Women's Leadership
VIENNA, 18 June – The OSCE Forum for Security Co-operation placed the Women, Peace and Security agenda at the forefront of its programme today, with a dedicated Security Dialogue during the plenary session and a side-event focused on gender-responsive security.
The Security Dialogue, held under the theme “The Role of Women in Strengthening Defence and Ensuring Resilience”, brought together expert panellists from Estonia, Sweden, and France. Discussions emphasized that women’s meaningful participation enhances operational effectiveness and community trust in defence institutions. As global threats evolve—from armed conflict to cyber warfare and climate-related disasters—harnessing the full potential of women in defence is not only a matter of equity but of strategic necessity.
“Inclusive national security institutions that integrate women at all levels of society are more operationally effective, community-responsive and resilient,” said Ambassador Kaja Tael, Permanent Representative of Estonia to the OSCE and Chair of the FSC.
In October 2025, the UN community will mark the 25th anniversary of UN Security Council Resolution 1325, which launched the women, peace, and security (WPS) agenda. Since 2019, IPI has analyzed challenges and successes in increasing uniformed women’s meaningful participation in peace operations as part of its partnership with the Elsie Initiative for Peace Operations, contributing to a global community of practice that provides evidence-based research on gender and peacekeeping. Over the past six years, this research has explored a range of topics related to women in peace operations, highlighting gaps and offering actionable recommendations for the implementation of the WPS agenda.
IPI in partnership with the Elsie Initiative for Women in Peace Operations (led by Global Affairs Canada), the Stimson Center, the Latin American Security and Defence Network (RESDAL), and the Gender and Security Sector (GSS) Lab, cohosted a hybrid policy forum on October 9th on “Reflecting on 25 Years of the WPS Agenda: Lessons Learned from Gender Research and UN Peace Operations.
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Despite notable normative advances, after 25 years, the effectiveness of the Women, Peace and Security Agenda is threatened by a fragmented global panorama and faces significant challenges and setbacks.
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In the new context, the following stand out: (a) the increased frequency and complexity of armed conflicts; (b) the rise of ‘anti-gender’ movements and the erosion of women’s rights in many regions; (c) geopolitical divisions, which make it difficult to prioritise comprehensive solutions to conflicts; (d) the Agenda’s funding crisis; (e) the crisis of multilateralism; (f) the reduced representation of women as negotiators and mediators; and (g) the loss of policy coherence and its transformative potential due to the instrumentalisation of the Agenda, often used for geopolitical purposes.
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For the Agenda to remain relevant, it is crucial that it evolves and adapts to the new global situation and updates its principles with an understanding of the local contexts in which it must be applied.
In 2000, the United Nations Security Council recognized that women’s leadership and gender equality are crucial for international peace and security, and the past 25 years have seen increased attention to this matter. However, the rise in global conflict in recent years risks erasing the modest progress made in previous decades.
Every year, the UN Secretary-General presents an annual report to the Security Council detailing the status of the women, peace and security agenda in the world. This year’s report contains more than one hundred facts and figures on issues ranging from women’s participation in peace processes, peace operations, or politics in conflict-affected countries, to the impact of conflict on women and girls, including atrocities that target them disproportionately, like reproductive violence, gender-based persecution, or conflict-related sexual violence.
This infographic, prepared by UN Women, highlights a few of these facts and figures, along with recommendations to change course.
New York, 20 October – The world is experiencing the highest number of active conflicts since 1946, creating unprecedented risks and suffering for women and girls.
The 2025 UN Secretary-General’s report on Women, Peace and Security warns that 676 million women now live within 50 kilometers of deadly conflict, the highest level since the 1990s. Civilian casualties among women and children quadrupled compared to the previous two-year period, and conflict-related sexual violence increased by 87 per cent in two years.
Issued on the 25th anniversary of Security Council resolution 1325, which committed the international community to women’s full participation and protection in peace and security, the report warns that two decades of progress are unraveling.
“Women and girls are being killed in record numbers, shut out of peace tables, and left unprotected as wars multiply. Women do not need more promises, they need power, protection, and equal participation”, said Sima Bahous, UN Under-Secretary-General and UN Women Executive Director.
Despite overwhelming evidence that women’s participation makes peace more durable, women remain largely excluded from decision-making. While an increasing number of countries have developed national action plans to implement resolution 1325, this has not always resulted in tangible change for women. In 2024, 9 out of 10 peace processes had no women negotiators, with women making up just 7 per cent of negotiators and 14 per cent of mediators globally.
As part of Xpress‘ annual Women in Business issue, we reached out to elected officials and municipal leaders seeking their stories about influential role models, lived experiences and obstacles they’ve faced. Below is our exchange with Maggie Ullman, Asheville City Council member.
Xpress: Who were the role models that inspired you to seek elected office?
Ullman: My mom. She raised three daughters while teaching English part time at two community colleges, and she often said she’d been “mommy-tracked” instead of full-time tracked — and she was right. But instead of accepting it, she organized, joining the part-time teachers’ union and negotiating for fair treatment.
As she neared retirement, she wanted to stay involved. She kept asking when a local candidate would announce so she could volunteer. When no one stepped up, she did — and ran for state representative, flipping a seat that had been Republican for 40 years. Watching her lead with courage and fairness taught me that leadership is about stepping forward when the moment calls.
How has your lived experience informed the way you lead?
Being a working mom, I know the challenge of juggling schedules and responsibilities while still showing up for your community. That perspective shapes how I lead: I focus on tangible solutions that make life manageable and meaningful.
I fight for policies that support families: affordable housing near reliable transportation, safe and welcoming parks and green spaces, and low-cost afterschool and summer programs. When families thrive, the entire community thrives.
LGBTQ Victory Institute’s The Decision to Run Report set out to uncover the barriers and motivators for LGBTQ women who want to run for office. The findings — a result of an extensive survey of nearly 290 LGBTQ women as well as four focus groups — show six common barriers and four motivators mentioned by respondents. It is a first glance – not a comprehensive account – of the challenges LGBTQ women encounter. Yet it can be a guide for equality organizations, campaign training organizations and candidate recruitment programs that believe in the importance of representation for LGBTQ women, as well as a starting point for future research.
Click here to download the report.
This policy brief shows that while much remains to be explored, there are clear links between anti-corruption and women's political participation that are important to understand for politicians, anti-corruption advocates, and those working on increasing women’s representation in political office.
Click here to read the full report.
RepresentWomen's Arab State Brief reviews the extent to which women are represented in Arab countries, the history of Arab independence and revolutions - and their impact on women's rights and representation; and country-specific information that covers the history of systems reforms and their impact on women's political rights and representation in the region.
Click here to read the full report.
This article is the first in a two-part series examining the impact of gender quotas. The second article discusses the impact of quotas in Sweden and India.
Gender quotas exist in a shockingly high number of countries. More than 130 nations have modified their constitutions, electoral laws, or party rules to specify a threshold of women to be selected or nominated to a political body.
Quotas have had a massive impact globally on the number of women in politics, explaining the variation in women’s political representation by country. Between 1995 and 2012, many countries implemented quotas globally, and one study found a correlation between quotas and women’s political representation. Women’s political representation jumped from 11 percent to 21 percent during that time. Quotas are also associated with women being elected to government positions even more so than democratic ideals, economic development, or religious norms.
Click here to read the full article published by Harvard International Review on 29 November 2021.
Black women are a powerful force in the American political system, and their political power continues to grow and garner recognition for the force it is.
As we look ahead to the midterm elections, which offer greater opportunities for Black women’s gains in statewide offices where they remain especially underrepresented, it’s important to take stock of Black women’s political successes, the persistent hurdles they faced in the 2020 cycle, the outlook for the 2022 election, and the current levels of Black women’s representation nationwide. In this update, we outline the status of Black women in American politics as of fall 2021, one year ahead of the 2022 election.
Click here to download the full report.
In July 2021, UN Women convened the global conference “Gender-inclusive peace processes: Strengthening women’s meaningful participation through constituency building”, in partnership with CMI – Martti Ahtisaari Peace Foundation, and with financial support from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), in cooperation with Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH and the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs. The conference attracted the participation of more than 320 peace practitioners from 70 countries worldwide, with a focus on the MENA region.
This report on the conference proceedings explores current challenges, best practices, and recommendations on how best to leverage the practice of constituency building to further gender-inclusive peace.
Click here to read the full report.