Women's Leadership
MEXICO CITY — Mexico inaugurated its first female president on Tuesday, reaching the milestone before its northern neighbor. Even if the United States elects Kamala Harris as president in November, it will lag well behind this traditionally macho country on broader gender parity.
The new president, Claudia Sheinbaum, will govern with a cabinet that is half female and a Congress evenly divided between men and women. Women head the Supreme Court and central bank and run top federal ministries.
Read here the full article posted by The Washington Post on 01 October 2024.
Image by The Washington Post
First of a series
MASS and social media have recently been inundated by a slew of news, "tsismis" and fake news involving Filipino women of diverse status, political color, different persuasions and atypical motivations. But these women have several distinctive traits in common. The first cluster is strong-willed and wields political influence either by fiat as occupying a singularly powerful elective post, as in Vice President Sara Duterte, or the first lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, unelected, nonetheless in a position of vast influence and potential for manipulation by virtue of being married to a perceived weak spouse. Some of these women maneuver around the periphery of power and are themselves powerful but refuse to brandish the same, like Sen. Imee Marcos, in whom many among those who lived and survived the martial law regime of the dictator see the traits of the father. For bad or good, those nostalgic for the old regime regret the Filipino voter's choice of the wrong Marcos. And then there are women who have been unseated from power through the whims of dysfunctional government institutions like the fugitive and suspected Chinese sleeper agent Mayor Alice Guo of Bamban, Tarlac.
The other category is women who, by their notoriety and their strategic personal relations, took advantage of their 15 minutes of fame, attempting to tear to shreds the reputations of the powerful and the mighty as in the disgruntled paramour revealing juicy tidbits about her former Davao politico-businessman lover who has long been removed from power and tale-telling distasteful exposés about the Malacañang "polvoron"-snorting crowd. And these anecdotes are given credence through female internet personalities who rule social media, providing pulpits through their YouTube video blogs. These "Marites" with thousands of followers lap up any scraps of gossip thrown their way, propelling the same to go viral. This is gossip in the fringes providing entertainment to the inane. These women of the second cluster are not the subjects of this column ("The spy and the paramour," The Manila Times, Aug. 14, 2024).
Read here the full article published by The Manila Times on 25 September 2024.
Image credits: The Manila Times
Launched during the 79th session of UN General Assembly, the UN Women Leaders Network unites a global intergenerational and intersectional group of women leaders advocating for gender-equal participation in leadership and decision-making.
The UN Women Leaders Network was launched this week on the sidelines of the 79th UN General Assembly. It is the first permanent network of its kind, composed of intergenerational and intersectional women leaders, and its members represent the change needed in the traditional image of leadership today.
The network includes both emerging and more established leaders across ages, regions, and professions. The network will work together to promote the increase and advancement of women in leadership and decision-making spaces worldwide, and functions as a platform to a diverse group of women leaders to discuss and exchange ideas, solutions and experiences as leaders, community-builders and decision-makers.
Read here the full article published by UN Women on 27 September 2024.
When Japan’s ruling political party, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), votes on Friday for its next leader, it will effectively be choosing the country’s next Prime Minister.
A slew of scandals have plagued the tenure of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who announced in August he would step down after assuming power in 2021. From his son throwing a party at an official residence to alleged fundraising misconduct by party members, the scandals in addition to underwhelming economic reform have dented the LDP’s popularity and forced a reset.
A record nine lawmakers are standing in the intra-party election, competing for majority support among the party’s 368 members of parliament and 368 representatives of its more than a million dues-paying rank-and-file members. Most candidates, according to AP, have vowed to call for a general election, which isn’t due until October 2025, shortly after being elevated within the party, to try to capitalize on their fresh image.
Read here the full article published by the Time Magazine on 26 September 2024.
Image credits: Time Magazine
On March 14, 2024, rural women from communities in the Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria expressed concerns over women’s low inclusion in politics. The women lamented neglect and financial constraints as problems in assessing political and leadership positions. The outcome of the 2023 general elections is evidence of low women’s political leadership representation. The low participation of women in political leadership results in less development for the nation since not all capable human resources are utilised.
To build women’s capacity for greater inclusion in leadership, the Nigerian government should foster avenues for knowledge acquisition and networking. The mass media should also commit to projecting the effects of disadvantageous cultural beliefs. Sharing content that influences and shapes cultural beliefs would boost inclusivity. The Nigerian government should likewise invest in initiatives that fund and encourage women’s political dreams and aspirations.
A significant number of Nigerian women still face a lot of social and financial challenges despite having fundamental political rights. These social challenges are exemplified by disadvantageous cultural beliefs. Cultural beliefs such as early girl-child marriage disrupt girls’ education, affecting their political aspirations and dreams. A report by Save the Children International reveals that Nigeria homes 23 million girl-child brides which inadvertently results in the low representation of women. Addressing disadvantageous cultural beliefs such as this requires the full leverage of the media.
Read here the full article published by The Guardian Nigeria on 25 September 2024.
Image credits: The Guardian Nigeria
As global instability mounts, the stakes are high for the 79th United Nations General Assembly high-level debate, which begins Tuesday in New York City.
While tensions in Europe and the Middle East continue to dominate the diplomatic agenda and shake up the global order, all eyes will be on the Big Apple for leaders to set the diplomatic agenda for the coming year. This year, once again, the U.N. General Assembly high-level debate will be dominated by men speaking at the rostrum.
A provisional list of speakers published earlier in September - which is likely to change until the very last moment - revealed that less than 10 of the leaders set to speak at the high-level week are women, showing the hill remains steep for women in politics, especially in the top job. There were only 27 countries where 28 women served as Heads of State and/or Government globally as of June, and gender equality in the highest positions of power will not be reached for another 130 years, according to UN Women.
While, so far, only around ten women prime ministers or presidents are set to travel to New York for the event, there is a bright side: the first woman to speak comes earlier than usual.
Read here the full article published by Forbes on 23 September 2024.
Image credits: Forbes
This report reflects discussions held during the May 2018 Expert Group Meeting hosted by UN Women on women’s meaningful participation in negotiating peace and the implementation of peace agreements. The meeting included some 50 experts from a diverse range of countries and contexts, including Bosnia, Colombia, Kenya, Kosovo (under UNSCR 1244), Georgia, Mozambique, Myanmar, Philippines, South Sudan, Syria, and Yemen.
The report highlights how far the international community and Member States have come in advancing women’s meaningful participation in conflict resolution since the adoption of UN Security Council resolution 1325 (2000). The report highlights the aims and outcomes of the convening, which included:
- the exchange of current research and good practice on women’s representation and “meaningful” participation in peace processes;
- the exploration of the concept of “meaningful participation”—what it includes and how the United Nations, Member States, civil society, and other relevant actors can best effectively advocate for it and consistently operationalize it;
- discussion of the barriers to women’s meaningful participation; and
- assessment of the trends and challenges in gender-responsive provisions of peace agreements and their implementation.
The report includes a menu of actions for relevant actors and recommendations that reflect on nearly 20 years of implementation of the women, peace, and security agenda.
Click here to see the report.
Considering that equal access of men and women to power is a necessary precondition for democracies to flourish, the African women’s decade 2010-2020: Women’s participation in decision-making & leadership 2017- 2018 report focuses on women’s role in decision-making and leadership in key positions and at all levels. Nowadays, women leaders have an enormous potential to influence decision-making, by promoting fairer policies and practices in governments, parliaments, the judiciary and the private sector. Even though women play a crucial role in all the above fields, previous reports have mainly focused on women in governments and parliaments. In other words, this report goes beyond limitations and seeks a holistic approach with regard to women’s participation in all spheres of decision-making such as women MPs, women ministers, women in the judiciary, women in the private sector.
Make Every Woman Count (MEWC) has been compiling a yearly report, tracking the progress of the African Women’s Decade (AWD) since 2011. This is achieved by presenting each country on the continent with a background and a presentation of progress and developments made within different areas during each year of the African Women’s Decade 2010-2020.
Click here to see the report.
In October 2018, the highest number of gender parity cabinets was achieved. Six out of the current ten gender-balanced cabinets were formed in 2018.
In January 2014, UN Women and the Inter-parliamentary Union (IPU) reported only three countries with at least 50 percent of women ministers (Nicaragua, Sweden, and Finland). This figure went up to five countries in 2015 (Finland, Cabo Verde, Sweden, France, and Lichtenstein) and to six countries in 2017 (Bulgaria, France, Nicaragua, Sweden, Canada, and Slovenia). The recent appointment of gender-balanced cabinets in Ethiopia and Rwanda brings the list of countries with at least 50 percent of female ministers to ten.
1. Canada
In November 2015, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau gave Canada an unprecedented young, ethnically diverse, and gender-balanced government team. In his July 2018 cabinet reshuffle, gender parity stayed intact with a total of 17 women and 17 men ministers.
2. Colombia
In August 2018, President Iván Duque of Colombia announced his new cabinet, which for the first time in the country’s history included as many women as men. Women head the ministries for justice, interior, labor, and mining and energy among others.
3. Costa Rica
In April 2018, President Carlos Alvarado of Costa Rica presented his cabinet, which made national history with the inclusion of 14 women and 11 men and the appointment of Epsy Campbell as the first woman to lead the country's foreign relations.
4. Ethiopia
In October 2018, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed of Ethiopia appointed a cabinet marked by gender parity with ten women and ten men.
5. France
In May 2017, President Emmanuel Macron of France formed a gender-balanced government with 11 of 22 ministries led by women. In October 2018, he announced a new 34-strong cabinet with 17 women.
6. Nicaragua
In January 2017, President Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua formed a cabinet with nine women and eight men. Many women ministers lead traditionally men-dominated portfolios such as defense, environment and energy and mines.*
7. Rwanda
In October 2018, President Paul Kagame of Rwanda unveiled a new gender-balanced cabinet with 13 women ministers out of a total of 26.
8. Seychelles
In April 2018, President Danny Faure of Seychelles announced a new cabinet comprised of five women and five men ministers in addition to the President and the Vice president.
9. Spain
In June 2018, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez of Spain announced a new cabinet with 11 women ministers and five men. Key ministries such as justice, economy, defense and education are headed by women.
10. Sweden
Sweden has the world’s first self-proclaimed feminist government. In 2014, Stefan Löfven appointed a cabinet including 12 women and ten men ministers.
The global average for women holding ministerial positions is 18.3% (as of January 2017). See UN Women and IPU’s 2017 Map on Women in Politics for more information.
Did we miss something? Please let us know at connect@iknowpolitics.org.
* Source: Permanent Mission of Nicaragua to the United Nation in New York, 23 October 2018
This article conceptualizes an innovative understanding and measurement of women’s political leadership, theoretically justifies its application, and analyzes contemporary variation in its patterns through comparative case studies. In recent years, scholars of comparative government have studied with great interest the election of female prime ministers and presidents (e.g., Derichs and Thompson 2013; Jalalzai 2013) and cross-national variation in female members of parliaments (MPs) and cabinets (e.g., Bauer and Tremblay 2011; Paxton and Hughes 2017; Suraj, Scherpereel, and Adams 2014). Yet, when it comes to regions beyond Europe and the Americas, comparative empirical analysis of women’s political leadership (WPL) across national level governments has been largely neglected. Addressing this gap in the literature, University of Cambridge offers a new index that they believe has multiple advantages over the most commonly applied proxies for WPL.
Click here to see the academic article.
In the present report, the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences analyses the issue of violence against women in politics, including in parliament and elections, and outlines her conclusion and recommendations on preventing and combating such manifestations of gender-based violence.
It is submitted by the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, Dubravka Šimonović, pursuant to General Assembly resolution 71/170. In section II, she provides an overview of her mandate’s initiative to develop institutional links and thematic cooperation between independent global and regional mechanisms on violence and discrimination against women. The activities carried out by the Special Rapporteur during the reporting period are included in her thematic report to the Human Rights Council (A/HRC/38/47). In section III, she analyses violence against women in politics and the main challenges to addressing it. In section IV, she outlines her conclusion and recommendations on preventing and combating violence against women in politics
Click here to see the report.
UN Women, the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights (OHCHR), and the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences (Special Rapporteur), in collaboration with the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI), co-organized an Expert Group Meeting (EGM) on violence against women in politics (VAWP) on 8–9 March 2018 in New York. More than 40 experts attended the meeting, including Members of Parliament and local government, academics, gender equality advocates, and representatives of regional human and women’s rights monitoring mechanisms, electoral management bodies, UN agencies, and civil society organizations.
Convened at a time when gender-based violence against women (GBVAW) was in the global spotlight, the EGM provided the space for a diverse, specialized and influential group of experts to identify institutional, advocacy, and legal means to enable women to fully realize their political rights, and end impunity for those who seek to stifle or suppress them.
This report provides a summary of the EGM discussions. It contains key points and priority actions to inform partners’ interventions, particularly the Special Rapporteur’s thematic report on VAWP to the 73rd regular session of the UN General Assembly.
Click here to see the report.