Parliaments & Representatives
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Aritua called for a multi-stakeholder approach, urging the Uganda Communications Commission and other regulatory bodies to crack down on digital abusers.
As Uganda prepares for the 2026 general elections, women in politics are raising concerns over persistent online violence, which they say is silencing them and deterring participation in public life.
Speaking at a stakeholders' meeting organized by the Women’s Democracy Network Uganda Chapter in Kampala, former Leader of the Opposition Ms Winnie Kiiza noted that many women continue to lag behind in digital adaptation, leaving them vulnerable.
“Most women in leadership lack adequate knowledge and tools to use technology effectively, yet it's the way to go. This gap is affecting our participation in decision-making,” Ms Kiiza said.
Full article published Monitor Uganda.
Image by Monitor Uganda
Over 50% of female local assembly members in Japan have been troubled with harassment, more than double the proportion of such male members, according to a Cabinet Office report.
The report on barriers to women's participation in politics, released Friday, said that 53.8% of local assemblywomen answered in the government agency's latest survey that they themselves, their family members, or their supporters have been harassed by others while 23.6% of assemblymen made similar answers.
Specifically, "verbal abuse" was cited by both male and female members as the leading form of harassment. "Insulting behavior and remarks based on unconscious gender bias" and "physical contact and stalking" were complained much more strongly by women than men.
On harassers, 65.7% of female members pointed the finger at election rivals and their supporters as well as peer assembly members, while 64.0% mentioned voters.
Full article published by The Japan Times here.
Image by The Japan Times
ABSTRACT
While gender quotas in politics have received considerable scholarly debate, much of the focus remains on whether quota-elected women are less qualified due to their pre-election background. Far less attention has been given to their actual parliamentary performance and how it compares to their non-quota peers. This study uses UK parliamentary records between 2005 and 2017 to compare the parliamentary activity of Labour women selected via All-Women Shortlists (AWS) with those selected via the traditional Open-List. Parliamentary activity is measured through contributions in spoken debate, rebellion rates, submission of written questions, and vote attendance, alongside an examination of AWS women’s commitment to women’s substantive representation. The results show that AWS women were equally active in most parliamentary channels, but they were more active in submitting written questions and speaking about women’s issues during debates compared to their Open-List counterparts. Consequently, the findings refute claims that AWS women are less active or underperform in Parliament, demonstrating that they perform as well as, or better than, their Open-List counterparts across all measures. These results should encourage the broader adoption of quotas in other UK political parties.
Full article published by Taylor & Francis here.
The 2025 report from the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) paints a chilling portrait of political life for women in the Asia-Pacific: Three in four women parliamentarians have endured psychological violence, and one in four has been subjected to sexual violence. Far from isolated incidents, these acts form a disturbing pattern of abuse targeting women for daring to lead. Violence, both online and offline, has become an entrenched feature of public life for women in politics.
More than 60 percent of women in political office have been victims of online hate, threats and disinformation campaigns. Parliamentary staff, especially young women, are similarly vulnerable. These attacks are not random: They are deliberate, systematic efforts to degrade, silence and push women out of politics.
This is not just a gendered struggle; it is a profound democratic crisis that erodes the very foundations of inclusive governance.
Full article by The Jakarta Post.
Image by The Jakarta Post
Theresa May, Britain’s ex-prime minister, says that rather than reaching for social media the second major news breaks, former world leaders would be better off taking a step back and bringing a “measured voice” to the table. For female leaders in particular, she advises: “Don’t react in the way you think other people think you should react.”
“Be a measured voice.” That is the advice former U.K. prime minister Theresa May has for fellow ex-world leaders.
Speaking on stage in Riyadh at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women International summit, the British politician—who served as premier from July 2016 to July 2019—said that instead of reacting to live events on social media, her peers should sit back and be more picky about what they comment on.
“It’s important for former world leaders to not feel that they have to constantly be saying something about what is happening,” May stressed. “Be a voice, a measured voice, perhaps in the background. Sometimes you can work with people who are in leadership positions.”
“As a former leader you can, from time to time, raise your voice and make points about things that are happening,” she said. One time she did that was during the pandemic. “I actually wrote about what I thought we should have seen, which was a greater international coming together to deal with this, rather than this retreating behind country borders.”
“So it’s about raising your voice from time to time, not feeling you’re constantly commenting on everything.”
Read full article published by Fortune on 21 May 2025.
Image by Fortune
Americans are deeply divided about the use of quotas in hiring and education, but quotas are used in many countries to assure a balance of power between men and women in legislative bodies. New research co-authored at UC Berkeley finds that when governments are gender-balanced, people believe the political process and policy outcomes are more fair and democratic.
In a major study that included 17,000 people in a dozen countries—in Europe, the Pacific and the Americas—researchers found overwhelming support for a balance of representation between men and women, even when quotas are needed to achieve it. The U.S. and the U.K. don't use such quotas for national office, but even so, respondents in the study saw strong benefit, said Berkeley political scientist Amanda Clayton, the lead author.
The most important finding "is that citizens in democracies around the world strongly prefer women's equality to women's exclusion, regardless of how the equality is achieved," Clayton said in an interview.
Full article published by Phys on 22 May 2025.
Image by Phys
In this study, we report results of a survey of U.S. state senators about their experiences of psychological abuse, physical violence, and sexualized abuse and violence on the job, as well as gender differences among senators. Overall, our results indicate that more than 80% of state senators reported having faced abuse and violence, and women senators reported more physical violence than men. Moreover, we found differences in the factors that contributed to abuse and violence among women and men state senators. Most notably, women with higher levels of power (party or committee leaders) were more likely than other women to experience psychological abuse and sexualized abuse and violence, and Democratic women senators faced more sexualized abuse and violence than Republican women. The implications for continued service by state senators in the face of these experiences, the likelihood of attracting future candidates, and the implications for gender diversity in office are explored.
Click here to read the full article.
The third Global Parliamentary Report examines public engagement in the work of parliament. This report takes a detailed look at why engagement matters and how parliaments globally are engaging with the people they represent. It outlines trends and priorities for public engagement and considers key principles for ensuring better and deeper engagement into the future, in support of the 2030 Agenda.
Click here to access the report.
Number and Percentage of Women in State Legislatures, 1980-2022
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Current State Legislature
2,300
(1,516D, 764R, 13NP, 5Ind, 2Prg)
31.2% of 7,383 seats
Since 1971, the number of women serving in state legislatures has more than quintupled.
NP = non-partisan, Ind = Independent, Prg = Progressive
State-by-State Summary Data on Current Women State Legislators
Click here to access the data.
How does the gender composition of the Australian parliament compare with parliaments around the world, and how has it changed over the past two decades
International comparisons
The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) has published international rankings of women in national parliaments since 1997. The IPU’s rankings are based on the representation of women in the lower (or single) houses of national parliaments only. The representation of women in the Australian Senate is therefore not factored into Australia’s ranking.
As illustrated in Figure 1 below, Australia’s IPU ranking for women in national parliaments was 27th in 1997, rising to 15th in 1999. In 2022 Australia’s ranking has fallen to 57th.
Click here to read the full article published by Parliament of Australia on 20 April 2022.
In late March 2022, 16 years after she was first elected to the Isabel Provincial Assembly in Solomon Islands, Rhoda Sikilabu became the country’s first female premier. The four-time MPA and former Deputy Premier replaced Leslie Kikolo who resigned a day before he faced a motion of no confidence.
The local coverage of Solomon Islands’ first female premier – in the Solomon Times, the Island Sun, Twitter, as well as the Australian and New Zealand Pacific outlets – was pleasantly surprising and suggests that women’s political leadership is finally becoming newsworthy.
Click here to read the full article published by DevPolicy Blog on 27 April 2022.
The Study "Violence Against Women in Politics" is commissioned by the UNDP Albania, in partnership with the People's Advocate and the Commissioner for Protection from Discrimination and it is conducted in the context of the UN Joint Programme "Ending Violence Against Women" in Albania"funded by the Government of Sweden.
The study shows the known trend: women politicians, compared to men, are more likely to experience violence that is not visible.
Click here to access the report.