Women's Leadership
In honor of Women’s History Month, the National League of Cities (NLC) reached out to members of the Women in Municipal Government (WIMG) Constituency Group to share their personal reflections on the impact and importance of women serving in local government. These women leaders, who serve as mayors, council members and other local government officials, spoke candidly about the importance of recognizing women’s contributions to society and advancing gender equity in municipal governance.
How Do You Think Women’s Voices Have Changed the Landscape of Policy and Governance?
“Making up half of the world’s population, women should feel confident to become elected leaders who practice compassion, lead with integrity and build on the legacy of those who pave the way for a more equal and just society. Together we can work to eliminate discriminatory barriers and empower younger generations to feel like they can and should run for local office.”
Councilwoman Dr. Adriana Rocha Garcia, San Antonio, TX – District 4, WIMG President
“Women’s voices have reshaped policy and governance by bringing resilience, wisdom and a commitment to progress—even in the face of adversity. Our presence in government expands perspectives, drives meaningful change and sets new standards for leadership, proving that dignity and determination will always outlast the storms we face.”
Council President, D.M. Collins, Center Point, AL, WIMG Board Member
“Women’s representation at the leadership table is critical to ensure inclusion when discussing community issues. Through lived experiences, women often lead discussions to the establishment of more comprehensive policies that address the needs of ALL citizens.”
Alderman Carol Bell, Savannah, GA, WIMG Board Member
“Women promote cooperation, consensus-building, and focus on common goals through participatory leadership. They advocate for social issues that are often overlooked such as education, domestic violence prevention and child welfare.”
Councilmember Jan Arbuckle, Grass Valley, CA, WIMG Past President
“The increasing involvement of women in policy and governance not only enriches governance processes but also leads to more equitable and just outcomes for all members of society. Women bring diverse perspectives, tend to focus on social issues, have collaborative and consensus-building leadership styles, are role models that inspire future generations and encourage more women to engage in politics and governance.”
Mayor Debra Wimpee, Broken Arrow, OK, WIMG Board Member
“As more women are elected to serve in government positions, we will have more influence over public decisions. Working together, women have been able to make decisions that impact health, employment, housing and more by taking time to ask questions and study the issues.”
Councilmember Susan Honda, Federal Way, WA, WIMG Board Member
Read here the full article published by the National League of Cities on 27 March 2025.
Image by National League of Cities
A movement that began as a protest against enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings in Balochistan is now evolving into a strong political and social force for change. The women at the forefront of the Baloch Yakjehti Committee have amassed a large following of Baloch men and women, but who are they and how did they become so influential in a largely patriarchal and tribal society?
On January 27, 2024 in Quetta, the leader of the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC), Dr Mahrang Baloch, addressed a crowd of thousands, which comprised men and women, many of them young students. Having recently returned from a month-long sit-in outside Islamabad’s National Press Club, held to protest enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings in Balochistan, Mahrang said that this movement was the “voice of Baloch people, from Nokundi to Parom and Koh-i-Suleman to Makran.”
The recent terrorist attacks in Balochistan by the outlawed Baloch Liberation Army, which resulted in the tragic loss of the lives of almost 40 people, tend to take the media spotlight because of the sheer violence involved, but they also do a disservice to the efforts of movements such as the BYC, which have attempted to highlight the alienation of Balochistan’s educated youth in a peaceful and constitutional manner.
Read the full article here.
Last Saturday, March 8th, marked International Women’s Day, when the international community celebrates the social, economic, cultural, and political accomplishments of women. In post-communist societies, where this day is often a public holiday, there is still a lot left to do to ensure better representation of women in political institutions—but the contribution of women to democracy-building efforts is undeniable.
Meet four exceptional female leaders who are shaping Eastern European politics today and learn more about women of the region fighting against war and autocracy.
Read here the full article published by the Wilson Center on 10 March 2025.
Image by Wilson Center
As the world celebrates the International Women’s Day, the women in Azerbaijan continue to drive progress and developments in politics, business, science, education, and entrepreneurship.
Azerbaijani women have long been pioneers in securing their rights and advancing in various spheres of society. They were the first in the Islamic world to gain the right to vote, achieving suffrage in 1918 – a milestone that placed them ahead of many of their European and American counterparts at the time.
While the US and some Western European countries were still contemplating women’s participation in elections, the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic leadership granted unrestricted suffrage to women in 1918.
Azerbaijan, thus, became one of the first countries in the world – and the first Muslim majority nation – to grant women political rights equal to men.
It was two years later, in 1920, when the US granted women the right to vote. The Benelux countries afforded the same rights in 1919, while France and Italy followed in 1945.
This progressive step laid the foundation for the continuous empowerment of women in Azerbaijan, which today stands as the wealthiest nation in the South Caucasus. Currently, Azerbaijan has a workforce of over five million people, with women making up almost half of this economically active population.
The entrepreneurial landscape in Azerbaijan has seen increasing strides by women, who contributed to transformation by actively engaging in business ventures.
Read here the full article published by Caspian News on 8 March 2025.
Image by Caspian News
The webinar focused on the challenges and opportunities for women politicians in the digital space. Speakers discussed key issues such as online harassment, technology-facilitated gender-based violence, and misinformation/disinformation, all of which hinder women's participation in politics. The discussion also emphasized the importance of digital literacy, legal safeguards, and creating safer online environments for women in politics. Additionally, speakers highlighted the need to engage men in these discussions and support women at the grassroots level.
The invited speakers were:
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Chikas Kumle (Nigerian politician, Women Political Activist)
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Gloria Anderson (Founder & Executive Director at TEDI, Tanzania)
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Juliane Muller (Associate Programme Officer, Digitalization and Democracy, International IDEA)
Key Takeaways and Next Steps
Several action points were identified for different stakeholders.
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Electoral commissions should raise awareness among their staff about the challenges women face in digital political spaces, collaborate with civil society organizations and political parties to better understand and address these challenges, and advocate for and participate in policy reforms to protect women online.
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Political parties need to develop actionable policies and legal frameworks to support and protect female candidates. They should also publicly condemn online abuse against women and take disciplinary action against perpetrators within their parties.
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Women’s rights organizations play a crucial role in advocating for stronger support for women in politics by political parties and electoral bodies. They should also push for digital literacy programs that incorporate a gender perspective.
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Digital platforms must implement and enforce gender-sensitive community guidelines to protect women in political spaces.
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iKNOW Politics in collaboration with civil society organizations should continue organizing webinars and discussions on women’s political participation in the digital age while actively engaging in the development of online safety guidelines and policies for women politicians.
Women’s participation in politics and leadership remains low in African countries due to various factors, including online harassment and a patriarchal system that hinders their involvement.
This was highlighted during a workshop attended by journalists from Sub-Saharan African countries, held in Nairobi, Kenya and spearheaded by International IDEA https://www.idea.int/ and WYDE.
Speaking at the workshop, Josephine Mwangi, the Program Manager for the Women’s Political Participation Project in Africa and West Asia from IDEA, stated that the limited participation of women in politics is driven by multiple factors, including the way media portrays women.
The African Barometer report, published in November 2024, revealed that women’s representation in African parliaments stood at only 27% in 2024. Additionally, the report showed that the increase in women’s political participation in Africa has stagnated, with only a 1% rise recorded between 2021 and 2024.
The workshop also highlighted that one of the key barriers to women’s representation in politics is the threats and harassment they face, both when participating in politics and when using social media platforms.
Read here the full article published by WinoTz on 21 February 2025.
Image by WinoTz
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.
This first update of the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) Index provides important insights into patterns and progress on women’s well-being and empowerment around the world. It reflects a shared vision that countries are more peaceful and prosperous when women are accorded full and equal rights and opportunities. While just two years have passed since the inaugural WPS Index was published, major insights can be drawn from recent trends. The timing of this report offers opportunities for stakeholders to review and discuss challenges and to identify opportunities for transformative change in advance of the 20th anniversary of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security. The WPS Index incorporates three basic dimensions of women’s well-being—inclusion (economic, social, political); justice (formal laws and informal discrimination); and security (at the family, community, and societal levels)— which are captured and quantified through 11 indicators. The indicators are aggregated at the national level to create a global ranking of 167 countries. On a pilot basis in this report, we constructed subnational indexes for three of the world’s largest countries (China, India, and Nigeria), which reveal difference in performance within countries on many fronts. We are pleased to have collaborated with National Geographic and their expert team of researchers and designers who have created a series of striking graphics capturing and portraying key insights from the WPS Index. Their results are published in the November 2019 issue of the magazine.1 Some of the graphics are included in this report. Several innovations this year have enhanced the value of the index. First, improvements in data availability made possible the addition of 14 countries, expanding coverage to 167 countries— encompassing more than 98 percent of the world’s population. Second, greater data availability has enabled the use of data on the current (past 12 months) prevalence of intimate partner violence in place of data on women’s lifetime experience of intimate partner violence. This change permits tracking changes in prevalence over time. Third, we have used data revisions and updates since the inaugural edition of the index from the International Labour Organization, the United Nations, the World Bank, and other authoritative sources to continue to ensure the reliability of the data on which the index is based. While these are major improvements, the changes also mean that comparisons of scores and ranks between the 2017 and 2019 editions must be made carefully. This report examines changes in the underlying indicators and limits attention to changes in position on the index to the biggest country movers only. We hope that this year’s report is an important contribution to national and international efforts to accelerate progress on both the international commitment to women, peace, and security and the Sustainable Development Goals. The WPS Index will be updated again in 2021, serving to track progress toward women’s inclusion, justice, and security.
Click here to see the report.
Since its establishment in 2000, the The Community of Democracies (CoD) has affirmed and maintained a commitment to engaging women in all aspects of democratic gover - nance and development, including women’s political participation and inclusion in peacebuilding processes and initiatives. The importance of female participation in the political and diplomatic sphere as a crucial component of consolidated democracy and sustain - able development was outlined and recognized as a core value in the governing document of the CoD, the Warsaw Declaration, which em - phasizes that the “informed participation by all elements of society, men and women, in a country’s economic and political life, including by persons belonging to minority groups, is fundamental to a vibrant and durable democracy”. Gender equality is one of the three cross-cut - ting themes mainstreamed into all activities undertaken by the Com - munity as part of its Strategic Plan 2018-2023.
Click here to see the report.
The Women's Network of the Union of Latin American Parties (UPLA) is a political platform that seeks to promote and strengthen the participation and positioning of women in public decision-making roles in Latin America and the Caribbean.
UPLA prepared a report for the electronic discussion on the role of political parties in the promotion of women in politics.
Click here to see the report.
Women ran for and were elected to office in record numbers in the 2018 election. They made historic gains across levels of office and reached new milestones for women’s political representation. But not all women achieved record levels of success in 2018. Republican women’s representation dropped across offices and within their party.
The progress for all women in election 2018 should also be put into important context. First, despite breaking records for candidacy and officeholding, women – who are just over half of the population – were still underrepresented among all candidates and remain less than one-third of elected officials.
Finally, measuring progress for women in electoral politics means looking beyond the numbers. When considering the gender and intersectional dynamics at play in U.S. campaigns, it is clear that there is much progress left to make in creating equitable conditions for success for women and men in American elections.
Click here to see the report.
Violence against women in politics is increasingly recognized around the world as a significant barrier to women’s political participation. This article maps how the concept emerged globally, arguing that it has multiple, parallel origins: efforts by locally elected women in Bolivia in the late 1990s to theorize their experiences as political harassment and violence against women; networking by elected women across Asia, with support from global actors, to map and condemn manifestations of violence against women in politics in the mid2000s; and initiatives in Kenya to recognize and tackle electoral gender-based violence in the late 2000s. International actors began to link these debates in the late 2000s and early 2010s, collecting and analyzing testimonies from women to develop new frameworks and toolkits for identifying and addressing violence against women in politics. They also sought opportunities to embed these new understandings into existing normative and political frameworks. Arguing that concept formation plays a crucial role in global feminist politics, the article illustrates how feminist collaborations are essential for giving voice to women’s experiences and mobilizing for change.
Click here to see the report.