Women's Leadership
Women in the South East states of Anambra, Enugu and Ebonyi have advocated for equal representation of women in leadership positions in the country.
They spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in separate interviews in Enugu Ebonyi and Awka, as part of Nigeria’s 65th Independence Anniversary.
Speaking, Mrs. Onyinye Mamah, the Executive Director of Heroine Women Foundation, a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) based in Enugu, said she had always advocated for the equitable representation of women in leadership.
Mamah stated that women were grossly underrepresented in global political leadership.
She said, “For so many years in Nigeria, we have been hammering on the inclusion of women in politics.
“Here, when few women get involved, it looks like a favour; what we are looking for is a time when women will be properly included in the scheme of things.”
According to Mamah, the reserve seat bill was one of the most beautiful bills one could imagine in recent times.
“This is because it gives room for carved out positions which would be contested for by women only, ” she said.
She, however, said that the inclusion of women in politics was something that would gather a lot of groups, institutions, strength and improvement.
Full article here.
Women leaders, policymakers, and advocates from Nigeria and across Africa at the 2025 Voice of Women Conference & Awards (VOW), have renewed calls for gender equity and inclusive governance.
Speaking at the event held in Abuja, Convener of the Conference and Awards, Toun Okewale-Sonaiya, described VOW2025 as “a platform where women’s voices continue to shape Nigeria’s future”.
She noted that the movement transcends borders and aligns with the African Union’s Agenda 2063 on gender equality and inclusive leadership.
The Convener also stressed the urgency of deepening female political representation through collective action, particularly at the grassroots where women remain the largest and most powerful voting bloc.
“It is time we transform this individual voting strength into a unified force. When women support women across all divides, we become the decisive power that can shape governance,” she said.
Okewale-Sonaiya urged for the swift passage of the Reserved Seats Bill, describing it as vital to Nigeria’s democratic integrity and gender balance.
Full article here.
Shortly before the start of this year's 20th anniversary edition of the Bled Strategic Forum international conference, Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Tanja Fajon hosted a high-level women's forum comprising foreign ministers, senior representatives of international organisations and members of national parliaments and the European Parliament. Their discussions focused on decency in politics, a highly relevant matter in the current climate of rising authoritarianism.
The distinguished participants included Latvian Foreign Minister Baiba Braže and Kosovo Foreign Minister Donika Gërvalla-Schwarz, European Commissioner for Equality, Preparedness and Crisis Management Hadja Lahbib, WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, NATO Deputy Secretary General Radmila Shekerinska, MEP Irena Joveva, The Baroness Helic of the British House of Lords, Vice President of the National Assembly Meira Hot, Ambassador of the EU to Kazakhstan Aleška Simkić and Head of Delegation of the EU to Afghanistan Veronika Bošković Pohar.
"Since we are few in number, it is particularly important that we set a good example for young people in order to strengthen trust in politics and encourage women to assume leadership roles," underlined the Slovenian Foreign Minister. The distinguished participants concurred that female politicians, irrespective of their political affiliations, must provide mutual support, address complex challenges collectively and conduct themselves in a dignified, respectful and empathetic manner. They agreed that it is imperative for them to uphold and strengthen political standards, particularly by insisting on the fundamental principles of respectful interpersonal relations and humanity.
Full article here.
In times of great political turmoil, it can be instructive and reassuring to read about people who have been in similar situations, and have persevered in fighting for something better. While writing my new book about the contributions Black women have made in the global struggle for human rights, I was humbled to see, over and over, how many of these women did not come from rich families, or hold positions of great power, or even have all that much education. But they did the hard and dangerous work required, day in and day out, because they believed in equal rights for everyone, around the world.
Closer to home, I’m recommending here five books that everyone should read about Black women in the United States who have persevered against great and terrible odds, to try to make the world better for the next generation. Their stories are just the inspiration we need today.
Full article here.
In her rightfully celebrated 1969 article, “The Political Economy of Women’s Liberation,” Margaret Benston articulated several of the enduring themes and theoretical insights of feminist theories, especially those developed by socialist and Marxist feminists. For example, she located the material basis of women’s secondary status in their responsibility for the production of use values for home consumption and their ensuing economic dependence upon male breadwinners; the effects of domestic responsibilities on women’s opportunities; and the material conditions for women’s liberation, that is, equal access to employment and an end to the privatized nature of housework and child rearing.2
As a graduate student in the late 1960s, I struggled to make sense of the notion that women were oppressed as women and that men or patriarchy were the source of their oppression—an idea that, at the time, seemed strange to me.3 In contrast, Benston’s perspective that the causes of the secondary status of women were structural, rooted in the capitalist economy, and resulted in women’s responsibility for child care and the production of use values for family consumption, made sense to me. It showed how the functioning of the capitalist economy, given that the organization of social and biological reproduction remained still in a “premarket stage,” placed working-class men and women in different structural positions. This, I inferred, gave some men power over women. Working-class men had to earn wages to survive economically, whereas working-class women, whether married or unmarried, could theoretically either work for wages or work at home, unpaid and dependent on the wages of the male head of the household.4 Abstractly, under capitalism, being an unpaid domestic worker is for working-class women a functional alternative to earning wages.5 In retrospect, having read her article again, I can say that my account of the oppression of women and conceptualization of what, in the early 1970s, I called the mode of reproduction, owes much to Benston’s views about the “structural definition of women” and the household as a place of production and reproduction.6
Full article here.
Respected figure: Baroness Margaret Thatcher. Personal goal: To become Japan's Iron Lady.
It was only after two failed attempts that, on Saturday, Sanae Takaichi finally achieved her long-held ambition.
The 64-year-old was elected leader of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) on its 70th anniversary - putting her on course to become the country's first female prime minister.
A former government minister and TV host, and once a drummer in a heavy metal band, she will now face the challenge of leading not only a party struggling to regain voter trust after scandals and battling with the far right - but a country facing low birth rates and rising geopolitical tensions.
Born in Nara Prefecture in 1961, Takaishi's father was an office worker and her mother a police officer. Politics was far removed from her upbringing.
Once an avid heavy metal drummer, she was famous for carrying many sticks because she would break them during intense drumming. She was also a scuba diver and a car enthusiast - her beloved Toyota Supra is now displayed in a Nara museum.
Fawcett's Sex and Power 2022 Index is a biennial report which charts the progress towards equal representation for women in top jobs across the UK. Yet again, the report reveals the pace of change is glacial in the majority of sectors and shows that women are outnumbered by men 2:1 in positions of power.
Women of colour are vastly under-represented at the highest levels of many sectors and alarmingly, they are missing altogether from senior roles such as Supreme Court Justices, Metro Mayors, Police and Crime Commissioners and FTSE 100 CEOs.
Click here to download the report.
Very little research has considered how media discrimination could impact men and women’s political ambition. Yet, media discrimination could impact both beliefs about gender roles and political competence, and beliefs about voter bias, both of which could decrease women’s political ambition and increase men’s. Alternatively, media discrimination could lead women to react against discrimination and be motivated politically. This study tests how political ambition of men and women is impacted by media discrimination in a campaign and election lab experiment. Media discrimination in this experiment under-reports on women and uses traditional, stereotypical depictions of men and women. The results suggest that in certain conditions, media discrimination in political news may lead to a reactance or positive challenge effect for women, increasing their political ambition. Men, instead, may feel an aversion to entering politics, lowering their political ambition.
Click here to read the full article published by Sage Journals on 22 October 2022.
Although a voluminous literature has studied the substantive representation of women, these studies have largely been confined to advanced democracies. Similarly, studies that focus on the relationship between Islam and women’s rights largely ignored the substantive representation of women in Muslim-majority countries. As one of the first studies of its kind, this article investigates the role of religion in the substantive representation of women by focusing on a Muslim-majority country: Turkey. Using a novel data set of 4,700 content coded private members’ bills (PMBs) drafted in the Turkish parliament between 2002 and 2015, this article synthesizes competing explanations of women’s representation in the Middle East and rigorously tests the implications of religion, ideology, critical mass, and labor force participation accounts. The results have significant implications for the study of gender and politics in Muslim-majority countries.
Click here to download the report.
In times of crisis, people are more likely to appoint women and people of colour to be leaders. But this puts crisis leaders in a very precarious position.
When Carol Bartz was appointed CEO at Yahoo in January 2009, the internet company was struggling. She was hired on a four-year contract and put forward a strategic plan to turn things around. But in September 2011 – in a phone call with Yahoo's chairman of the board – she was fired, just two years and eight months after she'd joined the company.
"They didn't even let [her plan] come to fruition," says Alison Cook, a professor of management at Utah State University in the US.
Bartz is one of countless female leaders given a precarious leadership position and left standing on the edge of a "glass cliff" with no support.
Research shows that women and people from ethnic minorities are more likely to be chosen to lead a company, sports team, or even country when it is in crisis mode. While those glass cliff positions can provide a way for some leaders to prove themselves, they come with significant downsides – including stress, burnout, and derailed careers.
Click here to read the full article published by BBC on 7 February 2022.
As part of last December’s Summit for Democracy, the Biden administration launched a wide range of commitments aimed at countering the troubling anti-democratic headwinds around the world. One of these pledges is the “Advancing Women’s & Girls’ Civic and Political Leadership Initiative,” a new U.S. government effort to promote women’s democratic inclusion. Implemented by the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) with a planned budget of $33.5 million, it seeks to strengthen women-led civil society organizations, tackle entrenched barriers to women’s political and economic participation, and foster a more inclusive environment for women in politics.
Click here to read the full article published by Just Security.
Women remain underrepresented in political leadership in the United States and beyond. While abundant research has studied the possible impact of gender stereotypes on support for women candidates, our research finds that voters also withhold support for women candidates because they perceive practical barriers to women successfully attaining political leadership positions. We find that providing Democratic primary voters with evidence that women earn as much electoral support as men in US general elections increased intentions to vote for women candidates. Our results suggest that women face complex barriers that prevent gender equity in politics, and these barriers can be reduced when voters believe that Americans not only want but also will take action to support women candidates.
Click here to read the full article published by PNAS.