Women's Leadership
“You will work hard.” That was the promise former medical doctor Jennifer Geerlings-Simons made during her presidential election campaign. It was a phrase equal parts warning and invitation, and now, Suriname, the Dutch-speaking Caribbean nation situated on the shoulder of South America, is set to have her as its first-ever woman president.
In the context of media freedom, identity, and political legacy in Suriname, the weight of this moment is being felt across the nation, to the diaspora beyond, but as any woman in public life knows, “firsts” come with double binds. Geerlings-Simons’ presidency has the potential to be scrutinised not solely through a political lens, but also a gendered one. However, her election is historic not simply because of her gender, but because of what she represents: a country at a crossroads, reckoning with its past and daring to imagine a different future.
A coalition and a chance
Following the general election on May 25, Suriname’s political landscape underwent significant changes. To begin with, no single party secured a majority. However, on May 27, Geerlings-Simons’ National Democratic Party (NDP) — once led by the controversial former president Desi Bouterse — announced a six-party coalition totalling 34 of 51 parliamentary seats, enough for a supermajority and to install her as president.
Geerlings-Simons brings decades of political experience to the role. She has been a parliamentarian since 1996, was a former chair of the National Assembly, and has been the NDP’s party leader since July 2024. Now, at 72, she becomes a symbol of both continuity and rupture — a seasoned insider with an outsider’s promise of dismantling corruption, slimming government excess, and modernising the state.
Full article published here.
In Togo’s rural communities, women bear much of the family responsibilities. However, they remain committed to their communities’ development despite the socio-cultural pressures.
Several rural areas in the Kara region of northern Togo have poor infrastructure, affecting the communities in Bassar and the Kabye, Lamba, and Konkomba people. The roads are often impassable, and waterways hamper hospital access, posing significant healthcare challenges. The women working as community health workers must combine their professional and family responsibilities to provide essential care for their communities.
In Togo, women account for more than 51.3 percent of the population of over 9 million. The illiteracy rate is 33 percent for men and almost double that for women.
Women-specific challenges in rural communities
In traditional Togolese culture, gender stereotypes are still prevalent, often preventing women from standing up for themselves and making independent decisions.
Agriculture is the primary industry in rural areas. It employs 80 percent of the female working population in subsistence farming, helping them provide for their families and meet their everyday needs. However, only 15 percent hold land titles. This limited access to land ownership and agricultural credits makes them dependent on men for resources and decision-making. Many women often suffer discrimination and economic violence, which, according to a demographic study, is sometimes compounded by physical violence. Reports indicate that as many as 32 percent of Togolese women have been victims of physical or sexual abuse from the age of 15.
Full article available here.
The end of the oppressive Assad regime in Syria in late 2024 has been broadly welcomed on the global stage – underscored by the fact the United States and European Union have now lifted sanctions against the country.
However, women have been marginalised by Syria’s new leadership. That’s a problem for Syrian women, of course, but it also puts at risk prospects for sustainable peace in Syria.
A growing body of research, including our own, shows a direct correlation between gender equality and peace.
Syria now stands at a crossroads. Will it ensure women’s meaningful participation and follow a path to peace? Or will things head in the other direction?
This is more urgent than ever. Failure to grapple with women’s rights in Syria risks plunging the nation further into extremist violence.
Full article published here.
The First Lady, Oluremi Tinubu, has said that allocating special seats to women in state and federal parliaments is not an act of charity but a way of strengthening the country’s democracy.
Tinubu made this statement on Wednesday at an interactive session on the special seat bill for women during the 2025 Open National Assembly Week, organised by the House of Representatives in Abuja.
Represented by the Chairman of the House Committee on Women Affairs, Kafilat Ogbara, the First Lady commended the 10th House of Representatives for pushing the reservation of special seats for women in both the states and the National Assembly.
She pledged to continue supporting interventions that promote women’s political empowerment, education, and economic inclusion, urging legislators to demonstrate official eagerness to ease the passage of the bill.
She said, “This event comes at a very important time in our nation’s history, as the National Assembly is currently conducting public hearings across the country on key constitutional and legislative reforms.
Full article available here.
Just four years ago, a woman in Afghanistan could technically decide to run for President, attend university, or play sports.
Today, none of that is possible. Even before the Taliban took power in August 2021, Afghanistan ranked among the lowest countries in the world for gender equality. But there had been hard-won gains. Now, under the Taliban’s de facto rule, those gains have been erased and Afghanistan has become the world’s most severe women’s rights crisis.
Yet the fierce determination and resistance of Afghan women continues to burn – and inspire. Despite near-total restrictions on their lives, they still find ways to run businesses and work on the front lines as humanitarian workers, journalists and community leaders.
“Sometimes, I wonder how to remain hopeful in these dark circumstances,” says Fariba (name changed), who had just started a degree when universities were closed to women. “Nonetheless, I remain hopeful for the future and reassure myself that darkness will end soon, and women and girls in our society will once again access opportunities for work, education and their basic rights.”
Full article published here.
Women in Borno state have called on the state government to mandate the reservation of special portfolios both at the state and federal levels.
The women, under the aegis of Women Political Participation Working Group, made the demand in the late hours of Thursday during a Consultative meeting of Women Advocacy Groups in preparation for the Zonal Public Hearing on Review of the 1999 Constitution in Maiduguri, Borno state
The Chairperson of the Women Political Participation Working Group, Aisha Abubakar, while speaking, said the bill for seat reservation, which has been prepared, is set to be presented at the Zonal public hearing on constitutional review.
She said, “The bill is all about having a reserved seat for women so that women can contest favourably and confidently for seats.
“Initially, contesting with men is not easy because of reasons like political, social, economic and other factors. Now, if we have this reserve seat, it means they will be basically reserved for us to contest”.
While citing an instance, she said, “We have 27 LGAs in Borno state, and 28 members House of Assembly, so going forward there will be additional members.
“Those additions will be reserved for women. This will also include senatorial district, where we have three, so it is now going to be four, which means the additional one is for women.”
Read here the full article.
Special Representative on Gender Issues Hedy Fry (Canada) issued the 2021 Report today with a thematic focus on “Violence against women journalists and politicians: a growing crisis,” shedding light on intensifying and widespread offline and online violence against women in two public fields – journalism and politics.
The report, divided into two parts, explores the impact of such violence and its implications on the fields of journalism and politics, as well as democracy as a whole – outlining that the negative effect goes well beyond physical and mental health challenges. It examines the existing barriers to effective responses and possible ways forward that could be implemented to address this growing issue. Lastly, the report provides information on the dynamics of gender balance in the OSCE structures and its field offices.
Click here to read the full report published by OSCE on 12 August 2021.
The compilation, analysis and dissemination of gender statistics are critical to capture the specific realities in the life of women and men. They are powerful tool to highlight aspects of gender inequality, and to provide an evidence base for developing and monitoring policies and programmes oriented towards reducing these inequalities. Gender data is key to achieve the 2030 Agenda and other national commitments. Government policies and programs in Lebanon articulate the need for measuring and monitoring gender equality, which has led to a substantial increase in demand for data producers to make available relevant and reliable gender statistics.
In response to the rising needs for more gender disaggregated data and indicators, and to better understand trends in gender equalities and inequalities over the past 15 years, CAS- with the support of UNDP- did a compilation of gender-disaggregated indicators based on official survey-based statistics and administrative data. The results were comprehensively presented in the report “The life of Women and Men in Lebanon: A Statistical Portrait”. This compilation provides a better understanding of the country’s progress on gender inequality and highlights critical gaps and disparities yet to be bridged. The report focused on six thematic areas: Demography, health, education, labor market, socio-economic conditions, and decision-making and human rights.
Click here to read the full report published by UNDP on 19 October 2021.
Decades of research has debated whether women first need to reach a “critical mass” in the legislature before they can effectively influence legislative outcomes. This study contributes to the debate using supervised tree-based machine learning to study the relationship between increasing variation in women's legislative representation and the allocation of government expenditures in three policy areas: education, healthcare, and defense. We find that women's representation predicts spending in all three areas. We also find evidence of critical mass effects as the relationships between women's representation and government spending are nonlinear. However, beyond critical mass, our research points to a potential critical mass interval or critical limit point in women's representation. We offer guidance on how these results can inform future research using standard parametric models.
Click here to read the full article published by Cambridge University Press on 21 September 2021.
Abstract
Social norms that legitimise men as political leaders, and undervalue women’s leadership, are a tenacious barrier to women’s representation globally. This article explores the circumstances under which women dynasty politicians, whose legacy connections have provided them with an initial pathway into politics, are able to disrupt these norms. We test a proposed typology of normative change – one that progresses from norm acceptance, to norm modification, then norm resistance – among women dynasty politicians in the Pacific Islands. We find that norms of masculinised political leadership are strong, and in many cases the election of wives, widows, daughters and other relatives of male political actors reinforces these norms through their positioning as ‘placeholders’. Yet some women dynasty politicians can, and do, challenge and extend social norms of leadership. This is especially the case when the ‘legacy advantage’ is a springboard from which women demonstrate – and their publics accept – their own articulation of political leadership.
Click here to access the paper.
This report reflects the main arguments presented during the high-level seminar, organized by UN Women in collaboration with the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, on “Strengthening women’s participation in peace processes: What roles and responsibilities for states?” in Rome, Italy, on 3 and 4 December 2019. The main arguments include the persistent barriers to women’s meaningful participation in peace and mediation processes and the opportunities that exist to remove them.
Specifically, seminar participants discussed challenges related to limited political will, the link between women’s underrepresentation in politics and their marginalization in peace processes, the complex balance between women’s representation and promoting gender equality, and the barriers to sustainable civil society involvement.
Second, the report highlights perspectives and lessons learned that representatives of the United Nations, Member States, regional organizations, and civil society shared on how to enhance women’s meaningful participation in peace processes. Two strategies were emphasized: the design of inclusive peace processes and the role of regional networks of women mediators in bridging peace processes across tracks. The case studies of Colombia, Syria, and Cyprus are also included, offering insights on some successful strategies to increase women’s participation.
Finally, the report describes the key policy recommendations that emanated from the seminar, with a view to addressing ongoing barriers to women’s participation and using innovative and comprehensive strategies to achieve more gender-responsive peace processes.
Source: UN Women
The global report on Gender Equality in Public Administration (GEPA) report provides an overview of key trends and analysis on women’s participation and leadership in public administration, based on evidence from UNDP and the University of Pittsburgh’s ground-breaking GEPA database. The first comprehensive in-depth research into the issue covering 170 countries, finds that though there has been progress on women’s representation overall in public administration, persistent gaps remain. Women continue to hit a glass ceiling and glass walls that stop them from advancing to positions at the highest levels of power and influence, including in the COVID-19 response. The report provides practical recommendations to help shatter these glass ceilings and glass walls and to reimagine and redesign more gender inclusive and diverse public administrations.
Source: UNDP