Women's Leadership
Following the military coup in February 2021, elected representatives at the national, state and region level stood in solidarity and joined with millions of Myanmar citizens around the country to protest the junta’s illegal seizure of power. A group of women members of parliament (MPs) stood in solidarity with people from all walks of life and actively supported the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) and peaceful massive protests despite the junta’s violent reprisals. In October 2021, this group of women MPs from state and regional parliaments came together with women MPs elected to the national parliament and they shared the common goals of opposing the military dictatorship, securing the restoration of democracy in their country and establishing a fully democratic federal state. Since that time, this group of women MPs have been convening regular meetings to identify ways to provide assistance to citizens in their communities that are experiencing the hardship of conflict. The network was formally established on November 2, 2022, and has been working towards restoring democracy in Myanmar, providing humanitarian assistance, and advocating both nationally and internationally for the rights of all Myanmar citizens including ethnic minorities and women.
International IDEA supports Myanmar’s Women Parliamentarian Network under its Building Federal Democracy programme.
Click here to access the MWPN official website.
Senator Dianne Feinstein has died at 90 years old, sources have confirmed. Her career was one of many firsts. She was the first woman president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, the first woman mayor of San Francisco, and one of two of the first women elected to the U.S. Senate from California.
Click here to read the full article published by the ABC11 Eyewitness News on 29 September 2023.
Before a gathering of 3,000 women in 1927, Ambedkar said, “I measure the progress of a community by the degree of progress which women have achieved.” In the ever-evolving tapestry of human civilisation, women have historically been treated unequally with their male counterparts in any society. Women have always been facing discrimination, exploitation and gender biases.
As societies advance, the ongoing effort to liberate women from longstanding gender-based oppression and foster gender equality persists. There is a growing recognition that equitable representation and sensitivity towards diverse gender identities are not just matters of social justice, but prerequisites for effective governance.
Click here to read the full article published by Feminism In India on 13 September 2023.
Barring any surprises, Mexico will elect its first ever female president next year.
Claudia Sheinbaum, the “climate-scientist-turned-politician” who served as mayor of Mexico City, has been selected ahead of five male rivals as the candidate of the governing left-wing Morena party, said The Guardian.
She will be challenged by Xóchitl Gálvez, who “has seized media attention with her aspirational story of growing up with an Indigenous father and mestizo mother in Hidalgo state, before working her way through public university and into business and politics”.
Click here to read the full article published by The Week on 11 September 2023.
While G20 leaders have announced the establishment of a new working group on the empowerment of women during the Brazilian G20 Presidency, the situation for Indian women tells a different story. Despite global efforts, women in India continue to grapple with limited progress in various sectors in various Indian states.
As the working group on the empowerment of women supporting the G20 Women’s Ministerial is planning to convene its first meeting during the Brazilian G20 Presidency, recent research from India portrays a stark contrast between international commitments and the ground reality back home.
Click here to read the full article published by Business Today on 11 September 2023.
This publication is the latest instalment in the annual series jointly produced by UN Women and UN DESA. The report provides a comprehensive analysis of gender equality progress across all 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Halfway to the end point of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the world is failing to achieve gender equality, making it an increasingly distant goal. If current trends continue, more than 340 million women and girls will still live in extreme poverty by 2030, and close to one in four will experience moderate or severe food insecurity.
Click here to read the full article published by UN Women on 8 September 2023.
The High Level Political Forum (HLPF) is the core United Nations platform on Sustainable Development. It is the mechanism which follows up on UN Member States’ implementation of the 2030 Agenda and seeks to hold governments accountable by encouraging them to submit national reviews on their progress toward the 2030 Agenda. Each year, the HLPF focuses on a different theme and reviews a different set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This year’s theme was “Empowering people and ensuring inclusiveness and equality”.
The following set of goals were reviewed:
- Goal 4: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all
- Goal 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all
- Goal 10: Reduce inequality within and among countries
- Goal 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts
- Goal 16: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels
- Goal 17: Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development.
As the HLPF adopts inter-governmentally negotiated political declarations, this report analyzes each of the 6 goals through a gendered lens and emphasizes the importance of taking a gendered approach in implementing each of the goals. Additionally, this publication focuses on how each goal impacts women and girls and how their involvement makes a global difference. Each goal is explored through a gendered analysis, backed up by examples of good practices from around the globe. These case studies demonstrate innovative and gender-sensitive practices that governments have implemented in their efforts toward the 2030 Agenda. The purpose of this report is to present how women and girls can have an effective impact on societies and governments when they are given a chance to take part in global discussions that may affect change. More importantly, this publication emphasizes how women and girls play a significant role in achieving the 2030 Agenda.
Click here to see the report.
The report on “The Empowerment of Women in Politics and the 6 th Legislature National Assembly Elections 2018” is an analysis of the data and views of Cambodian women’s participation in politics, especially the process of the 6th Legislature National Assembly (NA) Elections 2018.
This report looks in particular at the women’s political empowerment and elections; number of women candidates, measures for how to select women candidats, policies of political parties for promoting women’s political participation, political party platforms on women’s and children’s issues, challenges facing women both as voters and candidates including violence against women in politics. Also, it shows about women’s opinions on electoral progress, and activities related to promoting women’s participation in politics as well as the outcome of elected women representative from the single party CPP which dominated the election and the outcome. It also provides an overview of a rapid survey on “The reason of women voters who voted or have indelible ink on their finger and women voters who did not go to vote or have no indelible ink on their finger” conducted by Women Volunteer Citizens throughout the four provincial target area of COMFREL a day after the election and two case studies. The report closes with a set of recommendations to improve gender equality and women’s political empowerment in Cambodia.
Click here to see the report.
There are currently 22 gender-balanced cabinets, of which 14 have at least 50% of women ministers.
Women continue to be under-represented globally in political leadership positions. Data from UN Women and the Inter-parliamentary Union’s 2019 Women in Politics map shows that women made up 24.3% of all parliamentarians and 20.7% of government ministers, in January 2019. Although far from parity and gender-balance, this represents an all-time high for women in politics.
According to the same data, only nine countries had 50% or more of women in ministerial positions on 1 January 2019.* These were Spain (64.7%), Nicaragua (55.6%), Sweden (54.4%), Albania (53.3%), Colombia (52.9%), Costa Rica (51.9%), Rwanda (51.9%), Canada (50%) and France (50%).
Below is an update on parity and gender-balanced cabinets (see our previous list here). As of 1 September 2019, there are 14 government cabinets made up of at least 50% of women ministers:
1. Spain
Caretaker Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s acting cabinet includes six men and ten women, making Spain the country with the highest proportion of women ministers at 62.5%. Click here to learn more.
2. Finland
Prime Minister Antti Rinne’s government is composed of seven men and 11 women ministers. The proportion of women ministers is 61.1%. Click here to learn more.
3. Nicaragua
President Daniel Ortega Saavedra’s current cabinet includes seven men and ten women. The share of women ministers is 58.8%. Click here to learn more.
4. Sweden
Sweden has the world’s first self-proclaimed feminist government. Prime Minister Stefan Löfven’s cabinet is composed of ten men and 12 women ministers. The proportion of women ministers is 54.5%. Click here to learn more.
5. Albania
Albanian Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Edi Rama reshuffled his cabinet at the end of 2018. The government is composed of eight women ministers out of a total of 15, bringing the proportion of women ministers to 53.3%. Click here to learn more.
6. Rwanda
Prime Minister Édouard Ngirente’s government includes 25 ministers, among which 13 are women (52%). Rwanda has the highest proportion of women MPs in its Chamber of Deputies at 61.3%. Click here to learn more.
7. Canada
Upon assuming office in November 2015, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appointed a parity cabinet. Following the most recent reshuffle in March 2019, gender parity remained with a total of 17 men and 17 women ministers. Click here to learn more.
8. Colombia
President Iván Duque announced Colombia’s first parity cabinet in August 2018. The current government team is composed of eight men and eight women ministers. Click here to learn more.
9. Costa Rica
President Carlos Alvarado’s current 24-member cabinet includes as many men as women ministers. Click here to learn more.
10. El Salvador
On 1 June 2019, President Nayib Bukele announced upon his inauguration a parity government with eight men and eight women ministers. Click here to learn more.
11. Guinea-Bissau
In July 2019, a presidential decree announced a new government under the leadership of Prime Minister Aristides Gomes with eight men and eight women ministers. Click here to learn more.
12. Haiti
The new Prime Minister Fritz-William Michel announced a parity cabinet in July 2019. Despite a government reshuffle a month later, parity was kept with nine men and nine women ministers. Click here to learn more.
13. Moldova
In June 2019, Ms. Maia Sandu was elected Prime Minister of Moldova by Members of Parliament. Her new government is formed of five men and five women ministers. Click here to learn more.
14. South Africa
In May 2019, President Cyril Ramaphosa’s second cabinet was inaugurated. In includes 14 men and 14 women ministers. Click here to learn more.
Close to parity but not quite, there are currently eight gender-balanced cabinets where women occupy at least 40% of ministerial positions. These are France (48.6%), Ethiopia (47.6), Peru (47.4), Norway (42.8%), Switzerland (42.8%), Seychelles (41.6%), Germany (40%), and Iceland (40%).
Did we miss anything? Please let us know at connect@iknowpolitics.org.
* All calculations do not include Prime Ministers/Heads of Government, unless they hold ministerial portfolios. Vice-presidents and heads of governmental or public agencies are not included.
This policy paper aims to reconsider the concept of parity democracy in the current context of the EU and focusing on the elections to the EP in May 2019. As developed in the Athens Declaration, adopted at the European Summit of Women in Power in 1992, parity democracy stands on 5 basic arguments (equality, democracy, good use of human resources, needs and interests of women and quality of policy-making) which are recalled and updated with a view to provide stakeholders, including democrats standing for gender equality and feminist movements, with useful ammunitions to inform and convince EU citizens (women and men) to vote and to vote for women defending equality. This policy paper is, therefore, part of broader Gender Five Plus’ efforts to inform EU citizens and influence stakeholders for greater gender balance in the EU. The analysis in this policy paper is based on desk research, literature review and includes diverse forms of experience in EU policy-making. It is divided into four different parts and a list of recommendations. Part I tries to answer the question of why parity democracy is important to the EU; Part II focuses on why the EU and parity democracy are important to women; Part III analyses gender balance in the EU decision-making (focusing in the EP); Part IV examines the possible challenges and opportunities for fostering parity democracy in the current EU context and the conclusion provides space for a reflection on the EU that we want and need to build. Finally, derived from the analysis of the whole policy paper, a noncomprehensive list of recommendations is provided.
Click here to see the report.
Raising women’s political participation leads to faster maternal mortality decline. We estimate that the introduction of quotas for women in parliament results in a 9–12 per cent decline in maternal mortality. In terms of mechanisms, it also leads to an 8–11 per cent increase in skilled birth attendance and a 6–11 per cent increase in prenatal care utilization. We find reinforcing evidence from the period in which the United States experienced rapid declines in maternal mortality. The historical decline made feasible by the introduction of antibiotics was significantly greater in states that had longer exposure to women’s suffrage.
Click here to see the academic article.
By Elizabeth Renzetti,
Imagine, for a second, that you’re walking down the street with your kids or your dog and someone who doesn’t like the way you do your job decides to hurl abuse at you. This probably seems inconceivable, if you’re a teacher or a lawyer or a baker or a construction worker.
However, if you are a politician – a female politician, specifically – it could be part of your life. This week we learned that Catherine McKenna, the Liberal Environment Minister, is sometimes accompanied by security, after the constant abuse she suffers online spilled over into real life (while she was with her kids going to see a movie in Ottawa, a man hurled an expletive at her and called her “Climate Barbie.”) The incident made international headlines – not the kind we usually associate with our friendly country. It was, perhaps, the wake-up call people needed to understand the situation that many women in politics face.
I’m Elizabeth Renzetti, a columnist and feature writer with The Globe and Mail, and I’ve long been interested in the ways that women are discouraged from seeking a life in politics. Over the years I’ve interviewed politicians and aspiring politicians and academics who study politics, and one thing is clear – the abuse that women take, online and increasingly offline, is getting worse.
It’s not an issue that follows partisan lines, either: the abuse cuts across party politics. The former interim Conservative leader Rona Ambrose wrote that she had been “mocked, dismissed, insulted, threatened (including with sexual violence), underestimated, cyber-bullied, sexually harassed, disrespected and ignored” because of her gender. Women in politics tend to have hides thicker than suitcase leather, but we cannot and should not become inured to threats that require them to have security guards by their sides, which happened with both Alberta MLA Sandra Jansen and former Alberta premier Rachel Notley.
Click here to read the full article published by The Globe and Mail on 13 September 2019.