Women's Leadership
South Sudan UN Women Country Representative Rukaiya Mohammed has underscored the importance of dialogue in empowering women.
Mohammed expressed the sentiments during the three-day inter-generational dialogue on women’s leadership and political participation from East Africa.
The workshop held in Juba created a platform on breaking barriers for women in leadership.
“The transition period has been extended for two years, so we say women should not sleep. We should strategize and take advantage of the momentum,” Mohammed said.
“We said the young can walk fast, but the elderly know the road. It is vital for young women to harness the wisdom of the elders, while the elders should value the creativity and energy of the youth,” she added.
The dialogue included members of the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) from Kenya, Rwanda, and South Sudan, local MPs, and representatives from civil society organizations (CSOs).
Read here the full article published by Radio Tamazuj on 16 November 2024.
Image by Radio Tamazuj
In this final episode of Season 1, we reflect upon what women political leaders in South Asia have told us about their career journeys with our guests. We delve into bringing role models closer to youth, especially young women aspiring to be in politics.
Listen here to the full podcast posted by the Centre for Gender And Politics South Asia on 11 November 2024.
Despite some progress over the past decade, women's representation in political leadership remains limited globally. As of 1 January 2024, only 27 out of 159 countries are led by women – a modest increase from just 18 countries a decade ago (United Nations Women Headquarters Office 2024). Women represent 23% of cabinet members heading ministries worldwide in 2024; in Europe and Northern America, this share is 33%.
On the one hand, these numbers hint at the long road ahead to reach the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal of gender equality (SDG 5), which aims to ensure equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic, and public life (United Nations 2015). On the other hand, they underscore the need to understand to what extent the underrepresentation of women politicians matters for policy choices, especially in times of crises.
Read here the full article published by the Centre for Economic Policy Research on 12 November 2024.
Image by Centre for Economic Policy Research
To many left-leaning Americans, it is resoundingly clear that women who backed Donald J. Trump in the presidential election voted against their own self-interest.
Liberal women, in particular, have spent recent days practically stunned, stewing over how other women could have rejected Kamala Harris, who would have been the first woman to lead the nation in its nearly 250-year history. Instead, they chose a candidate who spews misogyny seemingly with glee. For the second time.
One voter from Maine, interviewed after Mr. Trump declared victory, offered a takeaway shared by many. As she put it, “The sisterhood did not stand up.”
In many ways the election results seemed to contradict generations of progress made toward women’s equality and for feminism generally. Women have made strides in nearly every facet of American life in recent decades, generally making up a greater proportion of the U.S. work force than in the past, taking on high-paying jobs and outpacing men in higher education — though they remain underrepresented at the top levels of both business and government.
They now find themselves in a country where Mr. Trump won decisively with a campaign that pitted men against women, sitting down with podcasters who trade in sexism and choosing a running mate who had criticized single women as “childless cat ladies.” Mr. Trump took credit for appointing the Supreme Court justices who overturned the constitutional right to abortion but appeared to pay little price at the polls. Immediately after the election social media posts were circulating by men that read, “your body, my choice.”
Read here the full article published by The New York Times on 12 November 2024.
Image by The New York Times
In elections across the globe, the spotlight has been trained on the question of women’s representation, and rightly so. How vibrant can a democracy be if half of its population does not find adequate representation in politics or in the corridors of power? Which is why, when Kamala Harris became the Democratic nominee for the US presidential election, it was welcomed by those who thought it was high time that a woman — especially a woman of colour — held its highest office. Her campaign and the possibility of her victory was seen as symbolising the maturity of American democracy and an acknowledgment of its diversity.
As it turned out, a large number of African Americans, especially young men, and White women voted en-masse for Donald Trump. There are many reasons for this, but one is that mere symbolic gestures are not enough to win voters’ support. India has seen this happen in recent elections in Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana and Haryana. We are seeing the end of vote-bank politics and the emergence of value-based voting. In India, women across the political spectrum have marched beyond mere symbolism and metaphors. Women have become game changers, shaping electoral politics and defining electoral gains. They have transitioned from descriptive political representation to substantive political presence, and with women-centric policies, like Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana, Beti Bachao Beti Padhao and Jan Dhan Yojana, we have seen women becoming changemakers in policy formulation. The outcome of such politics promises a brighter tomorrow by making women more skilled, employable and empowered.
Read here the full article published by the Indian Express on 12 November 2024.
Image by Indian Express
Gender quotas have become an important mechanism for promoting gender equality in political representation. This blog post explores their impact on women’s political empowerment, particularly in Malta, by discussing the historical context, current situation, and future prospects for gender equality in Maltese politics.
Understanding Gender Quotas
Gender quotas are affirmative measures designed to increase women’s participation in politics by reserving a certain proportion of seats for them. According to the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE), the goal is to provide a clearer pathway for women to enter political leadership, as they have historically been underrepresented. This is particularly relevant in Malta, where, despite advancements in other areas of gender equality, political representation remains unequal.
A Historical Overview of Women’s Political Participation in Malta
Women’s political participation in Malta has a long history, tied to the broader socio-political developments of the nation. Women were first granted the right to vote and run for office in 1947, preceding Maltese men who received this right three years later. However, significant measures aimed at improving female political representation only came in the 21st century. The Gender Corrective Mechanism, introduced in 2021, was a landmark policy. It mandates an increase in parliamentary seats if female representation falls below 40%, ensuring that women have a stronger foothold in Maltese politics.
Read here the full article published by Gender On The Ballot on 11 November 2024.
Image by Gender On The Ballot
Research showing that there is strong correlation between increased female labor force participation and women’s political participation is essentially based on empirical data from Western, democratic, and developed contexts. In this article, we discuss whether these conclusions hold for non-Western, nondemocratic, and developing settings too. Through a study of Ethiopian women’s employment and political agency, we find that employment is actually not significantly related to the level of women’s participation in local political meetings and is negatively related to their interest in politics.
Click here to download the article.
In 2018, a record number of women were elected to Congress, but it’s a different story when you look at governorships. Today, only nine women serve as governor, tying a previous record first set in 2004.
Twenty states have never had a woman governor, whereas only one state has yet to send a woman to Congress. The numbers are even more stark when it comes to women of color and LGBTQ women: only two states have ever elected a woman of color governor, and there has only been one openly LGBTQ woman elected governor.
When running for executive office, women face obstacles that men running simply do not. The Barbara Lee Family Foundation has consistently found that voters have been more comfortable seeing women serve as members of a legislature than they have been electing them to executive offices—positions where they will have sole decision-making authority.
This research, which asks about hypothetical Asian Pacific Islander American, Black, Latina, lesbian and white women candidates of the two major political parties, comprehensively examines what it takes for a woman to prove to voters she is ready to serve in executive office. For context, it also includes some of the lessons learned from interviews with 2018 gubernatorial candidates and their campaign staffs.
Click here to see the report.
Americans elected more than 100 women to office in the 2018 midterm elections, but women still hold less than a quarter of the seats in Congress.
Why are women so poorly represented? Theories include: women are less politically ambitious; there is a lack of support from political parties and donors; voter prejudice and a dearth of information about female politicians influence votes.
UCLA Anderson’s Melanie Wasserman was interested in a less-understood piece of the puzzle: Do women breaking into politics react differently to an electoral loss than men? If so, does this contribute to the low percentage of women who hold office?
Her analysis of 11,466 candidates in closely won local races in California between 1995 and 2014 (including city, county, and school districts) finds women new to politics were less likely than men to run again within four years of losing a close race. For men, losing an initial election caused a 16-to-19 percentage point decline in the probability of their running in another election within the next four years. Women exhibited an additional 7-to-11-percentage point decrease in the probability of running again, relative to the male candidates.
Click here to read the full article published by UCLA Anderson Review on 1 November 2019.
Political parties act as gatekeepers, meaning that improvements in the representation of women depend on parties’ willingness to nominate women candidates. Previous research suggests that party characteristics and gender quotas largely explain women’s nominations, but overlooks the political context in which parties operate. This study highlights the gendered outcomes that occur when parties make nomination decisions in times of public discontent, namely increasing political distrust and increasing perceived corruption. We theorize that parties hold similar biases to voters: gender stereotypes that regard women as more trustworthy and honest should advantage women as political trust falls and perceptions of corruption rise. We hypothesize that parties nominate larger percentages of women in these circumstances. Using two waves of data from over 100 political parties in 18 Latin American countries, we find that parties nominate more women when a large proportion of the public distrusts the national legislature, providing support for the theory.
Click here to see the academic article.
From mayors to MEPs: new study reveals women’s representation across Europe.
Women make up half of humanity, yet account for only 1/3 of political decision-makers in Europe and around 15% of mayors. A new study by the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR) shows that despite some gains, politics remains a man’s world.
One-of-a-kind, “Women in Politics: Local and European Trends” provides in-depth analysis of women’s representation in 41 European countries and all levels of government, from local councils all the way up to the European Parliament.
Covering a ten-year period, the study breaks down the data by country, shows where and how women have made gains and provides recommendations on how to make further progress.
Click here to see the report.
Understanding the role traditional media and, increasingly, social media outlets are playing in the promotion of more gender-inclusive and participatory democracies and what we can all do to speed up progress is urgent, and critical.
This study aims at doing just that and has four key takeaways:
- An artificial intelligence powered analysis of the 2020 primaries shows that female candidates are attacked more often than male candidates by trolls/fake news accounts/bots and there is anecdotal evidence the same is happening in India, Ukraine and Italy.
- Despite a highly toxic social media environment, female candidates globally have been at times able to use both Twitter and Facebook to support their political ambitions, by leveraging their support networks online and offline.
- Globally and on average, women are still less visible than men on traditional media and the nature of the coverage they receive is often biased or plainly sexist, representing a serious disincentive for women to consider a political career.
- There are actionable steps and evidence-based solutions and innovations that can speed up progress towards gender equality in government, by ensuring that traditional and social media are fairer arenas of political engagement - and everyone has a role to play in implementing them.
Click here to see the report.