Women's Leadership
The opposition movement in Venezuela, spearheaded by María Corina Machado, has many allies worldwide.
After last year’s election, the US and the European Parliament formally recognised Edmundo González as Venezuela's President. The UK dismissed Nicolás Maduro’s election win as "fraudulent".
When Machado was briefly arrested during protests ahead of President Maduro’s inauguration, Donald Trump posted a statement saying that she and the "president-elect González" are "peacefully expressing the voices and the WILL of the Venezuelan people with hundreds of thousands of people demonstrating against the regime".
He added that: "These freedom fighters should not be harmed and MUST stay SAFE and ALIVE!"
Both Machado and González were accused of "treason" after the election by the Venezuelan government.
Full article here.
Newswise — Washington, D.C. - October 6, 2025 − As the non-partisan Women & Politics Institute at American University marks its 25th anniversary, a new nationwide survey underscores both the progress women have made in politics and the barriers that remain. The poll, She Leads: Progress and Persistent Barriers for Women in Politics, finds that while voters strongly support electing more women and trust them on key issues, lingering biases and double standards continue to shape the path to the presidency.
The poll of 801 registered voters, conducted September 3–6, 2025, by Breakthrough Campaigns in conjunction with WPI’s Gender on the Ballot project, highlights a paradox in public opinion: progress in attitudes toward women leaders coupled with persistent resistance to a woman in the Oval Office.
“These findings capture both the momentum and the headwinds for women in politics,” said Betsy Fischer Martin, Executive Director of the Women & Politics Institute. “As we mark WPI’s 25th anniversary, the results remind us why our mission matters. Voters clearly value the perspective women bring and want to see more women in office. But when it comes to the presidency, stereotypes and double standards still cast a long shadow. That tension will define the next chapter in women’s political leadership.”
One year on from her inauguration as Mexico’s first female president, Claudia Sheinbaum still commands the sort of popular support many leaders can only wish for.
Roughly 70% of Mexicans approve of her performance, according to an August poll by Buendía & Márquez for the newspaper El Universal.
Although that’s down from 80% in February, it’s still a sharp contrast to US President Donald Trump, whose rating is hovering just over 40% eight months into his second term, according to a CNN poll aggregate.
So, what’s the key to Sheinbaum’s success?
Surveys suggest one of her most popular achievements has been the expansion of social support programs for millions of citizens, including seniors, students, single mothers and women in general. These are in part a continuation of the policies that made her predecessor and mentor, former President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, so popular and reflect the slogan that swept him into power: “For the good of all, first the poor.”
Full article here.
Maria Del Carmen Huber Guevara, 63, travelled in a bus with 60 other people all night just to get the chance to see Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum in person during a rally Sunday in Mexico City.
Huber Guevara said she left her home in Boca del Rio, in the state of Veracruz, at 11 p.m. local time for the 400-kilometre trip northwest to the national capital where she arrived at 6 a.m.
"[She] is the best because she is the first female president and, the truth is, she is working well for us," said Huber Guevara, sitting on a chair in Constitution Square, which was jammed with tens of thousands of Sheinbaum supporters waiting to hear the president speak from a large white stage to mark her first year in office.
The crowds spilled into the adjacent streets beneath the white flags of Sheinbaum's party, the left-populist National Regeneration Movement, known as Morena, which fluttered among blimp-like white balloons.
Huber Guevara said that Sheinbaum's government had finally given her title to her home where she's lived for over 30 years as part of a neighbourhood that grew on squatted land.
Full article here.
Women in the South East states of Anambra, Enugu and Ebonyi have advocated for equal representation of women in leadership positions in the country.
They spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in separate interviews in Enugu Ebonyi and Awka, as part of Nigeria’s 65th Independence Anniversary.
Speaking, Mrs. Onyinye Mamah, the Executive Director of Heroine Women Foundation, a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) based in Enugu, said she had always advocated for the equitable representation of women in leadership.
Mamah stated that women were grossly underrepresented in global political leadership.
She said, “For so many years in Nigeria, we have been hammering on the inclusion of women in politics.
“Here, when few women get involved, it looks like a favour; what we are looking for is a time when women will be properly included in the scheme of things.”
According to Mamah, the reserve seat bill was one of the most beautiful bills one could imagine in recent times.
“This is because it gives room for carved out positions which would be contested for by women only, ” she said.
She, however, said that the inclusion of women in politics was something that would gather a lot of groups, institutions, strength and improvement.
Full article here.
Women leaders, policymakers, and advocates from Nigeria and across Africa at the 2025 Voice of Women Conference & Awards (VOW), have renewed calls for gender equity and inclusive governance.
Speaking at the event held in Abuja, Convener of the Conference and Awards, Toun Okewale-Sonaiya, described VOW2025 as “a platform where women’s voices continue to shape Nigeria’s future”.
She noted that the movement transcends borders and aligns with the African Union’s Agenda 2063 on gender equality and inclusive leadership.
The Convener also stressed the urgency of deepening female political representation through collective action, particularly at the grassroots where women remain the largest and most powerful voting bloc.
“It is time we transform this individual voting strength into a unified force. When women support women across all divides, we become the decisive power that can shape governance,” she said.
Okewale-Sonaiya urged for the swift passage of the Reserved Seats Bill, describing it as vital to Nigeria’s democratic integrity and gender balance.
Full article here.
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.