Women's Leadership

Conventional wisdom holds that women politicians confront a parenting dilemma. Those with children are questioned about their ability to balance parental roles with political responsibilities, but child-free women are regarded as unable to relate to “ordinary” families or perform well in “feminine” policy areas. As both women and men are now balancing parenthood with politics, the time is ripe to re-investigate how cultural ideas about family life shape understandings of political leadership. By systematically comparing newspaper coverage of 22 Canadian and Australian government leaders with diverse families, our study investigates the ways in which discourses of family shape representations of high-profile politicians. It provides valuable insights into the ways in which politicians’ levels of conformity to the idealized western family model shape perceptions of political legitimacy and authenticity for women and men, and parents and non-parents. We find that when the families of newly elected leaders are discussed in newspaper coverage, the message conveyed is that only the “right” kind of family will facilitate political success.

Click here to see the Academic Article.

We assessed the effects of female political representation on mortality among children younger than age five in Brazil and the extent to which this effect operates through coverage with conditional cash transfers and primary care services. We combined data on under-five mortality rates with data on women elected as mayors or representatives in state and federal legislatures for 3,167 municipalities during 2000–15. Results from fixed-effects regression models suggest that the election of a female mayor and increases in the shares of women elected to state legislatures and to the federal Chamber of Deputies to 20 percent or more were significantly associated with declines in under-five mortality. Increasing the political representation of women was likely associated with beneficial effects on child mortality through pathways that expanded access to primary health care and conditional cash transfer programs.

Click here to read the full article published by Health Affairs on 6 November 2020.

The Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP), a unit of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University, is proud to announce the launch of the online CAWP Women Elected Officials Database, a first-of-its-kind tool for exploring and analyzing women’s current and historical representation in the U.S. political system. The CAWP Women Elected Officials Database includes every woman officeholder in U.S. history at the federal, statewide elected executive, and state legislative levels. This tool expands on the officeholder database that CAWP has long kept and shared with researchers, and, crucially, transforms it into a searchable, online format for public access.

For further information, please click here.

Disappointed by the numerous failures of anticorruption reforms, international organisations, scholars and policy makers increasingly place their hopes on measures aimed at enhancing gender equality and in particular increasing the inclusion of female representatives in elected assemblies. Yet most studies to date focus on aggregate measures of corruption and fail to explain why the correlation between women's representation and levels of corruption occurs. Using newly collected regional‐level, non‐perception‐based measures of corruption, this study distinguishes between different forms of corruption and shows that the inclusion of women in local councils is strongly negatively associated with the prevalence of both petty and grand forms of corruption. However, the reduction in corruption is primarily experienced among women. This suggests that female representatives seek to further two separate political agendas once they attain public office: the improvement of public service delivery in sectors that tend to primarily benefit women; and the breakup of male‐dominated collusive networks.

Click here to see the academic article.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created a global emergency of multiple dimensions. Most national governments have adopted extraordinary measures to protect their citizens and overcome the pandemic. Prior to the COVID-19 global crisis, 2020 was expected to be a year for reviewing achievements and accelerating progress on gender equality after 25 years of the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and 20 years since UN Security Council resolution 1325 on women, peace and security. There is now major concern that COVID-19 and its impact will push back fragile progress on gender equality, including in relation to reversing discriminatory laws, the enactment of new laws, the implementation of existing legislation, and broader progress needed to achieving justice for all.

This rapid assessment examines how the impacts of COVID-19 are threatening women’s ability to access justice. The assessment reflects challenges faced by women and girls of diverse backgrounds and socio-economic groups, including those experiencing overlapping disadvantages—for example, women on the front lines—and those facing amplified challenges in humanitarian settings. Cross-regional and local experiences are highlighted, and quantitative data is utilized where available. Past epidemics are informative—and sobering—in terms of risks for women and offer lessons about how to prevent and mitigate these risks.

Click here to see the report.

This brief summarizes challenges and recommendations of the impact of the recent pandemic of COVID-19 in Tunisia on gender-based violence, access to justice, women and health, and women’s leadership and political participation. It makes recommendations to be considered by all sectors of society in order to prevent and respond to violence against women and girls, to facilitate access to justice and social care. It also includes data and trends regarding the impact of the pandemic of the COVID-19 on women and girls in Tunisia.

Click here to see the report (in French).