Women's Leadership
Abosede George-Ogan is the Founder of the Women in Leadership Advancement Network in Nigeria and a seasoned development professional with over 20 years of experience across the non-profit, private, and public sectors. Specialized in media and narratives, she also hosts a TV show focused on shaping the perception of women leaders in Nigeria with 17 million views. Her work centers on fostering women’s leadership across all levels. Abosede joined a two-day Expert Group Meeting organized by UN Women on 4-5 February 2025 to address one of the most persistent barriers to gender equality in political and public life: discriminatory social norms. This experts’ meeting was organized under the WYDE | Women’s Leadership, funded by the European Union, which is a collaborative global effort aimed at advancing women’s full and effective political participation and decision-making at all levels, especially those most often left furthest behind.
“The media plays a crucial role in shaping narratives and transforming gender and social norms. From a young age, we are constantly exposed to media, and today, with people consuming content directly through their phones, its influence is stronger than ever. This is why we must pay attention to how media shapes perceptions.
The reality is that media can have both a positive and negative impact. Unfortunately, we’ve seen it mostly reinforcing existing discriminatory social norms. However, there is a real opportunity to actively recruit the media as agents of change. Media have the power to reshape narratives and help society see the collective benefit of having women in leadership.
One major shift that needs to happen is in how the media portray women. Headlines must move beyond focusing on appearance or traditional caregiver roles and instead highlight women's competence, accomplishments, leadership, and abilities. Our Representation Matters campaign aims to demonstrate—through facts and compelling storytelling—that excluding women comes at a cost and that showing them in leadership role actually has a knock-on effect. The media becomes the vehicle to drive this message forward. We also produce a television show designed to spark conversations about gender norms and leadership in Nigeria. It encourages viewers to interrogate their own perceptions—where do these ideas come from? Why do people believe that leadership is a male domain? Why do they admire their mothers but struggle to see women as leaders? If our show gets people talking, it’s a win, because that’s how change begins.
If we want to reshape social norms, we must bring the media along. This means equipping them with the right language, tools, research so they can tell better stories. Lastly, it is not just about content—it is also about ownership. Who controls media platforms? Who has decision-making power? Media ownership remains largely male-dominated, and ensuring diversity in ownership will accelerate the change we want to see. We need more women entrepreneurs in the media space. Yet this is challenging, considering media is capital-intensive: you need infrastructure, equipment, and significant funding, which is why many women remain in supporting roles in media rather than taking the lead in media business ownership.
Ultimately, when women lead influential companies that employ thousands across various regions, they can shape media to offer more substantive, unifying, and enriching content. This can serve as a counterbalance to today’s political media, which often thrives on division and polarization. By reshaping the media landscape, we have the power to reshape society."
Original interview published on Capacity4Dev.
By Clarisse Sih and Bibbi Abruzzini
For over 30 years, women in the Horn of Africa have fought tirelessly against violence, discrimination, and systemic oppression. One of the leading voices in this struggle is Hala Al-Karib, a Sudanese activist and the regional director of the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA).
At the heart of her work is a profound belief: “We are not just imagining power. We are claiming it.”
As part of the Forus March With Us campaign, Al-Karib shares her insights on the state of women’s rights, the barriers they face, and the unstoppable force of grassroots feminist movements shaping the future.
A life shaped by struggle and resistance
Growing up in Sudan, Al-Karib witnessed firsthand the deep inequalities and ethnic divisions that fueled systemic oppression. Her activism began early, inspired by the resilience of the women around her:
I learned early on that oppression exists in many forms — against women, against marginalized communities, against those who challenge power. And I also learned that to survive, we must resist.
Full article available here.
High on the slopes of Mount Meru, in Tanzania’s Arumeru District, lies the quiet village of Mulala. With just 2,000 residents, it is easy to miss — but it is here that one woman, known simply as Mama Anna, has reshaped what local development can look like.
Her transformation from subsistence bean farmer to community educator and entrepreneur began with one unexpected gift: a cow.
Mama Anna — Anna Pallangyo — is a Meru woman, a mother of six, and one of 717 women in the FAIDA Small Enterprise Promotion network. With only a primary school education and limited resources, she began by growing beans to support her family. But the returns were modest, and she saved what she could, determined to find another way.
When a development worker brought her a cow, she wasn’t sure what to do. “What can I do with a gombe [cow]?” she asked aloud. Then she learned to milk it.
Each day, she served milk to her family and friends. When the milk began to overflow, she made a decision: “I’ll sell the maziwa (milk).” Every morning, she walked down the long hill to town; every afternoon, she climbed back up, coins chattering in her pockets “like monkeys.”
Full article published here.
In 1983, Maria da Penha Maia Fernandes, a Brazilian biopharmacist, survived two homicide attempts at home. The first one left her paralyzed from the waist down after she was shot while she was asleep. In the second attempt, she was almost electrocuted in the shower.
In 1991, Penha saw the trial, which convicted her ex-husband of the attacks, being annulled. Five years later, a new trial found him guilty again, but he walked free. It took 19 years and six months, risking the statute of limitations to have him arrested. In 2006, her name became one of the best-known in Brazil when it became associated with a federal law that aims to protect women from domestic and family violence.
The path between the violent episodes that changed her life and the law that tries to avoid this type of crime was possible mainly due to international pressure, Penha acknowledges in a video conversation with Global Voices. In 2001, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) convicted Brazil of negligence and omission in her case, and this led to the law’s creation.
Penha’s name is now also linked to police patrols and other public policies regarding gender violence in the country. A poll by the Brazilian Senate, from 2023, however, pointed out that three out of four Brazilian women know little or nothing at all about the law itself. It also showed that around 30 percent of women in Brazil have suffered domestic violence at the hands of a man.
Full article published here.
GIESSEN, Germany / BETH NAHRIN — On the sidelines of the Syriac Women’s Conference held last Saturday simultaneously in Beth Zalin (Qamishli), North and East Syria; Ankawa, Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI); and Giessen, Germany, under the slogan No Equality Without Justice, No Justice Without Women, our newsdesk conducted interviews with several women to discuss the conference’s significance for Syriac (Aramean–Assyrian–Chaldean) women.
Siham Quryo, Co-Chair of the People’s Democratic Council within the Democratic Autonomous Administration of the Region of North and East Syria (DAARNES), stated that the Syriac Women’s Conference was held across all regions where the Syriac (Aramean–Assyrian–Chaldean) people reside, with the goal of establishing a Syriac Women’s Council to represent Syriac (Aramean–Assyrian–Chaldean) women globally and to ensure their active role in shaping the future.
She emphasized the urgent need for Syriac (Aramean–Assyrian–Chaldean) women’s participation in building a new Syria that reflects justice, equality, and inclusion.
Full article published here.
“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.
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
Abstract
Throughout history, most positions of political power have been held by men, and despite numerous laws and regulations aimed at increasing gender equality in society and politics, the majority of democratic assemblies remain predominantly composed of men. What makes this gender composition persistent over time? Using data from Swedish population registers from 1982 to 2014 and demographic statistics from 1749 to 1859, I study how historical social norms shape the present-day gender balance in local politics. The results show that where family formation was more traditional in the past, there are fewer women in local politics today. The analysis also shows that family formation is a likely mechanism for the transmission of social norms across generations. The findings contribute to our understanding of the historical persistence of social structures and the reasons why gender balance in politics is not easily achieved.
Click here to access the article.
Abstract
What explains the gender gap in political engagement and economic policy preferences? Many scholars point to material resources, while others credit cultural determinants. We identify and test an important link between these factors: cultural lineage norms that structure entitlements to resources. Studying the relationship between culture and resources is challenging in societies where both disadvantage women. We analyze a unique setting: northeast India, where matrilineal tribes live alongside patrilineal communities. Patriarchal cultures and political institutions are shared, but lineage norms are distinct: patrilineal groups distribute inherited wealth through men, while matrilineal tribes do so via women. We conduct survey and behavioral experiments with representative samples of both communities, alongside extensive qualitative research, and find that the gender gap reverses across patrilineal and matrilineal groups. Our results indicate that lineage norms—which determine who gets to make decisions about wealth and how—are key determinants of the political economy gender gap.
Click here to read the paper.
Abstract
Does the representation of women in cabinet and party leadership positions affect whether governments are more or less likely to fulfill the policy promises they make during election campaigns? This research note studies the effects of women's descriptive representation in cabinet and party leadership on policymaking by analyzing the pledge fulfillment of parties in 10 European countries, the United States, and Canada. The empirical analysis suggests that governing parties are more likely to fulfill their election promises when levels of women's representation are higher. The results have implications for our understanding of the descriptive and substantive representation of women, as well as for party competition and policymaking more broadly.
Click here to read the full article published by the Wiley Online Library on 18 February 2021.
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.