Women's Leadership
The 30th anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action is a moment to reaffirm global commitments to gender equality
2025 is a pivotal year for women and girls. It marks three major milestones: the thirtieth anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, the twenty-fifth anniversary of United Nations Security Council resolution 1325 on women, peace and security, and the eightieth anniversary of the United Nations. Notable progress on laws, policies and some development outcomes for women and girls has occurred, especially since the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015. In the final five-year stretch before the 2030 deadline of the Goals, it is urgent to accelerate action and investment.
The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, adopted in 1995 by 189 countries, laid out transformative measures across 12 critical areas of concern, serving as a foundation for progress on gender equality and the SDGs. Drawing on evidence from the thirtieth-anniversary review – including 159 Member State reports and broad consultations – UN Women has developed the Beijing+30 Action Agenda. This bold, forward-looking framework sets out six priority actions to accelerate progress on both the Platform and the SDGs. It positions gender equality at the heart of global development efforts. This section highlights this Agenda noting the investments needed and the benefits not only for women and girls, but at large for societies and economies. The rest of the report assesses gender equality under each of the 17 SDGs, spotlighting actions and investments to accelerate change.
Despite a slight increase in female representation in Parliament, gender advocates warn that Jamaica still falls short in addressing women’s issues at the national level. Judith Wedderburn highlighted ongoing challenges, including securing party backing and meaningful influence in Cabinet-level decisions. Newly re-elected MPs like Juliet Cuthbert-Flynn stressed that women in Parliament must focus on advancing policies affecting women, from domestic violence to support for mothers in difficult circumstances.
Gender advocate spurns tokenism in women’s political participation
Jamaica Gleaner/14 Sep 2025/Karen Madden Sunday/ Gleaner Writer
DESPITE A marginal increase in the number of women that will sit in Lower House when it resumes, at least one gender advocate believes the country is still falling short in its representation of women in the seat of power.
Gender and development practitioner Judith Wedderburn has, however, acknowledged the efforts the leadership of the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and the opposition People’s National Party (PNP) have made to bring more women into representational politics.
Of the 189 candidates nominated for the 2025 election, 136 were men and 53 were women. In the new Parliament, 19 women will take their seats – just one more than in 2020 and seven more than in 2016.
Full article here.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 17. Azerbaijani Parliament Speaker Sahiba Gafarova, who is visiting the city of Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia for the 46th General Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA) of the Association of SoutheastAsian Nations, has delivered a speech at the 2nd Forum of AIPA Women Political Leaders today, a source in the parliament told Trend.
Speaking at the opening of the event, AIPA Secretary General Siti Rozaimeriyanty Dato Haji Abdul Rahman voiced his ideas about the significance of the congregation.
Also, he greeted Gafarova and witnessed appreciation of her participation in the forum.
Full article here.
Political scientist Ivabelle Arroyo and director of the Center for Gender Research (UNAM) Amneris Chaparro agree that the key issues in political and social debates, both within and outside feminism, focus more on women’s bodies (motherhood, sexuality, gender identity, micro-violence, femicide, sexual harassment, and abuse) than on addressing the structural causes of gender inequality, which require consistent policies in both the medium and long term.
Conservatism around sexuality and gender roles is surprisingly on the rise within liberal democracies. While this is happening, feminists are divided on issues such as trans women.
Amneris Chaparro: I believe that being a woman is not just about the body, a type of experience, or certain biological signs. The differences within feminism respond to a question with no single answer: what is a woman? Now, there is a historical need to recognize invisible and marginalized subjects, placed in the position of otherness, of being different and seen as inferior, such as trans women, who are linked to the feminine. The tension always has to do with women because, curiously, no one has any problem with trans men; they are not part of the public discourse. What do we do with trans women who come to feminism deeply wounded, victims of violence marked on their bodies seen as feminized? They are not women in the biological sense but because of the cultural construction of gender, of what is socially considered acceptable because of having a body of a certain sex. Feminist positions that exclude them, bordering with transphobia, make biology the only determining factor in being a woman. We need open-mindedness, humility, listening, and the creation of spaces for dialogue and true liberation. Sometimes it is valid to change one’s mind and remember that being a feminist who excludes trans women in some way can be a violation of human rights.
Full article here.
Opening the annual conference of the Gender Equality Commission, the Deputy Secretary of the Council of Europe Bjørn Berge emphasised that “only 27 countries around the world have a woman serving as Head of State or Government and 103 countries have never had a woman in their top executive office. And even where women occupy ministerial roles, they are largely outside of the powerful portfolios such as defence, foreign affairs or finance. There has been, not only a failure to advance, but a regression in gender equality.”
Despite progress in gender equality, women in politics continue to face disproportionate levels of harassment, exclusion, and violence. While gender quotas and anti-discrimination laws have helped increase women’s representation in public life, problems persist. Sexism and violence – both online and offline – continue to deter women from entering or remaining in politics. These threats not only violate human rights but also undermine the foundations of democratic governance.
“Advances in technology and artificial intelligence mean exponential increases in the amount of intimidation, humiliation and disinformation women are subject to. No longer a whisper in a corridor, but an artificially manipulated video or photograph, gone viral in seconds. We cannot say that we have true democracy if half the population does not experience equal access to the public life, experience violence or is effectively silenced,” Deputy Secretary Berge said.
Full article here.
Four days after violence left 51 people dead and devastated key seats of power, the former chief justice of the Supreme Court was appointed as interim prime minister. Parliament was dissolved.
After a four-day power vacuum, Sushila Karki, the former chief justice of Nepal's Supreme Court, was appointed interim prime minister on Friday, September 12. She was officially sworn in late in the evening before the president, Ram Chandra Poudel. Parliament was dissolved.
Karki, age 73, now faces the daunting task of holding the country together and preparing for the next elections, scheduled for March 5, 2026. It is a task made all the more challenging after the protests of September 8 and 9 plunged Nepal into a whirlwind of violence that left 51 dead and ravaged key sites of power in Kathmandu.
The COVID-19 pandemic is causing untold human suffering and is likely to heighten gender-based inequalities around the world. As economic activity comes to a halt, women who face disadvantage in access to decent work will suffer the most. What's more, health pandemics can make it more difficult for women and girls to receive treatment and health care. There is also a growing concern that violence against women and girls is intensifying as women with violent partners find themselves isolated from the people and resources that can help them.
UN Women has been closely following the political and economic response to COVID-19 and how it is impacting women and girls. We are working with partners to bridge the gender data gap and deliver a more accurate picture of the gender dimension to the response so that it can be more effective for women and girls. As more gender data is produced and disaggregated, UN Women will make it available.
It is our job to support governments to uphold the rights of women and girls – something that is even more urgent in times of crisis.
Click here to see the data.
Crisis management or emergency situations such as COVID-19 can have serious impacts on the lives of women and girls, if gender dimensions are not considered. Issues such as care work, economic autonomy, physical or sexual violence, women's participation in decision-making, disaggregation of data by sex, gender analysis, and irregular migration are just some of the areas of concern that must be part of an effective response to the health crisis that the world is going through right now.
The UN Women office for the Americas and the Caribbean has developed the informative brief “COVID-19 in Latin America and the Caribbean: how to incorporate women and gender equality in the management of the response to the crisis”.
This document indicates different impacts and a series of recommendations so that decision makers can integrate the gender perspective as the key for an effective response to COVID-19 that integrates the needs of women and girls in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Click here to see the informative brief.
This year’s report looks back at 25 years of women in parliament on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Beijing conference and its groundbreaking action plan for gender equality.
IPU analysis shows that gender parity is possible. The overall percentage of women in parliaments has reached 24.9 per cent in 2020, up from 11.3 per cent in 1995. In four countries (Rwanda, Cuba, Bolivia and the United Arab Emirates) women now account for 50 per cent or more MPs in their lower or single chambers compared with 1995 when no parliament had reached gender parity.
The IPU has tracked women’s participation in parliament for decades, allowing it to monitor historical trends, progress and setbacks.
Click here to see the report.
This map is a unique visual tool that captures women’s participation in executive government and in parliament on a given date—1st January 2020. The map of Women in Politics not only provides a country ranking for both ministerial and parliamentary representation, but also statistics on women in political leadership positions—Heads of State or government, women Speakers of Parliament, as well as ministerial portfolios held by women throughout the world. Borders are depicted and used on the map in order to present data. They are not the expression of any opinion concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area, or concerning the delimitation of frontiers or boundaries.
Click here to download the map in English.
Political campaigns online have demonstrated that they can help candidates win elections, include more citizens’ concerns in political debates or allow upcoming parties to gain political exposure.
However, social media can also have a negative effect on political and electoral integrity by attacking an essential principle of democracy: the fundamental right of citizens to access trustable, reliable information to form their political opinions and, ultimately, decide their votes.
In this context of potential manipulation of public opinion through digital information operations, electoral management bodies, monitoring authorities, legislators and political parties face increasing difficulty in protecting the integrity of the political process.
Based on International IDEA’s work in Tunisia, Panama and Bolivia, this Fact sheet seeks to identify some overarching recommendations and a way forward based on how these types of activities may have potentially influenced their recent elections.
Click here to see the fact sheet.
Women made great strides in political representation in 2018. There has been significant media attention devoted to the historic gains women made in Congress, but the shift in political representation the states was equally significant. Women’s representation in state legislatures increased by more than three points in 2018 (from 25.4 percent to 28.9 percent of all state legislative seats). Nevada became the first majority women legislature and Colorado approached gender parity, with a legislature that is 47 percent women.
Although often presented as a non-partisan phenomenon, the gains in women’s representation across the board were due to Democratic women candidates’ victories. Democratic women gained about 300 state legislative seats in 2018, while the number of Republican women state legislators declined by just over 40.3.
More than a year out from the “year of the woman,” the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) and Quorum examined the impact of this changing representation in the states. In this fact sheet, we present new data on women’s state legislative achievements, including that women state legislators introduced and enacted more legislation than men over the past two legislative sessions.
Click here to see the factsheet.