the full article published by Economic and Political Weekly on 1 August 2022.