Women's Leadership
Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly says it's time for a woman to lead the United Nations, a call echoed by 14 other female foreign ministers Friday.
"Within the UN system, it is time for the next secretary-general to be a woman," she told reporters in Toronto.
"The UN has been existing for more than 75 years, so it is more than time."
States will nominate the UN's tenth secretary-general for a term starting in 2027. Women have only served in the role of deputy secretary-general, including Canadian diplomat Louise Fréchette.
The ministers also say there should be gender parity in the role of the president of the UN General Assembly — out of 72 terms only four women have held the position.
Joly co-hosted women foreign ministers in Toronto alongside her Jamaican counterpart Kamina Johnson Smith, following a similar gathering in 2018. The two-day meeting included ministers from Ghana, Indonesia, Nepal and Romania. It came ahead of high-level visits at the UN General Assembly next week in New York City.
Read here the full article published by CTV News on 20 September 2024.
Image credits: CTV News
What you need to know:
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Women politicians face steep costs, both financial and personal, as they navigate a landscape fraught with cultural barriers, discrimination, and systemic challenges.
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Despite progress made since the 2010 Constitution, women's representation in Kenyan politics remains low.
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Resilient leaders like Eddah Njeri, Naisula Lesuuda, and Myllene Bosibori encountered multifaceted obstacles, from exorbitant campaign expenses to sexual harassment and societal prejudices.
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While initiatives to support them show promise, the road to equal representation remains long, calling for comprehensive reforms and a shift in cultural attitudes.
The sun had barely risen over Embu town when Eddah Njeri unlocked the door to one of her M-Pesa shops. As she arranged the day's float, her mind wasn't on mobile money transactions. Instead, it raced with campaign strategies, voter outreach plans, and the daunting financial hurdles that lay ahead. The successful businesswoman, had recently made the bold decision to run for the Kirimiri Ward seat in Manyatta Constituency.
Being a greenhorn in politics, she says, nothing had prepared her for the challenges to expect on the campaign trail and how she would overcome them.
As she embarked on her campaign journey, she would soon face a gauntlet of challenges that would test her resolve, drain her resources, and force her to confront deeply entrenched societal biases.
Read here the full article published by The Nation Africa on 20 September 2024.
Image credits: The Nation Africa
At her rallies and on the campaign trail ahead of Mexico’s presidential election in June, President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum made one phrase in particular her mantra: “It’s women’s time.” She repeated it in a speech at Mexico City’s Metropolitan Theater last month to mark the official certification of her election victory, while also highlighting the fact that, after 200 years of independence and 65 presidentes, Mexico will finally have its first presidenta—with the “a” in Spanish denoting the feminine.
Now that preparations are underway for Sheinbaum’s Oct. 1 inauguration, the historic moment gives Mexico an opening to champion women’s rights and leadership, not just at home, but globally—and at a crucial time. In what has been called the Year of the Election, with countries home to half the world’s population going to the polls in 2024, the number of women serving as heads of state is on the decline, from a peak of 38 out of 195 countries in 2023 to 25 as of last month. Around the world, women in politics are more likely to face violence and harassment than their male counterparts, giving them cause to think twice about running for office or reelection. As it is, though women count for roughly half the global population, they only hold one in four federal legislative seats.
Read here the full article published by World Politic Review on 18 September 2024.
Image credits: World Politic Review
UN Women’s project Women Make Change* underscores the importance of increasing women’s participation and leadership in politics at all levels. Despite global advancements, women continue to be underrepresented in politics, particularly at the subnational level. In Papua New Guinea (PNG), women encounter significant obstacles, including cultural norms, limited resources, and discrimination. Presently, only three out of 118 members of national parliament are women, and just 2 per cent of subnational ward members.
UN Women is dedicated to advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment in PNG. Recently, UN Women conducted the initiative Political Leadership and Campaign Strategies Training for women leaders across the country’s four regions. This initiative aims to enhance the capacity of women leaders at the subnational level who are planning to contest the upcoming election, enabling them to effectively participate in political processes and elections, some for the first time. The trainings were held simultaneously in Lae for the Momase region, Hagen for the Highlands region, and Port Moresby for the Niugini and Southern regions. A total of 121 women attended. Attendants were equipped with knowledge of political systems, campaign strategies, messaging, and communication strategies. The training also fostered networking and collaboration among participants.
“As the sitting ward member of Ward 8 in Kimbe Urban Local Level Government in West New Britain Province, I have gained invaluable skills and knowledge from this training,” said Paula Golpak, one of the participants of the Niugini Islands region training. “It has equipped us with concrete strategies and a deeper understanding of effective governance, further motivating us to plan and prepare thoroughly for the upcoming election and prioritize the needs of the most vulnerable."
Read here the full article published by UN Women Asia & The Pacific on 18 September 2024.
"Environmental work is meaningless and income-less. Why don't you go home and help your mother with housework?" This is what I frequently heard when I firstly began volunteering with the Qinghai Snowland Great Rivers Environmental Protection Association (SGR Association). Many couldn't understand why I dedicated my time to protecting our water sources, attending various trainings, and creating eco-friendly products to promote sustainable living. But I didn’t let their doubts stop me. The urgency of climate action is too significant to ignore.
I live in Qinghai Province, on the Tibetan Plateau in China. My journey into environmental work began in 2018 when I volunteered to start writing an eco-diary. I record daily observations of the local wildlife, and plants, changing weather patterns, and fluctuations in nearby water sources. Through this practice, I became deeply aware of how climate change was affecting my community.
Starting last year, our local water sources began to dry up, and the grassland in our summer pastures became increasingly scarce. The rising temperatures and decreased rainfall left our livestock with insufficient water and food. As a result, villagers were forced to travel further to get water and purchase additional grass to feed their cows, increasing family expenses. Moreover, the reduced yield of caterpillar fungus—used in traditional Chinese and Tibetan medicine—led to significant financial losses for many in the community.
Read here the full article published by UN Women Asia & The Pacific on 18 September 2024.
Japan could soon have its first female prime minister.
The country's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) will later this month choose a new leader who will be virtually guaranteed the top job.
In the running are two formidable women: Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa and Economics Minister Sanae Takaichi.
Having either become prime minister would seem to be a dramatic leap forward for a country which lags behind most of the world in measures of political gender equality.
However, observers say having Ms Takaichi smash the political glass ceiling would not necessarily be good for progressive issues in Japan more generally.
Who are the women running for the leadership?
Ms Takaichi has been a member of Japan's diet, or parliament, since 1993 and ran unsuccessfully for the leadership of the LDP in 2021.
A protege of former prime minister Shinzo Abe, she has labelled her big spending economic stimulus policies "Sanaenomics" following his famous "Abenomics".
She's also known as a hardline conservative on social issues and often cites Margaret Thatcher, the UK's conservative "Iron Lady" prime minister from the 1980s, as an inspiration.
Read here the full article published by the ABC News on 13 September 2024.
Image credits: ABC News
Young women are entering political institutions at high rates; however, this does not translate into the number of women candidates, elected officials, or in senior leadership within political institutions. More than 80% of young women with a median age of 25 are leaving politics due to experiencing sexual violence.
Young Women's Leadership Network is taking a survivor-centred, trauma-informed approach to addressing sexual violence in politics. Young women are at the forefront of various political and social justice campaigns, and this exposes them to a variety of acts of gender-based sexual violence that often goes unnoticed on the campaign trail. Their resources not only bring attention to this prevalent issue, but provide tools and information on creating harassment-free spaces that encourage young women's civic engagement.
Click here to see the report.
By Juliana Menasce Horowitz, Ruth Igielnik and Kim Parker,
Two years after Hillary Clinton became the first woman to win the presidential nomination of a major U.S. political party, and with a record number of women running for Congress in 2018, a majority of Americans say they would like to see more women in top leadership positions – not only in politics, but also in the corporate world – according to a new Pew Research Center survey. But most say men still have an easier path to the top and that women have to do more to prove their worth. And the public is skeptical that the country will ever achieve gender parity in politics or in business.
Republicans and Democrats have widely different views about where things stand today and what factors are holding women back. Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents are more than twice as likely as Republicans and those who lean Republican to say there are too few women in high political offices (79% vs. 33%). And while 64% of Democrats say gender discrimination is a major reason why women are underrepresented in these positions, only 30% of Republicans agree.
Click here to see the report.
The Agate Rights Defense Center for Women with Disabilities, with the support of the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) and the United States Agency for International Development, has published new research on the barriers to and opportunities for political participation of women with disabilities in Armenia. The Political Participation of Armenian Women with Disabilities: Barriers and Recommendations provides insights into the challenges that hinder participation of Armenian women with disabilities and identifies the means to address them. To conduct the research, Agate utilized IFES’ Intersectionality Assessment Framework, organizing participatory focus group discussions with men and women with disabilities and their peers from urban and rural areas of Armenia.
Armenian women with disabilities identified various attitudinal, communication, environmental and institutional barriers to participation in formal political spaces and in the recent demonstrations that led to a change of political leadership. For example, when asked if they thought their right to vote was ensured by the state, 58 percent of women with disabilities in the focus groups answered “strongly disagree” or “rather disagree”, compared to 24 percent of other respondents, revealing a lack of implementation of the law. Women with hearing disabilities noted that they did not participate in political campaigns because they did not have access to information about candidates and the process.
The report found that women with disabilities are not participating in formal political spaces equally with their peers. The attitude of the public, Armenian patriarchal society and family indifference also increase the likelihood of women with disabilities becoming marginalized from political processes. Even so, it revealed that building confidence in women with disabilities and raising awareness of rights would provide a critical foundation to overcoming their inner fears and building their capacity to participate as voters, candidates, observers, and other leaders in political life. Finally, when women with disabilities have the opportunity to detect and assess discrimination, government stakeholders should involve them in policymaking and legislation that concerns them.
Click here to see the report.
Maternal mortality, defined as the death of women within 42 days of childbirth, remains a looming global health problem well into the 21st century. It is estimated to account for 830 deaths per day, and more than 216 deaths per 100,000 live births globally (Ceschia and Horton, 2016). Maternal mortality is only the tip of an iceberg, the mass of which is maternal morbidity. In sub-Saharan Africa, the maternal mortality ratio (MMR) exceeds the rate in developed countries a century ago (Alkema et al., 2016; Loudon, 1992).1 Although maternal mortality has declined rapidly in the last two decades, it was a late start, and there was massive variation in rates of decline.2 We leverage this variation to investigate the hypothesis that political will plays a significant role, and that women have greater political will for maternal mortality reduction. Since 1990, not only has MMR fallen by 44%, but the share of women in parliament has risen from under 10% to more than 20% (Figure 1a). We study whether these trends are causally related.
Click here to read the full Academic paper published by Navarra Center for International Development on 1 May 2018.
List as of 7 June 2018.
Spain joins a handful of countries where women hold at least half of ministerial portfolios.
1. Spain
The new government of Spain includes 11 women ministers and five men in addition to Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez. After the announcement of the cabinet on 6 June 2018, Sanchez said it is the first time since Spain returned to a democratic system in the 1970s that there are more women minsters than men. Key ministries such as those of justice, economy, defense and education went to women. See more here.
2. France
Fulfilling a campaign promise, President Emmanuel Macron named a gender-balanced cabinet in May 2017 with 11 of 22 posts taken by women. Women took on the portfolios of defense, justice and sports, among others – areas usually dominated by men. See more here.
3. Sweden
Sweden has the world’s first self-proclaimed feminist government and is the only other country, besides Spain, that has a majority of female ministers with 12 women and 11 men. See more here.
4. Canada
Qualifying it as a “cabinet that looks like Canada,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau formed in November 2015 a young and ethnically diverse cabinet with 15 women and 15 men who are mostly aged under 50. See more here.
The global average for women holding ministerial positions is 18.3% (as of January 2017). See UN Women and the Inter-parliamentary Union’s 2017 Map on Women in Politics for more information.
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The rapid expansion of electoral gender quotas in the past few decades has been met with considerable scholarly and public attention. Despite this, there has been little empirical work examining the global legislative consequences of gender quotas over time. Developing a unique time-series cross-sectional data set from 139 states during the peak period of quota adoption and implementation (1995–2012), we test whether and how quotas are associated with subsequent changes in government spending priorities. We find that substantial quota shocks—those associated with a large increase in women’s parliamentary representation—are followed by increased government expenditures toward public health. Further, we find that increases in health spending are offset by relative decreases in military spending and other spending categories. Our findings provide strong evidence that quota policies influence government priorities in historically feminized policy areas but principally when they are complied with and have substantial numerical consequences.
Click here to see the report.