Women's Leadership
Every fall, as Parliament returns and calendars quickly fill with receptions, meetings, and fundraisers, one gathering on the Hill stands out from the rest. Women on the Hill has become a cherished Ottawa tradition, bringing together women from politics, policy, media, government relations, and diplomacy.
What sets Women on the Hill apart on the Ottawa reception circuit is its purpose of creating a space for women to truly connect. Since the beginning of its origin, the aim has always been to shine a light on the contributions of women who shape the national conversation from House of Commons to press galleries, embassies to boardrooms. It is where senior political leaders and new staffers, veteran journalists and emerging government relations professionals, trade insights and stories over a glass of wine…or two.
The community that the Women on the Hill event has fostered is unique to any other recent throughout the year. It’s a space where a minister may strike up a conversation with a young staffer, where journalists and diplomats share perspectives, and where industry veterans make themselves accessible to the next generation of women on the hill.
Full article here.
Milestones for notable women this week include birthdays for: Lois Wessel, Amy Poehler, Alexis Bledel, Caroline James, Soledad O’Brien, Nancy Bocskor and Lauren Leader. It’s also the anniversary of the week that Harriet Tubman set herself free in 1849, that Carla Hayden was named the first female librarian of Congress, and Margaret Chase Smith was the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate in her own right.
The 30th anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action is a moment to reaffirm global commitments to gender equality
2025 is a pivotal year for women and girls. It marks three major milestones: the thirtieth anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, the twenty-fifth anniversary of United Nations Security Council resolution 1325 on women, peace and security, and the eightieth anniversary of the United Nations. Notable progress on laws, policies and some development outcomes for women and girls has occurred, especially since the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015. In the final five-year stretch before the 2030 deadline of the Goals, it is urgent to accelerate action and investment.
The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, adopted in 1995 by 189 countries, laid out transformative measures across 12 critical areas of concern, serving as a foundation for progress on gender equality and the SDGs. Drawing on evidence from the thirtieth-anniversary review – including 159 Member State reports and broad consultations – UN Women has developed the Beijing+30 Action Agenda. This bold, forward-looking framework sets out six priority actions to accelerate progress on both the Platform and the SDGs. It positions gender equality at the heart of global development efforts. This section highlights this Agenda noting the investments needed and the benefits not only for women and girls, but at large for societies and economies. The rest of the report assesses gender equality under each of the 17 SDGs, spotlighting actions and investments to accelerate change.
Despite a slight increase in female representation in Parliament, gender advocates warn that Jamaica still falls short in addressing women’s issues at the national level. Judith Wedderburn highlighted ongoing challenges, including securing party backing and meaningful influence in Cabinet-level decisions. Newly re-elected MPs like Juliet Cuthbert-Flynn stressed that women in Parliament must focus on advancing policies affecting women, from domestic violence to support for mothers in difficult circumstances.
Gender advocate spurns tokenism in women’s political participation
Jamaica Gleaner/14 Sep 2025/Karen Madden Sunday/ Gleaner Writer
DESPITE A marginal increase in the number of women that will sit in Lower House when it resumes, at least one gender advocate believes the country is still falling short in its representation of women in the seat of power.
Gender and development practitioner Judith Wedderburn has, however, acknowledged the efforts the leadership of the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and the opposition People’s National Party (PNP) have made to bring more women into representational politics.
Of the 189 candidates nominated for the 2025 election, 136 were men and 53 were women. In the new Parliament, 19 women will take their seats – just one more than in 2020 and seven more than in 2016.
Full article here.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 17. Azerbaijani Parliament Speaker Sahiba Gafarova, who is visiting the city of Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia for the 46th General Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA) of the Association of SoutheastAsian Nations, has delivered a speech at the 2nd Forum of AIPA Women Political Leaders today, a source in the parliament told Trend.
Speaking at the opening of the event, AIPA Secretary General Siti Rozaimeriyanty Dato Haji Abdul Rahman voiced his ideas about the significance of the congregation.
Also, he greeted Gafarova and witnessed appreciation of her participation in the forum.
Full article here.
Political scientist Ivabelle Arroyo and director of the Center for Gender Research (UNAM) Amneris Chaparro agree that the key issues in political and social debates, both within and outside feminism, focus more on women’s bodies (motherhood, sexuality, gender identity, micro-violence, femicide, sexual harassment, and abuse) than on addressing the structural causes of gender inequality, which require consistent policies in both the medium and long term.
Conservatism around sexuality and gender roles is surprisingly on the rise within liberal democracies. While this is happening, feminists are divided on issues such as trans women.
Amneris Chaparro: I believe that being a woman is not just about the body, a type of experience, or certain biological signs. The differences within feminism respond to a question with no single answer: what is a woman? Now, there is a historical need to recognize invisible and marginalized subjects, placed in the position of otherness, of being different and seen as inferior, such as trans women, who are linked to the feminine. The tension always has to do with women because, curiously, no one has any problem with trans men; they are not part of the public discourse. What do we do with trans women who come to feminism deeply wounded, victims of violence marked on their bodies seen as feminized? They are not women in the biological sense but because of the cultural construction of gender, of what is socially considered acceptable because of having a body of a certain sex. Feminist positions that exclude them, bordering with transphobia, make biology the only determining factor in being a woman. We need open-mindedness, humility, listening, and the creation of spaces for dialogue and true liberation. Sometimes it is valid to change one’s mind and remember that being a feminist who excludes trans women in some way can be a violation of human rights.
Full article here.
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.
The gender disparity in politics is indicative of the of need to promote education amongst women, thus, enabling greater political participation.
While numerous political advancements have occurred throughout the world in recent decades, the most important influence has to be on women’s involvement and representation in political roles. Women make up about half of our population, but they are underrepresented in our political system in proportion to their numbers. At every level, from the home to the highest levels of government, women are excluded from decision-making. Women’s decision-making engagement in politics may have a substantial impact on women’s empowerment, which is why India is battling with the issue of gender disparity. Despite the Indian Constitution’s provision of equal opportunity, women have a small presence in legislative bodies and political participation at all levels. Accessing the possible reasons, we see that, interestingly, education plays a part in politics; however, only for women because the literacy rate of female politicians is higher than the male politicians, implying that only women need political education.
Click here to read the full article published by Observer Research Foundation.