Women's Leadership
Like ex-New Zealand PM, Scotland’s first minister speaks of duty to admit how ‘brutality’ of political life got to her
he was, she stressed, “a human being”, not just a politician. And as one who had wrestled with accepting she simply no longer had the reserves needed to do the job justice, it was her “duty to say so”.
Just three weeks after insisting there was “plenty left in the tank”, Nicola Sturgeon’s shock announcement revealed the personal toll she said eight years as Scotland’s first minister had exacted on her and her loved ones.
Could she have battled on for longer? Yes. Could she have given it “every ounce of energy that it needs?” Then the answer was “different”, she said. And she had “a duty to say so now”.
As she spelled out her reasons in detail, the echoes of another, equally surprising resignation, were impossible to ignore. When Jacinda Ardern announced last month that “I no longer have enough left in the tank” to continue as New Zealand’s prime minister, there was equal shock. She too spoke of a duty to admit her doubts.
Click here to read the full article published by The Guardian on 15 February 2023.
AMMAN — Minister of Social Development Wafaa Bani Mustafa called for increasing women's participation in political decision-making in Jordan, saying such a change would guarantee sustainable development, democracy, and the achievement of national interests.
The minister, speaking at the third annual FemParl MENA conference on Tuesday, emphasized the importance of the event as a platform for participants to network with regional and international peers and share experiences and best practices in the field of women's political, economic, and social empowerment.
The Canadian Embassy in Jordan organized the conference, which brought together lawmakers and officials from Jordan, Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Tunisia, and the United Arab Emirates.
‘Significant strides’ in women’s empowerment
During the conference, Bani Mustafa addressed women's empowerment in Jordan, noting that the Kingdom has made “significant strides on multiple fronts” to ensure that women in Jordan are able to fully participate in public life.
Click here to read the full article published by Jordan News on 8 February 2023.
This book addresses the central question of how right-wing women navigate the cross-pressures between gender identity and political ideology.
The hope has always been that more women in politics would lead to greater inclusion of women’s voices and interests in decision-making and policy. Yet this is not always the case; some prominent conservative women such as Margaret Thatcher have rejected the feminist label while others such as Angela Merkel have reluctantly accepted it. Republican women in the U.S. Congress have embraced social and economic policies contrary to what many consider to be women’s issues while EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen is a staunch supporter of feminist ideas. Other conservative women, such as Marine LePen in France strategically use feminist ideas to justify their conservative stances on immigration. This brings up an interesting yet understudied question: under what circumstances do conservative women become feminist allies and when do they toe the party line? It is this tension between women’s political representation and conservatism that this edited volume explores.
Click here to access the book.
VVEngage is a Vital Voices signature fellowship supporting outstanding women political leaders making and influencing policy across the globe. Through this fully-funded fellowship, we aim to increase the capacity, decision-making power and effectiveness of women leaders in politics and government, shifting culture around women’s public leadership and moving towards equality in public representation globally. We also aim to work towards a more inclusive and equitable world by advancing the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through policy.
Through this fellowship, Vital Voices advances women’s political leadership and the SDGs by conducting online and in-person* trainings with experts such as women leaders from the Vital Voices Global Network and professors from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. The fellowship also connects participants to a global network of peers and mentors, such as current and former female heads of state with the Council of Women World Leaders, with whom they can brainstorm and share challenges and best practices.
Click here to learn more and to access application details.
Nicola Sturgeon has announced she will stand down after eight years as First Minister, telling a press conference “the time is now”.
In a shock announcement on Wednesday, the SNP leader said she was not reacting to “short-term pressures” after a series of political setbacks.
The longest-serving – and first female – First Minister told a hastily arranged press conference she will remain in office while the SNP selects her successor.
“In my head and in my heart I know that time is now. That it’s right for me, for my party and my country,” she said.
Ms Sturgeon, who guided the nation through the coronavirus pandemic and led the SNP to repeated election victories at UK, Scottish and local level, acknowledged the “physical and mental impact” of the role.
Click here to read the full article published by The Independent on 15 February 2023.
Kelly Dittmar, Director of Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University, discusses her views on women's position and role in politics, following an abrupt resignation from now former New Zealand Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern. She speaks with Kathleen Hays and Haidi Stroud-Watts on 'Daybreak Asia'.
Source: Bloomberg
The International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) includes gender equality and women’s empowerment programming as a key facet of its democracy-building work in countries transitioning from violent conflict to more stable political processes. IFES has programs on the ground in flashpoint countries such as Libya, Burkina Faso, and Syria, as well as countries striving to end the cycle of conflict such as Côte d’Ivoire and Myanmar. These countries represent a critical cohort of transitional states, which need tailored conflict and political transition interventions well in advance of credible, transparent and inclusive elections. Research has shown that gender equality is a bulwark for democracy – ensuring the resilience of democratic institutions that represent the needs of all their constituencies –and IFES works with partners to ensure women and men from all segments of society are part of the political and electoral process.
Work in conflict and unstable democratic settings will continue for the foreseeable future and a commitment to inclusive democracy will be challenged by these settings in unique ways. The legal framework for elections and political processes are often shaped, drafted, or reformed during peace processes and political transitions. IFES is committed to programming that integrates gender equality and women’s empowerment into all political and electoral technical assistance, including evolving and complex transitional contexts. This is critical for two reasons:
Excluding women from the nascent stages of conflict resolution is a missed opportunity to have all voices influence the blueprint for peace and democracy in their countries, and
Excluding women from political transition processes risks replicating gender inequality in new structures and perpetuating it in societal attitudes.
This briefing paper by IFES Senior Gender Specialist Jessica Huber outlines IFES’ gender-specific programming, which examines and responds to points along the continuum of crisis, political transition and stable democracy.
Click here to access the briefing paper.
With many positions left to fill, President-elect Trump has already tapped several women for important positions in his administration. They include: Governor Nikki Haley as U.N. ambassador and charter school advocate Betsy DeVos as secretary of education (The Washington Post); former labor secretary Elaine Chao as secretary of transportation (The New York Times); Fox News commentator K.T. McFarland as deputy national security advisor (The New York Times); and health care consultant Seema Verma to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (NPR).
Seven women currently serve in the Obama administration in cabinet or cabinet-level positions. Forty-eight women have held a total of 54 cabinet or cabinet-level appointments in the history of the United States. Of the 48, 30 had cabinet posts, including two who headed two different departments. Three more women held both a cabinet post and a position defined as cabinet-level, and one held two cabinet-level posts. Thirty-one of these women were appointed by Democratic presidents and 17 by Republicans. Ten presidents (four Democrats and six Republicans) have appointed women to their cabinets.
Want to know how many women past presidents have appointed? See CAWP's fact sheet about women in presidential cabinets.
This mapping is made for the benefit of researchers who want to learn about Gender Studies in the Nordic countries Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden on the theme of women/gender in public life. Most of the research literature - especially from the first decades of Nordic Women’s Studies/Gender Studies - was published in the native languages, and is therefore not included in this mapping. But with the development of Gender Studies, an increasing number of publications are available in English. Click here to access the full list.
A short piece of research was carried out in Zimbabwe in August 2015, as part of a larger research programme undertaken by Womankind Worldwide to look into the different spaces (explained further in section 7) that had been created for women to promote their political participation at community level in four countries. In Zimbabwe this was the Ward Level, and the women who came represented all of the villages within each Ward. The purpose was to explore how women use these spaces to bring about positive change in their lives, especially the opportunities provided by these spaces to raise issues with women leaders and other decision makers. The research was funded as part of the Funding Leadership and Opportunities for Women (FLOW) programme, by the Dutch Government, which was designed to improve women’s political participation in four countries through training and education, skills-building and working together in order to influence local development plans, get into leadership positions in the community, and to enable the women at the local level to promote their interests and hold decision makers to account. It was also designed to strengthen the accountability from national policy structures to local-level structures and from local-level political structures and personnel to individual communities. The projects had different priorities and different approaches in each country context, though there were many overlaps in implementation.
With a special attention to gender, this four-year regional development project is designed to strengthen the development responses to mitigate the growth of violent extremism in Africa.
This focus is motivated by the ever-increasing presence of violent extremist groups on African soil. Violent extremism is having a devastating impact on the lives and livelihoods of populations across the continent - particularly the most vulnerable, and including youth, women and children.
The Independent Commission on Multilateralism (ICM) is a project of the International Peace Institute (IPI). It asks: How can the UN-based multilateral system be made more “fit for purpose”? In answering that question, the ICM has analyzed fifteen topics. These include armed conflict, humanitarian engagements, sustainable development, and global public health, among others (see complete list in Annex 2). The goal of the ICM is to make specific recommendations on how the UN and its member states can improve responses to current challenges and opportunities. The ICM undertook simultaneous tracks of research and consultation for each issue area on its agenda. The Commission initially launched in New York in September 2014, followed by subsequent launches in Vienna, Geneva, and Ottawa. In February 2015, the ICM briefed delegates from the five UN Regional Groups in New York. The Commission also convened meetings with Ambassadorial and Ministerial Boards in New York, Vienna, and Geneva. Global outreach included briefings to officials in Addis Ababa, Berlin, Brasilia, Copenhagen, New Delhi, London, Madrid, Montevideo, and Rome. Civil society and private sector outreach and engagement also constituted an important component of the ICM’s consultative process, including a briefing specifically for civil society in June 2015. The research process began with a short “issue paper” highlighting core debates and questions on each of the fifteen topics. Each issue paper was discussed at a retreat bringing together thirty to thirty-five member state representatives, UN officials, experts, academics, and representatives from civil society and the private sector. Based on the inputs gathered at the retreats, each issue paper was then revised and expanded into a “discussion paper.” Each of these was uploaded to the ICM website for comment and feedback, revised accordingly, and presented at a public consultation. The public consultations were webcast live on the ICM’s website to allow a broader audience to take part in the discussions. This paper is one of the fifteen final “policy papers” that emerged from this consultative process. An overview of participation in consultations on this specific issue area is included in Annex 3. The recommendations from all the policy papers are summarized in the ICM’s September 2016 report “Pulling Together: The Multilateral System and Its Future.” The ICM thanks the three sponsoring governments for their financial support for its operations: Canada, Norway, and the United Arab Emirates. Without their support, the ICM would not have been possible.