Women's Leadership
In the last five-year term, both the proportion of women in the European Parliament and in relevant positions in European institutions have improved significantly. In contrast, the Hungarian government hold a negative record for the participation of female ministers: there are none. Hungary is also last in the EU when it comes to the percentage of women in parliament.
Hungary came last on yet another EU list, this time it has become the leader in the ratio of women ministers and MEPs, in the wrong way. After the resignation of Judit Varga, not only Hungary has the lowest proportion of female ministers in Europe, but this figure is simply 0 percent, as it has no female ministers at all.
For voters familiar with the reality of Hungarian politics, this is probably not an outlier: even before the Fidesz government, the proportion of female ministers in Hungary was never above 30%, and there were occasional periods, such as in 2009, when there were no female ministers. In the first quarter of 2024, Hungary also came last in the EU in terms of female representatives in the national parliament, with 14.1%, just behind Cyprus with 14.3%.
Also, the proportion of Hungarian female MEPs in the European Parliament is 38.1%, barely below the European average of 39.4%. In this article, we focus on how many women are elected, the number of those in prominent positions, and why there are so few of them.
Read here the full article published by the European Data Journalism Network on 24 May 2024.
Image by European Data Journalism Network
Nana Shettima, wife of Vice-President Kashim Shettima and other stakeholders, says political equity and women’s empowerment are crucial to sustainable development in Nigeria.
They stated this at the Women of Worth Group Global Magazine unveiling and Award Dinner in Abuja.
Ms Shettima said Nigerian women had faced numerous challenges yet were relentless in achieving their dreams.
She said, “I encourage you women to continue to be strong and to strive to succeed in all you do because you hold the key to national development.
“I urge you to carry everyone along regardless of religion and ethnicity, strive to create inclusion in all you do and work together as one, encouraging each other to be better.
“I commend the initiative of the Women of Worth Global Group. This is a major milestone in promoting women and giving them hope in politics and all spheres of life.’’
The keynote speaker, a humanitarian and politician Amina Farouk, said that although women were more than half of Nigeria’s population, lamenting, ”their political participation has been regressing over time.”
Read here the full article published by Peoples Gazette on 26 May 2024.
Image by Peoples Gazette
From the local to the global level, women’s leadership and political participation are restricted. Women are underrepresented as voters, as well as in leading positions, whether in elected office, the civil service, the private sector or academia. This occurs despite their proven abilities as leaders and agents of change, and their right to participate equally in democratic governance.
Women face several obstacles to participating in political life. Structural barriers through discriminatory laws and institutions still limit women’s options to run for office. Capacity gaps mean women are less likely than men to have the education, contacts and resources needed to become effective leaders.
As the 2011 UN General Assembly resolution on women’s political participation notes, “Women in every part of the world continue to be largely marginalized from the political sphere, often as a result of discriminatory laws, practices, attitudes and gender stereotypes, low levels of education, lack of access to health care and the disproportionate effect of poverty on women.”
Individual women have overcome these obstacles with great acclaim, and often to the benefit of society at large. But for women as a whole, the playing field needs to be level, opening opportunities for all.
Read here the full article published by UN Women on 27 May 2024.
On 20 May 2024, a round table on "Ensuring women’s engagement in political processes in Ukraine" was held in Kyiv.
The round table discussion was focused on the issues of common strategy towards supporting active women participation in political process, ensuring guarantees for the exercise of electoral rights by women in view of the challenges caused by the military aggression of the Russian Federation, as well as strengthening the legal framework for the provision and effective enforcement of gender quota in electoral lists, and other issues.
The round table discussion was attended by more than 50 participants, including members and representatives of the Parliament of Ukraine, Central Election Commission, other state authorities, civil society and international organizations.
During the event, amongst other, the results of the Council of Europe study "Gender equality, balanced political participation and representation of women and men in post-war public and political processes in Ukraine: challenges and perspectives" were presented and discussed, as well as the results of the strategic session, which the Council of Europe Office in Ukraine co-organised with the Central Election Commission in November 2023 on issues of needs, challenges and relevant support measures to ensure gender-balanced participation and representation of women and men in public, political and electoral processes in Ukraine in the post-war period.
The event was organised by the Ukrainian Parliamentary Committee on State Power, Local Self-Government, Regional and Urban Development in cooperation with the Civic Network “OPORA,” International Foundation for Electoral Systems and Council of Europe*.
Read here the full article published by the Council of Europe on 22 May 2024.
Image by Council of Europe
Before Donald Trump was a president, he was a television celebrity and high-profile real estate mogul. His political experience, or lack thereof, was touted on the campaign trail eight years ago as a fresh presence in Washington.
A few other men have garnered celebrity status before they ventured into politics. Ronald Reagan, Clint Eastwood and Arnold Schwarzenegger were all tough-guy film stars long before they ran for president, mayor and governor respectively. Al Franken got people laughing on Saturday Night Live before serving as a Minnesota Senator.
But no woman has transitioned from stardom to high public office.
To better understand why and which famous female might be able to make the shift, Suffolk University and USA Today conducted an exclusive poll earlier this month of 1,000 likely voters.
Three celebrity women would win the backing of nearly 30% of those polled: TV personality Oprah Winfrey, actor Sandra Bullock and 23-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams. Actresses Viola Davis and Julia Roberts and comedian Tina Fey each earned the support of about a quarter of those surveyed, with Whoopi Goldberg, Jodie Foster and Rachel Maddow not too far behind.
Read here the full article published by USA Today on 22 May 2024.
Image by USA Today
Here we are in another presidential election year. (Pause for scream.) Chaos will surely abound on the campaign trail and elsewhere, but we here at Cosmo have found a way to not only survive elections but to use them to feel tangibly better about the world: Focus on the women.
A few elections ago, this took the form of our award-winning guide telling women exactly How to Run for Office. It felt urgent—at the time, only 8 percent of women told us they’d even consider running for office. Fast-forward seven years and nearly one-third of our state legislature seats are held by women. Twenty-eight percent of elected officials in Congress are women (compared to 19 percent 10 years ago). And we have our first-ever woman Vice President.
Now there’s a new urgency: While more women are gaining elected positions, they’re facing frustrating—and frustratingly gendered—obstacles once they’re on the job. So we’ve decided to publish a new guide about how to succeed in office once you get there.
It’s perhaps no surprise that for elected women, success requires the support of other women. Take it from our partner on the project, Pivotal Ventures, an investment and philanthropic company founded by Melinda French Gates to put $1 billion toward expanding women’s power and influence in the U.S. I caught up with Melinda—or “MFG” as her colleagues fondly call her and now so do I—this spring, right before Election Year 2024 really went into overdrive, to talk about our shared passion for helping all women thrive.
Read here the full article published by Cosmopolitan on 16 May 2024.
Image by Cosmopolitan
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This report contains an examination of global trends, persistent barriers and opportunities with regard to women’s full and effective participation and decision-making in public life, as well as the elimination of violence, for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls. Progress made in women’s representation at different levels, mainly through legislated gender quotas, and the impact of women’s participation in decision-making and civil society, are acknowledged in the report.
Systemic challenges, especially the increasing levels of violence perpetrated against women in public life and certain enduring harmful norms, require urgent attention, as do specific challenges encountered by marginalized women who face multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination. States can facilitate a more inclusive and enabling environment in which all women could participate in public life through more ambitious targets, increased political will, sustainable financing and gender-responsive institutional arrangements.
The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has compounded challenges to decision-making, and, while women have rarely been included in decision-making on COVID-19 response efforts in equal numbers to men, in several countries where they have been in leadership positions, the response to the pandemic has been particularly effective. The report concludes with recommendations for consideration by the Commission on the Status of Women.
Click here to access the report.
Women’s full and equal participation in all decision-making processes is necessary to achieve gender equality and drive progress towards sustainable development. In 2017, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) and the International Gender Champions–Geneva published Shaping the international agenda: Raising women’s voices in intergovernmental forums to empower a wide range of gender champions and stakeholders in advancing gender equality and parity in intergovernmental processes.
This second edition updates the findings and recommendations based on survey responses received from members of the United Nations Governing Bodies Secretariat (UNGBS) in 2020. Il also concludes with recommendations to further enhance gender parity goals directed at three important groups of actors: the UNGBS; Member States of the United Nations; and ministers, ambassadors, heads of organizations and other senior officials. A knowledge product and an advocacy tool, this report is intended to raise awareness, share lessons and inspire others to commit to action that improves and strengthens women’s participation, which is critical to shaping an inclusive international agenda.
Click here to access the report.
Politics & Gender is an agenda-setting journal that publishes quality scholarship on gender and politics and on women and politics. It aims to represent the full range of questions, issues, and approaches on gender and women across the major subfields of political science, including comparative politics, international relations, political theory, and U.S. politics.
Politics & Gender short paper series on Gender, Politics, and the Global Pandemic
The Gender, Politics, and the Global Pandemic series features 24 articles. The topics fall into three broad categories: Gender, leadership, and policymaking on Covid-19; gender, health, and public opinion during the Covid-19 pandemic; and Covid-19, caring, and inequality. The papers address such questions as: Were women leaders more successful in managing Covid-19 response? Why are men less likely to report wearing face coverings? How did the pandemic impact elections?
Click here to learn more and access the articles.
Summary: There has been a lot said about how women have done a better job leading during the Covid-19 crisis than men. According to an analysis of 360-degree assessments conducted between March and June of this year, women were rated by those who work with them as more effective. The gap between men and women in the pandemic is even larger than previously measured, possibly indicating that women tend to perform better in a crisis. In fact, women were rated more positively on 13 of the 19 competencies that comprise overall leadership effectiveness in the authors’ assessment.
When discussing the careers of women leaders, there’s a phenomenon referred to as the “glass cliff.” It’s an obvious relative to the term glass ceiling, which describes the invisible barrier to advancement that women often face when they are up for promotion to the highest levels of an organization. The “glass cliff” describes the idea that when a company is in trouble, a female leader is put in charge to save it. When women are finally given a chance to prove themselves in a senior position, they are handed something that is already broken and where the chances of failure are high.
We see this happen frequently enough that it made us wonder, are women in fact more qualified to lead during a crisis? Could that be why they are handed the reins when times are tough?
Click here to read the full article published by the Harvard Business Review on 30 December 2020.
Tool by Make Every Woman Count that monitors elections in Africa.
See it here.
MPs can sometimes be subject to human rights violations, ranging from arbitrary detention and exclusion from public life to even kidnapping and murder in the worst cases. The IPU has been defending MPs in danger for the past 40 years through its Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians.
The map below shows the latest alleged violations of MPs' human rights currently monitored by the IPU. Clicking on a country leads to the page of the parliament, from where you can access the latest information about the case.
See it here.
Upcoming Event:
National Intergenerational Dialogue on Advancing Youth Participation and Representation in Leadership and Decision-Making
The main purpose of the National Intergenerational Dialogue is to promote intergenerational interactions/exchanges to bridge generational divides and to address the causes of…
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