Women's Leadership
When jiang shengnan, a Chinese lawmaker turned political adviser, was born in 1973, a third daughter to parents in the coastal city of Wenzhou, many urged her mother to keep trying for a son. She refused and gave her daughter the name Shengnan, which means “better than men”. Ms Jiang insists she just wants women to be equal, but striving for that equality requires a mix of the resistance imbued in her name and a level of pragmatism in a country where feminism is fraught.
Following the events of August 30, 2023, and the change in governance that occurred after the overthrow of President Ali Bongo Ondimba, Gabon entered a two-year transition period. This transition was marked by several institutional and political milestones aimed at restoring lasting constitutional order.
Over this period, civil society mobilized to relay the expectations and priorities of the general public to the transitional authorities, aiming to ensure effective representation of citizens’ aspirations and their integration into new public policies. Consequently, following the National Dialogue held in April 2024, a new Constitution was adopted by referendum in November 2024, paving the way for the organization of national elections.
Civil society organizations' involvement in the electoral process led to the creation of the first groups of national observers and the active participation of citizens in efforts to restore and consolidate democratic institutions.
Through its project to support civil society organizations during the transitional elections in Gabon, funded by the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs and the European Union, International IDEA supported citizen engagement to promote free, transparent, and peaceful presidential and local elections. This support materialised in the creation of two monitoring units, including a monitoring unit for electoral violence led by the NGO Women Go for Peace and the Network of Human Rights Defenders in Central Africa (REDHAC).
With only one in seven countries led by a woman, global political power remains dominated by men. Women are presidents or heads of government in only 28 of the world’s 195 countries, and 101 states have never had a female leader.
The latest data from the IPU and UN Women show that political equality remains a distant prospect: women hold no more than 22.4% of ministerial posts (down from 23.3% in 2024) and 27.5% of parliamentary seats (a level that has stagnated).
Fourteen countries, including six in Western Europe (1), have achieved gender parity in their governments, demonstrating that equal representation is possible. Conversely, eight countries still have no female ministers (2).
Gender Stereotypes
Women head 90% of ministries responsible for gender equality and 73% of ministries responsible for family and children’s affairs, reinforcing long-standing gender stereotypes in political leadership. Men continue to head almost exclusively the ministries responsible for defence, home affairs, justice, economic affairs, governance, health, and education.
“At a time of increasing global instability, escalating conflicts, and a visible rollback of women’s rights, excluding women from political leadership weakens societies’ ability to meet the challenges they face,” said Sima Bahous, Executive Director of UN Women.
European ministers approved plans to allow female lawmakers in the European Parliament to delegate their vote temporarily before and after childbirth – a reform supporters say will make the institution more family-friendly.
Parliament President Roberta Metsola told Euractiv that the Council of the EU’s vote on Tuesday was “another crack in the glass ceiling” and an “important step” for women in politics.
“No woman should have to choose between serving her voters and having children,” Metsola said.
The Maltese lawmaker outlined the reform plans in June 2025, following a 2023 in-house campaign, pledging to update the rules for young mothers.
Currently, MEPs who are advanced in their pregnancy or on maternity leave must forgo voting unless they travel to Strasbourg, where plenary votes take place roughly once a month.
According to the European Parliament’s research service for members, only a handful of EU countries’ national parliaments, such as Greece and Spain, allow MEPs on maternity leave to vote while absent.
HÀ NỘI — Women’s participation in politics is widely seen as a key measure of social progress and an important driver of socio-economic development, gender equality and sustainable growth.
Speaking at the seminar themed 'Women in Politics – A Story That Belongs to Everyone', held on Wednesday in Hà Nội, Associate Professor Dương Kim Anh, deputy director of the Việt Nam Women’s Academy (VWA), highlighted the growing role of women in shaping public policy and governance.
The event was organised by the VWA in co-ordination with the Australian People for Health, Education and Development Abroad Office in Việt Nam (APHEDA) to mark the upcoming election of the 16th National Assembly and people’s councils at all levels for the 2026–31 term.
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya is on a visit to Rome, where she joined the “Women of My Time” event, organized on the occasion of International Women’s Day by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the ecclesiastical advisor to Minister Antonio Tajani.
In her speech, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya emphasized that women in Belarus have historically carried a great deal of responsibility: “In Belarus, life has always rested on the shoulders of women. It was women who rebuilt the country after the wars. Women raised children alone when their husbands were taken away by war, prison, or exile. This is still happening today. It was women who, in 2020, raised the flag and led the peaceful protests. And I believe that it will ultimately be women who dismantle the dictatorship and turn our country toward democracy and the European future we are fighting for”.
She highlighted Belarusian women who show courage despite repression: “Courage is 80-year-old Nina Bahinskaya, who walks the streets with the white-red-white flag, and when the police confiscate it, she simply sews a new one. Courage is Maryia Kalesnikava, who tore up her passport at the border so the regime could not deport her. She spent five years in solitary confinement but did not break. There is always a smile on her face”.
This year, 18 of Africa’s 54 countries went to the polls for presidential or general elections, making 2024 a significant year on the continent. There were high hopes for renewed commitment to fair governance, transparency and equal representation. In particular there were hopes for women’s political participation, for more women to be elected to office to shape policies that address the needs of all citizens.
For more than a decade, we at the human rights organisation Make Every Woman Count (MEWC) have been tracking women’s political participation across Africa. Unfortunately, we did not see the progress we hoped for this year. In 2014, there were three women serving as heads of state across Africa. In 2024, there were two: the president of Tanzania, Samia Suluhu Hassan, and Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, who became Namibia’s first female president-elect on 3 December; the result is being contested in court. Nandi-Ndaitwah was the sole woman among 15 candidates, underscoring the persistent gender disparity in contests for high office.
Ghana also made history by electing Prof Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang as its first female vice-president.
Read here the full article published by The Guardian on 31 December 2024.
Image by The Guardian
Significant and, arguably, profound changes took place in Baltic high politics over the past four years. The peak pandemic years — 2020 and 2021 — proved quite pivotal for both Lithuania and Estonia, as both saw the emergence of the first most gender-balanced cabinets in the history of these countries, with Latvia following in 2022. The Estonian parliament elected the first woman prime minister, Kaja Kallas, whose cabinet had the largest number of women ministers. For almost a year, Estonia’s top political positions — the presidency and prime ministership — were held by two women, making Estonia the only parliamentary democracy ruled by elected women. Meanwhile, the Lithuanian prime minister, Ingrida Šimonytė, was the second woman to hold this position. Unlike her predecessor, Danutė Prunskienė, who served as the first woman prime minister of Lithuania more than 30 years ago (1990-1991) and was the only woman in her all-male cabinet, Šimonytė’s cabinet was the most gender-balanced in the modern history of the country. With the election of Evika Siliņa in September 2023 as Latvia’s prime minister, all three Baltic prime ministerships were held by women for about ten months — a historical first in the Baltic states’ politics.
Read here the full article published by the Foreign Policy Research Institute on 19 December 2024.
Image by Foreign Policy Research Institute
Introduction
Gender equality has been a point of debate in the recent past. This is based on the ability to accord equal rights and opportunity for both genders where discrimination and prejudice are prevented. In Nigeria, gender equality and related issues are prevalent in different cases.
This is where the female gender is facing different inequalities and challenges, which are making it hard for them to cope and become effective in community participation and development (. This is based on the rise of various forms of conflict in the region, such as the Boko Haram and Harder-Farmer conflicts.
These are negatively impacting the country’s economy, and they are also affecting women and gender dynamics in the area. Therefore, this research outlines the way such conflicts have led to issues impacting women, such as gender-based violence, and also impacts the roles of women in society. Also, the discussion outlines the relationship between conflict and political participation of women in the country and the post-conflict challenges and opportunities available in the case of women in Nigeria.
Read here the full article published by The Vanguard on 7 January 2025.
Image by The Vanguard
This is the second issue of our policy insight series on gender-inclusive conflict transformation. This paper explores the political re-conversion pathways that women ex-combatants pursue after the signing of a peace agreement. From 2022 to 2023, we engaged in focus group discussions, interviews, and peer-learning workshops with over 70 women ex-combatants from Colombia, El Salvador, and the Philippines. In this publication, we present their testimonies and analyse their experiences of continuing their engagement post-war through nonviolent means in both formal and informal political spheres.
Click here to read the full article published by Relief Web on 17 December 2024.
Image by Relief Web
International IDEA organized in August 2024, in Kampala, Uganda, a roundtable with the Adeela Foundation to discuss and evaluate the role of Sudanese women in peace and ending war initiatives. The dialogue covered the war’s economic, social and political impacts on women’s groups. Also, it addressed the violations that Sudanese women are subjected to in a systematic and regular manner by all parties to the war without exception.
The participants discussed the role of Sudanese women in establishing women’s initiatives to stop the war and the role of Sudanese women in peace initiatives and ending the war led by regional and international institutions. Among the important topics discussed by the participants was the issue of the challenges and difficulties that hinder the participation of Sudanese women in building peace and restoring stability in Sudan. The participants agreed on practical, responsive and implementable recommendations. The dialogue results and the final recommendations were directed to local, regional and international policymaking institutions.
Click here to read the full report published by International IDEA on 20 December 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