Women's Leadership
The Women's Political Rights Forum has submitted six-point demands to the Election Commission (EC), calling for electoral reforms ahead of the 13th national elections.
The delegation met Chief Election Commissioner AMM Nasir Uddin at the Election Commission Building in Agargaon this afternoon (23 September).
The forum demanded mandatory nomination of women candidates, leadership roles for women within party structures, allocation of campaign funds equal to the expenditure limit, policies to prevent harassment both online and offline, direct elections to reserved parliamentary seats, and the introduction of 'no' votes in all constituencies. A written proposal outlining these demands was formally submitted to the EC during the meeting.
The meeting was led by Maheen Sultan, member of the Women's Affairs Reform Commission, and attended by Sadaf Saz, executive council member of Naripokkho; Seema Dutta, president of Bangladesh Nari Mukti Kendra; and Shyamoli Shil, president of Nari Samhati. Four election commissioners — Abdur Rahmanel Machud, Tahmida Ahmed, Md Anwarul Islam Sarkar, and Abul Fazal Md Sanaullah — along with EC Secretary Akhtar Ahmed, were also present.
New Zealand has brought in a Swedish economist to run its central bank as it seeks to end a period of turmoil at the top of the institution and steer the country away from the brink of a “double-dip” recession. Anna Breman, who has been first deputy governor of the Sveriges Riksbank in Sweden since 2019, will become the first female governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand when she takes up the role in December. Her appointment follows a period of recent upheaval at the central bank, where her predecessor Adrian Orr abruptly stood down this year due to a disagreement with the government over the institution’s budget. Neil Quigley, chair of the central bank, also departed last month. The RBNZ canvassed 300 candidates for the role, according to finance minister Nicola Willis, who in a statement on Wednesday praised Breman’s “impressive blend of technical skills and organisational leadership experience”.
On this International Day of Peace on September 21, the call for unity and reconciliation resonates worldwide but for women in conflict zones, peace is not just a principle to celebrate, it is a daily act of survival and rebuilding. Local community and government leaders, health workers, policymakers, and mothers sustain fragile trust in communities torn apart by violence. They rebuild, they console, they negotiate. Their actions and voices are critical in peace and security efforts, yet their stories seldom receive the recognition they deserve.
The Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda acknowledges the meaningful perspectives that women bring to the table, drawing them from the margins to the center. Rooted in UN Security Council Resolution 1325, this framework emphasizes that decisions about peace must meaningfully include women. In alignment with the aims of the WPS agenda, organizations like Our Secure Future are leading initiatives to advance women’s roles in peace and security efforts in order to enable more effective policy-making and lasting peace. Evidence consistently shows that when women fully participate in peace processes, peace agreements tend to endure and carry meaning beyond words.
However, women remain underrepresented in peace processes globally. In 2023, women constituted only 9.6 percent of negotiators, 13.7 percent of mediators, and 26.6 percent of signatories in peace and ceasefire agreements, a notable improvement from earlier figures, yet still far short of parity even as their informal leadership continues to shape trust and dialogue in countless ways.
The harassment of women is nothing alien in Bangladesh, but when it comes to politics, the hostility is sharpened and deliberate. Women candidates, and anyone who dares to support them, are unfairly attacked, judged, and harassed. The recent student council elections in our biggest universities made this painfully clear. The misogyny, the character assassination, the filth in the comment sections of social media platforms, it is all meant to remind women of one thing: Politics is not your field.
I am no fan of BNP politician Rumin Farhana. But it stuck in my head when I scrolled through a news post about her; the comments were filled with bigotry, obscenity, and misogyny. This is the norm, but when the subject is a woman in politics, the ugliness multiplies. She is not attacked for her politics, but for her personal choices, for being unmarried, for simply existing as a woman in public life. The cruelty is staggering.
This cruelty is not just reserved for national figures. At Dhaka University, female candidates contesting the Ducsu elections have faced waves of online abuse. Obscene comments under campaign posts, sexually explicit inbox messages, doctored videos, even rape threats -- this is the reality of student politics for women.
One incident was so severe it reached the High Court: After a left alliance candidate filed a petition, a student posted a call for her “gang rape” on Facebook. The offender was suspended, but almost every woman candidate reported cyberbullying. As one described, social media had become a “weapon to bring down opponents.” Misogyny here is not about ideology. It is about punishing women for daring to get involved in politics at all.
Every fall, as Parliament returns and calendars quickly fill with receptions, meetings, and fundraisers, one gathering on the Hill stands out from the rest. Women on the Hill has become a cherished Ottawa tradition, bringing together women from politics, policy, media, government relations, and diplomacy.
What sets Women on the Hill apart on the Ottawa reception circuit is its purpose of creating a space for women to truly connect. Since the beginning of its origin, the aim has always been to shine a light on the contributions of women who shape the national conversation from House of Commons to press galleries, embassies to boardrooms. It is where senior political leaders and new staffers, veteran journalists and emerging government relations professionals, trade insights and stories over a glass of wine…or two.
The community that the Women on the Hill event has fostered is unique to any other recent throughout the year. It’s a space where a minister may strike up a conversation with a young staffer, where journalists and diplomats share perspectives, and where industry veterans make themselves accessible to the next generation of women on the hill.
Full article here.
Milestones for notable women this week include birthdays for: Lois Wessel, Amy Poehler, Alexis Bledel, Caroline James, Soledad O’Brien, Nancy Bocskor and Lauren Leader. It’s also the anniversary of the week that Harriet Tubman set herself free in 1849, that Carla Hayden was named the first female librarian of Congress, and Margaret Chase Smith was the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate in her own right.
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).
Background Pandemics and outbreaks have differential impacts on women and men. From risk of exposure and biological susceptibility to infection to the social and economic implications, individuals’ experiences are likely to vary according to their biological and gender characteristics and their interaction with other social determinants. Because of this, global and national strategic plans for COVID-19 preparedness and response must be grounded in strong gender analysis and must ensure meaningful participation of affected groups, including women and girls, in decision-making and implementation. 1 WHO calls on its Member States and all global actors to guide investments in quality and gender-sensitive research on the adverse health, social and economic impacts of COVID-19. Countries are advised to incorporate a focus on gender into their COVID-19 responses in order to ensure that public health policies and measures to curb the epidemic take account of gender and how it interacts with other areas of inequality.
Click here to see the advocacy brief.
As the impact of COVID-19 intensifies globally, we have curated a selection of resources and information on gender-sensitive responses and women’s leadership in times of pandemic. You will find a list of relevant resolutions, useful tools, virtual meetings, and calls and stories from the frontlines of the institutional and policy responses to the pandemic and its effects.
This page will be regularly updated with new resources from our partners and other institutions providing gender-sensitive support and guidance.
Resolutions
- The European Parliament adopted a resolution addressing EU coordination on the COVID-19 pandemic response calling the European Commission and Member States to prioritize aid and crisis-mitigation measures for the most vulnerable citizens, women in particular. Click here to see it.
- The Latin American Parliament (Parlatino) adopted a resolution calling for gender mainstreaming in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuring participation of women in decision-making at all levels. Click here to see it.
Useful tools
- We recently hosted an e-Discussion on women's leadership in the COVID-19 response in Arabic, English, French, and Spanish to raise awareness on the importance of including women's voices and of gender-sensitive responses to the crisis and to collect good practices and recommendations from members of our network. Click here to see the e-Discussion in English and here to read the summary.
- The UN Secretary-General issued a policy brief that explores how women and girls’ lives are changing in the face of COVID-19, and outlines suggested priority measures to accompany both the immediate response and longer-term recovery efforts. Click here to see it.
- UN Women is working with partners to bridge the gender data gap and deliver a more accurate picture of the gender dimension to the COVID-19 response so that it can be more effective for women and girls. Click here to see the data.
- This UN Women issue brief highlights the impact of the current global pandemic on violence against women and girls and makes recommendations to prevent and respond to this phenomenon, at the onset, during, and after the public health crisis. Click here to see it.
- The Inter-parliamentary Union published a guidance note for parliaments that includes recommendations on women’s participation and leadership in parliamentary decision-making on COVID-19, gender-responsive COVID-19 legislation, and government action oversight on the pandemic from a gender perspective. Click here to see it.
- The UN Women office for the Americas and the Caribbean developed an informative brief with recommendations on how to incorporate women and gender equality in the crisis management response. Click here to see it.
- The UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW Committee) has issued a detailed guidance note on a range of measures that governments should take to uphold women’s rights as they respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Click here to download it.
Virtual meetings
- Talk on “Gender and Covid-19”: Why do more men die from the virus than women? And why isn’t this fact impacting research into a vaccine in the U.S.? Hosted by Francesca Donner, gender director at The Times and editor of the Times newsletter In Her Words, this talk provides answers to these pressing questions with Caroline Criado Perez, author of the award-winning book "Invisible Women” and Alisha Haridasani Gupta, gender reporter for In Her Words. Listen to the conversation here.
- Talk on “Leadership in a Time of Crisis”: What does good leadership in crisis look like? In this time of unprecedented challenge related to COVID-19, what can we learn from the great leaders of the past? In this webinar conversation, experts explored these and other key questions about leading in a time of crisis. Click here to access the recording.
- Talk on “Why We Need to Make Women Visible”: Fawcett Society hosted on 7 April an online conversation with prominent gender equality advocates and leaders about how Coronavirus is affecting women and girls in the UK and why we need to make their experiences more visible. Click here to watch it.
- Upcoming conversation with Former President of Ireland Mary Robinson and Halla Tómasdóttir on 16 June 2020 at 9:30 AM – 10:30 AM EDT: The COVID-19 pandemic is an extraordinary test of leadership, and women in global leadership positions are rising to meet the challenge. This session will feature former President of Ireland Mary Robinson and Halla Tómasdóttir — a former candidate for President of Iceland, CEO and entrepreneur — in a dynamic discussion on Leadership in Times of Crisis: Lessons From Women World Leaders. To learn more about the event and to register, please go here.
- Upcoming seminar entitled “Leadership in crisis: What do we expect from leaders during the Covid-19 pandemic?” on 25 June 2020 at 10:30 AM – 11:30 AM EDT: It’s rapidly becoming clear that Covid-19’s effects are gendered in complex ways, in ways that can either reinforce or challenge existing inequalities. Leadership is one of the most visible arenas for observing this. This seminar focuses on leading, leaders, and leadership, asking questions and looking for hope. To learn more about the event and to register, please go here.
Calls and news
- The United Nations Secretary General António Guterres urged governments “to put women and girls at the centre of their efforts to recover from COVID-19,” reminding them that women’s leadership and equal representation and decision-making power is key. Click here to learn more.
- Thirty-six women leaders from all over the world signed a letter to the President of the United Nations Security Council José Singer Weisinger urging for global action in response to the greatest peacetime challenge that humanity has faced. Click here to learn more.
- The Secretary General of the Inter-parliamentary Union Martin Chungong and the Secretariat of the International Gender Champions co-published an opinion piece reflecting on the gendered implications of the current COVID-19 pandemic and proposing solutions to counter the negative effects on women and girls. Click here to read it.
- The Socialists and Democrats, together with the leaders of the Party of European Socialists and its women’s organization PES Women sent a letter to the European Commission President Ursula von Der Leyen, calling for a proactive gender-sensitive response to the crisis. Click here to learn more.
- Dubravka Šimonović, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, issued a call to receive information on the increase of gender-based violence against women and domestic violence in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Click here for more information.
- The CEDAW Committee calls on governments and multilateral institutions to ensure women’s equal representation in formulating responses to COVID-19 and strategies to recover from the crisis. Click here to download the statement.
- With an open letter, Deliver for Good, a network of more than 500 supporting organizations committed to championing gender equality, calls on governments to apply a gender lens and put girls, women, and gender equality at the center of COVID-19 preparedness. Click here to learn more.
- What do countries with the best coronavirus responses have in common? Women leaders, answers Forbes in a recent article. From New Zealand to Iceland, women leaders are showing a novel way of dealing with a crisis. What are they teaching us? Click here to find out.
- How to prepare and respond to COVID-19? Leaders of cities, states and countries faced an unprecedented test. The ones who passed this test with flying colors are disproportionately women. This is despite the fact that they make up only 7% of heads of state. Click here to learn more.
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“Rise for All” is a new initiative that brings together women leaders to mobilize support for the UN Recovery Trust Fund and the UN roadmap for social and economic recovery, as laid out in the new United Nations Framework for the immediate socio-economic response to COVID-19. Click here to see their video message.
For more resources and news on COVID-19 and gender equality, please go here.