Women's Leadership
Men still dominate political decision-making in the United Kingdom. Women hold just one or two seats on prestigious select committees in the House of Commons, like Defence, Foreign Affairs, and Justice. No women sit on the Domestic and Economic Affairs cabinet committee. And 95% of all local councils have majority-men membership.
Yet voters do care about women’s leadership in elected office. My research shows that when women are absent from political decision-making, voters view governments as less legitimate.
Click here to read the full article published by the Electoral Reform Society on 21 November 2023.
Image by Electoral Reform Society
Eva Perón, read via her clothes. The Argentine politician is an icon of Latin American feminism. Much has been written about the woman, who was at one point an actress, throughout the years. Dozens of documentaries and movies have focused on her story. Nonetheless, many aspects of her life continue to be a mystery. Although her time on Earth was brief, having died at 33 years of age, she is one of the most important figures in the history of Argentina.
Click here to read the full article published by El País on 15 November 2023.
Image by El País
Góðan daginn from Iceland, where the threat of an imminent volcanic eruption did not deter 500 women leaders from flying to the country for the Reykjavik Global Forum, an annual gathering of women politicians, activists and business leaders.
Iceland is a fitting place to host the forum, which is sponsored by Iceland’s government and Parliament in partnership with Women Political Leaders, a global network of female politicians. After all, it is the world’s most gender-equal country — and has been for 14 years in a row.
Click here to read the full article published by Politico on 17 November 2023.
Image by Politico
There is a pervasive narrative “that women are running for office in record numbers,” says Erin Loos Cutraro. “People hold onto that. They think it’s still true today.”
Except it’s not.
As the founder and CEO of political engagement nonprofit She Should Run, she should know. Loos Cutraro’s organization recently published a study, “The State of Women,” finding that 2018’s much-publicized “Year of the Woman” – when a record-breaking 103 women were elected to the U.S. House of Representatives – was an anomaly. “We haven’t seen that type of momentum for women’s representation since,” Loos Cutraro stated in a release of the study’s findings.
Click here to read the full article published by The Story Exchange on 14 November 2023.
Image by The Story Exchange
ElectHER, a civil society organisation (CSO), says without women in politics, Nigeria is limiting the extent to which it can develop.
Addressing a press conference in Abuja on Tuesday on the forthcoming off-cycle elections, Ibijoke Faborode, founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of ElectHER, said there is a need for “improved consideration” for women’s participation in politics and governance.
Click here to read the full article published by The Cable on 7 November 2023.
A lack of gender diversity among decisionmakers in the UK prime minister’s office meant that women were not adequately considered in pandemic-related policymaking, likely leading to preventable deaths, a former top official has told the Covid-19 inquiry.
Helen MacNamara was deputy cabinet secretary – one of the UK’s most senior officials – between 2020 and 2021. In a written statement submitted to the independent public inquiry into the UK government’s response to the pandemic she said the “exclusion of a female perspective led to significant negative consequences”, noting lack of thought for domestic abuse victims, pregnant women and around childcare in the context of school closures.
Click here to read the full article published by the Global Gov Forum on 2 November 2023.
COVID-19 and conflict: Advancing women’s meaningful participation in ceasefires and peace processes
This brief addresses the importance of women’s full, equal, and meaningful participation to an effective pandemic response and to peacemaking efforts, and how the women, peace and security (WPS) agenda can provide a critical framework for inclusive decision-making and sustainable solutions. While efforts to flatten the pandemic’s curve unfold around the globe, violent conflict remains a deadly reality for far too many people.
In March 2020, the UN Secretary-General called for a global ceasefire to allow the world to address COVID-19. Since the outbreak of the pandemic, women have been at the forefront of effective COVID-19 prevention and response efforts—from frontline service delivery to the highest levels of decision-making. With women’s participation central to achieving sustainable solutions, the pandemic has brought into sharp relief how critical the WPS agenda is to inclusive and effective decision-making.
This brief recognizes the vital role of women’s civil society organizations in mobilizing support for an urgent cessation of hostilities, inclusive ceasefire processes, and comprehensive peace talks. It also provides a preliminary analysis of the impact of COVID-19 on women’s participation in ceasefires and peace processes and offers a series of recommendations, including on “building back better”.
Click here to see the report.
On 24–25 October 2019, the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA)—together with the Edinburgh Centre for Constitutional Law (ECCL) and the Political Settlements Research Programme (PSRP) at the University of Edinburgh—hosted the inaugural event in a series of forums to be known as the Women Constitution-Makers’ Dialogue.
The series is a networking and peer-to-peer dialogue programme wherein women constitution-makers and comparative constitutional experts can share country-specific constitution-building experiences, knowledge resources and tools, and identify opportunities and obstacles to women’s participation and influence from both a country-level and global perspective. The dialogue focuses on women’s representation and participation in national constitution-making processes, examines constitutional outcomes from a gender perspective, and considers commonly contested constitutional design choices more broadly.
Click here to see the report.
Women have made significant inroads into political life in recent years, but in many parts of the world, their increased engagement has spurred attacks, intimidation, and harassment. This book provides the first comprehensive account of this phenomenon, exploring how women came to give these experiences a name: violence against women in politics.
Tracing its global emergence as a concept, Mona Lena Krook draws on insights from multiple disciplines--political science, sociology, history, gender studies, economics, linguistics, psychology, and forensic science--to develop a more robust version of this concept to support ongoing activism and inform future scholarly work.
Click here to see the book.
UN Women organized an Expert Group Meeting (EGM) on “Data and violence against women in politics” (VAWP) on 4–5 December 2019, in New York, as a part of its ongoing efforts to tackle this issue. More than 40 experts attended the meeting, including academics, gender equality advocates, Members of Parliament, representatives of electoral management bodies, civil society organizations, and international organizations, as well as UN agencies.
Being recognized as one of the key deterrents to women’s political participation, VAWP has captured global attention, but comparative data remains unavailable. Internationally agreed indicators and data collection methods to measure incidence or prevalence do not yet exist. The EGM helped map existing knowledge tools, databases, and surveys as sources of data on VAWP, and facilitated the exchange of lessons learned, experiences, and good practices in data collection.
This follow-up EGM on data was a recommendation of the Violence against Women in Politics Expert Group Meeting in March 2018.
Click here to see the report.
This report aggregates over five hundred pieces of academic and institutional research on the ways in which women’s political careers differ from their male counterparts, what stands in their way, and what impact their political presence has on democracy and policy. Parity of political presence between women and men is fundamental for a representative, legitimate and accountable democratic system, and this report points to the diverse and important ways that women’s political representation improves and contributes to democratic institutions and processes. It also highlights methods and approaches which address their underrepresentation. Bringing this research together in this way gives us a holistic understanding of the political recruitment and impact of women politicians that will provide a platform for future research and action.
Click here to see the report.
RepresentWomen tracks women's representation and leadership in the United States and around the world to identify the "best practices" for creating a more representative government. Our research indicates that even as more women run, electoral rules and systems play a major role in determining electoral outcomes. As seen in both our 2016 and 2020 reports, we find that electoral outcomes for women and people of color are overall better in jurisdictions that have implemented ranked choice voting (RCV).
The 2020 ranked choice voting report, "In Ranked Choice Elections, Women WIN" provides a thorough review of ranked choice voting in the United States and how it is impacting women's representation in the cities that have implemented it. Over the last decade, 19 cities and counties have used ranked choice voting to elect sitting city officials, including 13 mayors and the city councilmembers in 14 jurisdictions. Over the last decade (2010-2019), women have won 45% of all municipal ranked choice elections. As of April 2020, nearly half of all mayors (46%) and 49% of all city council seats decided by RCV are held by women.
Click here to see the report.