Women's Leadership
Some female politicians in Sunyani have described the late Akua Donkor, the leader and Election 2024 Flagbearer of the Great Freedom Party (GFP), as an inspiring and courageous role model for women in politics, irrespective of their party inclinations.
Madam Akua Donkor passed away at the Greater Accra Reginal Hospital, Ridge, on Monday, October 28, 2024, at the age of 72 years.
Reacting to her sudden death in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Sunyani, the women also described her death as a “big blow” to womanhood, especially in a period where civil society organisations and actors are pushing for more women representation in active politics.
“Some of us admired her from afar. She was indeed an icon in our multi-party democracy and her death is very sad,” Ms Leticia Gyan, a staunch member of the New Patriotic Party stated.
Read here the full article published by Ghana Web on 31 October 2024.
Image by Ghana Web
Women have been on the front lines of Russia’s war on Ukraine. Their suffering has been disproportionate and relentless, with women and children making up almost 90 per cent of people fleeing the war. But that is not the whole picture. Women are also humanitarian actors, community leaders, and providers for their families. One in every two businesses in Ukraine is founded by a woman. Ukrainian women are also taking on more roles in traditionally male-dominated professions, such as the security sector, transit, and demining.
Since Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, women’s rights organizations and women leaders have been providing humanitarian assistance, advocating for women’s rights, taking on leadership roles in business and in politics, and many have joined the armed forces.
Read the stories of Ukrainian women on the front lines of the war and recovery efforts.
Read here the full article published by UN Women 21 October 2024.
Black women have long played a key role in protecting voting rights and urging their communities to cast ballots. This three-part series highlights their work as they build political power and demand a seat at the table.
ATLANTA ‒ Mary-Pat Hector headed one recent afternoon down the promenade that connects historically Black colleges here, stopping at a table draped with a bright blue tablecloth. “Rise” was emblazoned across the front.
The 26-year-old leader of the nonpartisan organization checked in with organizers who had spent hours urging students at Clark Atlanta University to register to vote.
“Excuse me, queen. Are you registered to vote?’’ one organizer asked a passerby.
Before she left, Hector had collected the 263 cards from students who pledged to vote and seven forms from students who'd registered. The stop was one of many in the organization’s effort to connect with thousands of students across the country.
“It always felt like this was something I just needed to do,’’ said Hector, whose passion to protect voting rights grew during the 2016 presidential election. “I knew that there was a sense of urgency, that we were like beating down the clock ‒ the same feeling that I feel right now.”
Read here the full article published by USA Today News on 20 October 2024.
Image by USA Today News
Over half of Arizona’s voters were women in 2020, according to a CNN exit poll.
This is not a recent phenomenon. Women in the U.S. have had a higher voter turnout than men since the 1960s when the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was put in place to prohibit discrimination, according to the Center for American Women and Politics. Women have longtime made significant impacts on politics, and students expect this year will not be an exception.
However, the path to gender equality in voting has not been easy, and some women still face challenges when trying to be politically active.
Why women are active voters
Ashlyn Mickelson, a junior studying sociology and the secretary of Young Democratic Socialists of America at ASU, said issues on the ballot this year have prompted more women to vote.
"Women tend to prioritize healthcare, education and reproductive rights," Mickelson said. "So one of the reasons women have been more active in politics recently is because those things are more at danger."
Read here the full article published by The State Press on 21 October 2024.
Image by The State Press
Assistant Foreign Affairs Minister Lenora Qereqeretabua said it is important for the Fiji government to be represented at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) 2024 Samoa.
Speaking to The Fiji Times, Ms Qereqeretabua said it was a great time for Fiji’s inclusion as it was important to be heard as a country.
“It is important for us to be here and to be one of the many voices in the Pacific in particular when Fiji wanted to be a leader within the region,” Ms Qereqeretabua said.
“With the Ocean of Peace, it is important that the government of Fiji is represented at the CHOGM with nearly 60 other members of the Commonwealth here.
“When the Minister’s Forum begins this Thursday, Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka will be here, but in the meantime it is great to be heard as a country.”
The Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka is expected to arrive today and will be meeting with the Fijian diaspora in Samoa.
According to the Fijian community in Samoa, Mr Rabuka will be meeting with them at the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP).
Read here the full article published by the Fiji Times on 23 October 2024.
Image by Fiji Times
The We Women Want Festival And Awards by NewsX, was a power-packed session, featuring accomplished women from various fields, sharing their experiences and perspectives on empowerment.
The We Women Want Festival And Awards by NewsX, was a power-packed session, featuring accomplished women from various fields, sharing their experiences and perspectives on empowerment.
Hosted by Priya Sehgal, the panel included prominent voices like Kaveree Bamzai (Senior Journalist & Author), Naina Lal Kidwai (Chair of India Sanitation Coalition & Rothschild India), Shaifalika Panda (Trustee & Founder CEO, Bansidhar & Ila Panda Foundation), and Shama Mohamed (Congress National Spokesperson).
Read here the full article published by NewsX World on 14 October 2024.
Image credits: NewsX World
This paper is part of a Gender Briefing Series to support women’s meaningful participation and the integration of gender perspectives in peace processes that aim to end violent intrastate conflict. The key target audience of these series of papers is women, gender equality advocates, and others engaged in peace processes, who wish to influence negotiations with a view to:
- addressing the particular experiences of women during conflict, and
- achieving lasting peace process outcomes that will improve women’s lives and the lives of those around them
This Brief presents the different forms of territorial power-sharing that arise in peace agreements, and the potential opportunities and risks for women’s inclusion that these can entail. It proposes critical questions that women could ask of peace processes if territorial power-sharing is likely to be negotiated, and highlights strategies and tactics that women and allies have used in conflict-affected contexts to navigate inclusion issues.
Click here to see the paper Gaining ground: Women and territorial power-sharing in peace processes.
This paper is part of a Gender Briefing Series to support women’s meaningful participation and the integration of gender perspectives in peace processes that aim to end violent intrastate conflict. The key target audience of these series of papers is women, gender equality advocates, and others engaged in peace processes, who wish to influence negotiations with a view to:
- addressing the particular experiences of women during conflict, and
- achieving lasting peace process outcomes that will improve women’s lives and the lives of those around them.
This brief sets out the various contexts in which different forms of political power-sharing are established in peace agreements. It indicates the challenges for women but also for other groups who are not at the centre of conflict, who may be useful allies in any struggle for greater inclusion.
Click here to see the paper Women and political power - sharing in peace processes.
History will be made in America on 3 January when a record number of women are sworn in as part of the 116th Congress.
It will be the culmination of two years of resistance to President Donald Trump - primarily led by women - following his unexpected victory over Hillary Clinton in 2016.
The day after his inauguration, millions of women joined protests against him across the country.
As the mid-term elections approached, Democrats saw a surge of women who wanted to represent the party - a stark contrast to previous years when they appeared reluctant to enter politics.
This led to suggestions that 2018 could become another “Year of the Woman” - a reference to the 1992 elections in which the number of women in Congress nearly doubled.
That jump 26 years ago was put down to a controversy over claims of sexual assault against a Supreme Court nominee - a situation similar to the case of Brett Kavanaugh in 2018.
Here's how the mid-term results have changed the make-up of Congress and a look at some of the women leading that change.
Click here to see the BBC report.
As the world becomes increasingly connected online, our reliance on social media platforms such as Twitter has also become increasingly important. But the online world, and social media platforms like Twitter are not immune to many of the human rights abuses that women face offline.
Over the last 16 months, Amnesty International has conducted qualitative and quantitative research about women’s experiences on social media platforms including the scale, nature and impact of violence and abuse directed towards women on Twitter, with a particular focus on the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States of America (USA). Such abuse includes direct or indirect threats of physical or sexual violence, discriminatory abuse targeting one or more aspects of a woman’s identity, targeted harassment, and privacy violations such as doxing or sharing sexual or intimate images of a woman without her consent.
(…) Many of the women who spoke to Amnesty International about the violence and abuse they experience on Twitter emphasized how important the platform is to them – both professionally and personally. Women rely on social media platforms like Twitter to advocate, communicate, mobilize, access information and gain visibility.
Pamela Merritt, a US blogger and reproductive rights activist, told us,
“I am a bit of a Twitter addict. I wake up, I check Twitter. I have two cups of coffee, and I check it again. Being online is important for my work. I want to know what’s going on. I want to know what people are saying and I want to weigh in, so I’m on Twitter through the day”.
Seyi Akiwowo, UK Politician and activist, talked about how Twitter makes her feel part of a movement and ‘puts words to her experiences’ of being a woman of colour. She told us,
“I feel torn. I love Twitter. The platform has connected me to people I will probably never see in my entire life and they are amazing, successful and inspirational people. There is now a massive movement of women of colour online. We express our beauty and confidence and talk about self-care and intersectional inequality…and so some of my life changing moments and development into womanhood has happened because of and via Twitter. I remember finding my first international job through Twitter. The possibilities and opportunities on that platform are endless.”
(…) Politicians themselves agree. Scottish Parliamentarian and Leader of the Opposition, Ruth Davidson, emphasized how important Twitter is as a tool to communicate and listen to her constituents and the wider public. She notes.
“Social media platforms are where a lot of political debate now happens, particularly as we see the divide in age range of voters. For a lot of younger voters, actually – they don’t want to be told things – they want to be able to discuss them.”
Click here to see the report.
Gender parity is fundamental to whether and how economies and societies thrive. Ensuring the full development and appropriate deployment of half of the world’s total talent pool has a vast bearing on the growth, competitiveness and future-readiness of economies and businesses worldwide. The Global Gender Gap Report benchmarks 149 countries on their progress towards gender parity across four thematic dimensions: Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, and Political Empowerment. In addition, this year’s edition studies skills gender gaps related to Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Click here to see the report.
El artículo presenta evidencia actualizada sobre la brecha de género en la implicación, el cono- cimiento y la participación política en España y en perspectiva comparada. Los resultados muestran que mientras que la brecha de género ha disminuido hasta casi desaparecer para el caso de la participa- ción política, sigue siendo importante respecto al conocimiento, la implicación con la política, y la creencia en la propia capacidad para entender cómo funciona la vida política. Se discuten los factores explicativos de estos hallazgos, incidiendo en la importancia de la socialización en roles de género y el predominio de la idea de que la política sigue siendo cosa de hombres.
Haga clic aquí para acceder al informe.