Parliaments & Representatives
As of December 2023, women constituted 61.3 percent of the Rwandan parliament (lower or single house). This makes it the country with the highest share of women in parliament worldwide. Cuba had the second highest share of female MPs with 53.4 percent, followed by Nicaragua. The European country with the highest percentage of women in their parliament was Andorra with 50 percent.
See here the full graphic published by Statista on 4 July 2024.
Image by Statista
Sri Lanka’s women are literate and well educated with a 92.3 percent literacy rate and 1.4 female students for every one male student enrolled in tertiary education.
However these high numbers are not translated to workplace participation that stands at a low 31.8%.
Neither is it reflected in women who hold positions of power, especially in the political sphere. While there has been a gradual increase in women’s participation in politics from only 1.8% of parliamentary seats being held by women in 2000, reflecting the significant barriers they faced in entering politics, to 5.8% in 2010, this figure was low compared to regional and global averages.
As of 2020, women held 5.4% of seats in the national parliament, indicating a need for continued efforts to improve representation. Challenges such as cultural norms and limited support structures continued to impede further progress. However, ongoing advocacy and policy measures aim to create a more inclusive political environment for women.
Read here the full article published by Ground Views on 30 June 2024.
Image by Ground Views
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
I spent a good chunk of my academic career studying women in politics — the barriers that keep women from running for office and from winning party nominations, and the impact they might have once they are elected.
Those were optimistic times: barriers would be eliminated, women would take their rightful place in political life and public policy would be better.
What I — and others — didn’t see coming was the backlash that these women would experience. The study of women in politics now is less about understanding the intricacies of nomination contests and more about documenting and theorizing the gender-based violence women in politics experience.
This affects women across the political spectrum but is particularly intense for those who have the audacity not just to be women in positions of authority, but also to challenge the status quo.
It’s not a coincidence, I suspect, that both Catherine McKenna, the former environment minister in the Justin Trudeau government, and Shannon Phillips, the former Alberta environment minister in the Rachel Notley government, have decided to leave the political arena after years of harassment and threats of violence to them and their families.
Girls and women are socialized to play by the rules. We’re offered an implicit deal that if we do what we are supposed to do, the system will reward us, or at least look out for us.
Read here the full article published by The Tyee on 12 June 2024.
Image by The Tyee
The average age of the candidates standing on Flemish parties’ lists for the federal elections on 9 June is 47. Never before in the past 37 years was the average age of the candidates seeking election to the Chamber of Representatives so high. Meanwhile, the percentage of women with “electable” places, a position on the party’s electoral lists with which they stand a realistic chance of being elected, has fallen for the first time. A study by Leuven University’s (KUL) Instituut voor de Overheid has found that just 45.2% of the Flemish party’s candidates with a place on an electoral list with which that stand a realistic chance of being elected are women.
In light of today's election in Belgium, read (or revisit) here the full article published by flandersnews.be on 26 April 2024
Image by flandersnews.be
In pioneering Lithuania, the first all-women list in the country’s political history has been unveiled.
The Lithuanian Greens are hoping that this list will help more women get elected to the European Parliament, where men still make up around 60% of the members.
The candidates are also trying to draw attention to other gender issues, such as the pay gap.
Read here the full article published by France24 on 5 June 2024
Image by France24
This is a House of Commons Committee report, with recommendations to government. The Government has two months to respond.
While there is still some way to go to achieve equal representation of women in the House of Commons, and in the wider political and public sphere, in recent decades the focus has broadened to encompass “gender sensitivity” in the House of Commons as a workplace. Steps have been taken to make the House a more welcoming and accommodating place for women. For example, there has been focus on its working hours and practices, and support for MPs who are parents. The planned restoration and renewal of the Palace of Westminster is an opportunity to design in greater accessibility and inclusion, for women and other underrepresented groups.
Click here to access the report.
Today’s parliament has more female MPs than ever but they remain a minority. What do they think is needed for equality in the corridors of power?
Viscountess Nancy Astor was the first woman to take a seat in parliament, receiving 2,000 letters a week from female voters desperate to finally have their voices heard.
More than 100 years later, women account for just a third of seats in the Commons and only a quarter of sitting peers in the House of Lords.
Click here to read the full article published by The Times on 8 March 2022.
The number of women in parliament is consistently low throughout the Asia-Pacific region. Many factors contribute to this situation, but studies suggest that one major factor relates to the way that women are treated on social media. This report aims to identify how women politicians fare against their male counterparts on social media and to evaluate whether women in politics face a greater challenge than men.
Overall, there were four times as much problematic content related to the Facebook pages of male politicians compared to their female counterparts. It is important to note that the vast majority of the problematic comments aimed at women politicians were in the sexist category. Compared to their male colleagues, female politicians are treated in a less serious manner on Facebook. Comments on their posts touch on their appearance and personal qualities rather than their politics.
Click here to access the report.
The world walked into 2021 with the shadow of COVID-19 looming large over its head. As well as posing a major health risk, the pandemic had also caused economic and social upheaval. Political life had been affected too, from the challenge of holding elections safely to ensuring the smooth working of parliaments. Though many of these difficulties endured in 2021, and in some cases were compounded, there were fewer delays1 in elections when compared with the previous year.
Click here to access the report.
By Akshi Chawla
As women elected officials move from local politics towards the subnational and national levels, they begin to be replaced by more and more men.
Women comprise just over one-third (36 percent) of the over 6 million elected members in deliberative bodies of local governments globally, according to a new working paper released by U.N. Women last month. Although far from parity, this is the best representation women seem to get across levels of government: As they move towards the subnational and national levels, they begin to be replaced by more and more men, data shows.
Click here to read the full article published by Ms Magazine on 15 February 2022.
One potential consequence of increasing women’s numeric representation is that women elected officials will behave differently than their men counterparts and improve women’s substantive representation. This study examines whether electing women to local offices changes how local government expenditures are allocated in ways that benefit women. Using compositional expenditure data from more than 5,400 Brazilian municipalities over eight years, we find significant differences in the ways men and women mayors allocate government expenditures. Our findings indicate that women mayors spend more on traditionally feminine issues, and less on traditionally masculine issues, relative to men mayors. In regard to specific policy areas, we find that women spend more on women’s issues, including education, health care, and social assistance, and less on masculine issues, including transportation and urban development, relative to men mayors. We further find that women’s legislative representation significantly influences the allocation of expenditures as a larger percentage of women councilors increases spending on traditionally feminine issues, as well as education, health care, and social assistance, relative to other policy issues. These findings indicate that women local elected officials improve women’s substantive representation by allocating a larger percentage of expenditures to issues that have historically and continue to concern women in Brazil.
Click here to read the full article published by Sage Journals on 16 May 2018.