Political Parties
What you need to know:
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Myllene Bosibori's political journey exposes deep gender, ethnic, and financial barriers facing Kenyan women candidates.
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Sexual harassment, biased systems, and economic hardship continue to block women’s fair access to political leadership.
When Myllene Bosibori decided to run for Kajiado North MP in 2022, she never thought it would be an uphill task.
However, her experience was not horrifying. Having come from the minority ethnic group, Myllene tells the Nation that she faced double discrimination of coming from a small ethnic group and being a woman. She recounts how on many occasions she was told to go seek elective politics in her native Kisii region.
Myllene also bitterly recalls how she was asked for sexual favours and a bribe to be given a ticket for one of the popular political parties. “When I refused, it was handed to another person. It is so hard for a woman seeking political leadership to fairly compete with men.”
Full article published by Nation Africa here.
Image by Nation Africa
The conservative Protestant party SGP has again voted down a proposal to formally recognize women’s eligibility for political and administrative roles, maintaining a decades-long stance that continues to limit women's participation despite previous legal rulings and internal activism.
On Saturday, party delegates overwhelmingly rejected a motion to enshrine in the party’s core statutes that women are welcome to hold political or leadership positions. The vote ended 299 to 53 against the proposal. Only party delegates were allowed to vote, not the broader membership.
The proposal was submitted by Lilian Janse and her local chapter in Vlissingen. Janse became the first woman to hold office for the SGP in 2014 when she joined the city council. Despite that milestone, the party's founding regulations still state that women who enter politics are acting "in conflict with their calling."
Stem op een Vrouw (Vote for a Woman) director Devika Partiman responded to the vote by urging women within the party not to give up. “There is no magical formula, but things really will change eventually,” she said. Partiman said she was not surprised the proposal was rejected, but she did not expect the margin to be so wide. She pointed out that only designated male delegates — often strict followers of party rules — were allowed to cast ballots. “That is the biggest problem,” she said.
According to Partiman, many regular SGP members support changing the party statutes, making the outcome “regrettable.” She added, “It would be a good idea if the men who do agree with the changes would speak out publicly, so there are visible role models.” However, she acknowledged the difficulty, noting that speaking against the leadership might hurt their own prospects in the party.
Full article published by the Netherlands Times on 24 May 2025.
Image by Netherlands Times
Labour has cancelled its national women’s conference and restricted all-women shortlists as it awaits full guidance from the equalities watchdog, drawing criticism from transgender rights and gender-critical campaigners.
The party’s governing body, the national executive committee (NEC), met on Tuesday to sign off plans to cancel the women’s conference, which was due to take place before the party’s annual conference in Liverpool in September.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission’s interim advice, published after the supreme court decision that the term “woman” in the Equality Act refers only to a biological woman, has suggested that voluntary organisations should apply that rule.
The NEC had been told the party was at risk of a legal challenge if it went ahead with the conference, according to LabourList, and could face protests and direct action if the conference proceeded as usual on the basis of self-identification.
Full article published by The Guardian on 20 May 2025.
Image by The Guardian
Nigerian women across different social statuses have been urged to become more politically conscious and actively involved in partisan politics as the next general elections in the country draw closer.
They were encouraged to take action during a one-day summit held in Lagos on Tuesday, organised by the Women Environment and Youth Development Initiative (WOYODEV), a non-governmental organisation focused on women and youth matters.
The forum, themed “From Margins to Mainstream: Empowering Women for Political Participation in Nigeria,” brought together scores of women and young girls from diverse backgrounds and political parties, including those living with disabilities.
Speaking at the event, the convener and executive director of WOYODEV, Mrs Tosin Apiriola-Ajayi, emphasised the importance of the summit, outlining three major objectives.
According to her, the summit aims to promote strong and sustainable feminist movements and coalitions to foster the active participation of women in politics, challenge social norms—including gender discrimination—that often relegate women to the background in political power sharing and decision-making, and empower women to take leadership roles.
Full article published by MSN on 15 May 2025.
Image credits: Tribune Online
The result of the federal election was shocking but it wasn’t surprising.
It was a resounding message from voters – and we would be foolish not to listen.
The truth is, the Liberal party didn’t lose because of campaign tactics or some leadership missteps alone. We lost because our policies failed to resonate. And they failed to resonate because, too often, they were built without the input of the very Australians we needed to win over – women, young people, multicultural communities and urban voters.
Too many of our policies seemed disconnected from the daily realities of modern Australia. The cost of living, housing, secure jobs, climate and education are dominating the concerns of millions – yet when asked how we’d address them we gave voters little reason to believe we understood the scale of the problem, let alone have credible answers.
The Liberal party’s massive defeat leaves it in dire straits. Where to from here?
To chart a credible path forward, we must return to first principles. The Liberal party was once defined by its broad reach – a party of the “forgotten people”, where aspiration met compassion and economic freedom was balanced by social responsibility. That legacy, championed by the party founder Robert Menzies, meant putting the concerns of ordinary Australians at the centre of political life.
Full article here published by The Guardian.
Image source: The Guardian
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party strongly disagreed with the Constitutional Reform Commission on its proposal for a quota of 10 per cent parliamentary seats for young candidates.
The Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami rather preferred emphasis on nominating young candidates but disagreed to the proposed quota.
On the other hand, the newly floated National Citizen Party favoured the quota, with the recommendation that 35 years should be the maximum age for the eligibility of youth under the quota system.
In response to the National Consensus Commission’s 166-point questionnaire on key reforms, the youth-dominated NCP also proposed lowering the voter age from 18 to 16.
At the same time, it opposed reducing the minimum age for a parliamentary candidate from 25 to 21, as suggested in the reform proposals.
The BNP, in its feedback to the NCC, wrote the party disagrees to the youth quota as it considers the nomination of candidates is a matter of a political party’s policy and, therefore, imposing any constitutional obligation regarding quota is inappropriate.
Avoiding giving any specific opinion about the proposed 10 per cent quota, the Jammat wrote that nominating candidates from among the youth should be emphasised.
During their dialogues with the NCC, several other political parties also opposed the youth quota in the parliament.
Nagarik Oikya presidium member Zinnur Chowdhury Dipu and Rashtra Sangskar Andolan organiser Syed Hasibuddin Hossen told New Age that their parties, too, disagree to the option for the 10 per cent youth quota.
Hasibuddin, however, said his party does not discourage young candidates to contest in the parliamentary elections.
Read here the full article published by New Age on 14 April 2025.
Image by New Age
Racial/ethnic minorities and women continue to be underrepresented in public office in the United States. Here, we evaluate the role of general election political party support for women and minorities in structuring these inequalities, as a key part of general election success is support from party networks. With detailed data on party support and the demographics of congressional candidates, we use two difference-in-differences strategies to leverage within-district and candidate-constant change over time. Thus, we are able to separate the effect of race/ethnicity and gender from other factors we demonstrate to be associated with party support. We find that, all else equal, Democratic and Republican minority nominees do not receive less support than their white counterparts. We also find that white women receive more party support from Democrats than Democratic men or minority women in the general election and that this support is more responsive to changes in electoral competitiveness. These findings suggest that party elites may provide additional support to candidates from underrepresented groups in the general election to broaden their appeal to voters.
Click here to download the paper published by Sage Journals on 23 April 2022.
‘Leave no one behind’ (LNOB) is the central, transformative promise of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Hence, SDG 5—‘Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls’—is an intrinsic enabler for sustainable development and representative democracy for each country and the world at large. The SDG 5 stipulates the requisite collective action for transformation and creating conducive environments towards substantive equality for all women and girls. In order to take on the challenge of translating SDG 5 into reality for women and girls across the world, it is fundamental to address the key areas of gender inequality, such as gender-based discrimination in law and in practice, violence against women and girls, the lack of and unequal access to and ownership of economic resources, and women’s unequal participation and representation in both private and public decision-making positions.
This Technical Paper focuses on political parties’ responsibilities on achieving gender equality in politics and women’s political empowerment, particularly women’s participation and representation in positions of power and decision making at all levels.
Click here to access the paper published by International IDEA on 4 November 2021.
Abstract
Throughout history and across countries, women appear more likely than men to enter politics on the heels of a close family relative or spouse. To explain this dynastic bias in women’s representation, we introduce a theory that integrates political selection decisions with informational inequalities across social groups. Candidates with dynastic ties benefit from the established reputations of their predecessors, but these signals of quality are more important to political newcomers such as women. Legislator-level data from twelve democracies and candidate-level data from Ireland and Sweden support the idea that dynastic ties are differentially more helpful to women, and that the quality of predecessors may be more relevant for the entry and evaluation of female successors than their male counterparts. The role of informational inequalities is also reflected in the declining dynastic bias over time (as more women enter politics), and in the differential effect of a gender quota across Swedish municipalities.
Click here to read the full article published by Sage Journal on 3 July 2020.
The Win With Women Political Party Assessment (WWW Assessment) is an initiative designed to help political parties become more inclusive and representative through an assessment that gauges men and women's perceptions of women in leadership, the types of social norms held by members of parties, and the individual, institutional and socio-cultural barriers to gender equality.
Click here to see the report.
The Women's Network of the Union of Latin American Parties (UPLA) is a political platform that seeks to promote and strengthen the participation and positioning of women in public decision-making roles in Latin America and the Caribbean.
UPLA prepared a report for the electronic discussion on the role of political parties in the promotion of women in politics.
Click here to see the report.
Political parties are a cornerstone of democracy, providing critical pathways for citizens’ political participation and engagement. They mobilise citizens behind ideologies and policies, select candidates for representative posts, lead electoral campaigns, form legislative blocs in parliaments and, if elected, implement a program of government. Their role in defining key political institutions - policy formation, elections and parliaments - mean political parties have traditionally been important springboards for women's political participation. However, because of history, tradition and gender norms, many have found it difficult to provide women with meaningful and equal access to leadership positions or party platforms. Political parties also tend to be ‘protected’1 public spaces, allowing and enabling violence against women within their ranks to take place.
NDI has revised its long-standing Win With Women political party assessment tool, including by adding guidance on measuring levels of and dealing with the violence that women members face within their parties. The No Party to Violence: Political Party Assessment includes survey, focus group and in-depth interview tools to be used with women and men in the leadership and membership of parties in order to develop action plans to root out the violence targeting women within their own political party
Over the last year, this new approach has been piloted with a number of the larger political parties and civil society in Côte d’Ivoire, Honduras, Tanzania and Tunisia. The outcomes from this piloting represent the first assessment of women party members’ experiences of violence within political parties, thus providing important new insights on the phenomenon, which has never been systematically studied previously. It offers a unique cross-country analysis of the current understandings and perceptions of men and women party members around the types, levels, and impact of violence against women within these institutions. This important information is being used to create party- and country-specific recommendations to improve awareness, action and accountability to end violence against women within political parties, thereby strengthening women’s membership and their roles on a basis of enhanced equality. The piloting process has also created a safe space for multi-party dialogue in ways which have not exposed any party to the political risk of negative commentary from the issue being aired in public and/or used by their competitors.
Click here to see the report.