Women's Leadership
The struggle of Black women to be recognized, respected, and welcomed as leaders is an international one. Generally, Black women have been absent and invisible from leadership positions in many countries—including the author’s home country of Nigeria, where a historical dearth of women in political or official positions remains very much the case today, despite purported efforts by the Nigerian government to increase women’s participation in politics.
According to Nigeria’s National Bureau of Statistics, the national average of women’s political participation in Nigeria has remained at 6.7 percent in elective and appointive positions—far below the global average of 22.5 percent. Many of the hurdles Black women face in Nigeria resemble those faced by Black women in the United States, including discrimination, stereotyping, and a lack of support.
But Nigerian women aspiring to leadership face other hurdles more specific to Nigerian culture. Nigeria remains a patriarchal society in which men are considered the “natural” decision-makers in every sector. Women are generally looked upon as mere housewives and homemakers, unfit to lead in any place where men dominate. In Igboland, it is considered an abomination for a woman to even look upon kola nut—a crucial part of many ceremonies, gatherings, and welcomings—or bless it in any event. Instead, it is the duty of the men to pass the kola nuts and bless them.
Women who do attain leadership positions are often antagonized by men, who do not want to take instructions from a woman. It is easy to villainize a Black woman on the basis of her gender, especially if she is challenging the status quo in her career path.
Read here the full article published by the Nonprofit Quarterly on 30 April 2024.
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Pursuing gender equality remains a significant challenge in the 21st century. Despite notable advancements in fields such as education, healthcare, and economic engagement, there remains a persistent disparity in the representation of women in leadership positions across various industries. This disparity not only hinders the optimal utilisation of the labour force but also restricts societal progress. Existing evaluation criteria often prove inadequate as they fail to account for the intricacies of women's leadership trajectories, particularly in the Global South nations. To bridge this divide, a comprehensive quantitative approach that delves into the nuances of female leadership and empowerment is imperative.
Reimagining gender indices
Several well-established indices have been crucial in assessing advancements in gender equality. The Global Gender Gap Index by the World Economic Forum and the Gender Inequality Index by the UNDP offer essential insights into various areas, including economic participation and political representation. Initiatives like the Women's Empowerment Principles by UN Women and the Women, Peace, and Security Index by Georgetown Institute shed light on specific facets of women's rights and inclusion. However, these measures often prioritise a limited number of indicators, primarily concentrating on outcome-driven data.
Read here the full article published by the Observer Research Foundation on 30 April 2024.
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Balancing family obligations and public service is a persistent challenge for working mothers in America’s political system, family advocates told the 2024 National Press Foundation Women in Politics Fellowship. They say the system has largely failed to account for childcare and other related responsibilities.
Liuba Grechen Shirley, founder of the Vote Mama Foundation, and Virginia state Sen. Jennifer Carroll Foy said additional support is needed, especially for working mothers. The support is required to gain equal access to elective office and other forms of public service.
“So, we are trying to change the structural barriers, trying to change the way that people run, trying to change the way that people serve,” said Grechen Shirley. Her group has been a leading advocate for mothers’ full participation in the nation’s political system. “There is now a very high attrition rate for moms serving in state legislatures… That needs to change.”
Read here the full article published by the National Press Foundation on 29 April 2024.
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In a webinar hosted by Grassroots for Europe, leading female activists and politicians discussed the critical role of women in defending democracy against Europe’s rising tide of autocracy, setting the stage for a transformative 2024 election season.
Grassroots for Europe, founded in 2018, promotes understanding and engagement with European issues at the local level. This webinar marks the 45th in its series of round table events, bringing together organisations and experts.
A timely and crucial dialogue
In an era where political landscapes are rapidly shifting, with various elections coming up around the world, the ‘Grassroots for Europe Round Table Webinar: Women’s Role in Democracy and Peace’ brought together a panel to tackle some of the issues facing Europe today. Held online via Zoom on 16 April, this pivotal discussion drew participants from across the continent.
Colin Gordon, vice chair of Grassroots for Europe, said: “This is the first time we’ve had an event specifically about women’s voice, agency and rights in campaigning and in European political activity”, though, in fact, as he also mentioned, “the majority of the founders of the initial round table were women activists from the grassroots”.
Read here the full article published by Yorkshire Bylines on 28 April 2024.
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Colorado has consistently ranked highly for the number of women holding elected office for the last few decades. Colorado currently ranks second in the nation for the number of women elected to the state legislature. But this number only tells a fraction of the story.
Despite this ranking, political experts and female lawmakers around the state say there is still a lot of work left to be done to level the playing-field for women at the State Capitol.
According to the director of research at the Center for American Women and Politics, Kelly Dittmar, despite the robust recruitment of women for public office in Colorado, what Colorado’s national ranking doesn’t indicate is who these women are and the political power they hold.
“When we're thinking about women's political power and influence, it's important to look across different levels and types of office because we make assumptions that a state that's doing well at one level is doing well at all levels, and often that's not the case,” said Dittmar.
And this rings true for Colorado. Despite having a high number of women represented in the state legislature, Colorado has never had a female U.S. Senator, a female governor, or even a female mayor of Denver — the most powerful leadership positions in the state.
On top of that, women of color — particularly Latina, Asian, and Indigenous women — are significantly underrepresented in the Colorado state legislature.
According to Dittmar, lack of access to resources, gatekeeping, toxicity, and institutional racism and sexism are among the “unique dynamics” in Colorado that explain why women are either dissuaded from running for office or are unable to win elected offices.
Read here the full article published by Colorado Public Radio on 26 April 2024.
Image by Colorado Public Radio
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Despite their increasing visibility, women in government must still contend with gendered biases about the ways in which they choose to present themselves.
New York City Council Member Shahana Hanif represents many firsts for the New York City Council. Not only is she the first woman to represent her district, but she is also the first-ever Muslim woman on the Council and one of two members of South Asian descent.
She was one of the first of her colleagues to openly support a ceasefire in Israel’s war against Gaza, and she has also helped propel the city’s immigrant workers’ bill of rights and universal composting program forward.
She is unique in her accomplishments and aspirations as a politician, yet she told City & State in an interview that she was once taken aback by a complaint – not about her work – but about her hair not looking like “some of these other council members who do their hair and appear presentable,” she said.
Read here the full article published by the City and State of New York on 25 April 2024.
Image by City and State of New York
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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.
One hundred years ago, on February 6 1918, the UK Parliament passed an act that granted the vote to women over the age of 30.
They had to meet certain qualifications - such as being householders, the wives of householders, occupiers of property with an annual rent of £5, or graduates of British universities - but it was a start that allowed 8.4 million women to vote, after a decades-long fight.
Later that year, Parliament passed another act that meant women could be elected to the House of Commons.
But even now, a century later, we still don't have full female representation in Parliament. Just 208 of the UK's MPs are women - under a third of the 650 who sit in the Commons.
Around the world, things aren't much better. The UK ranks 38th for female representation in each countries' respective Parliaments, according to the World Economic Forum's data for 2017.
Click here to read the full article published by The Telegraph on 5 February 2018.
The objective of this study is to generate evidence-based policy recommendations for Arab States, in order to help them scale-up efforts to meet their commitments as relates to goal 5 of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), pertaining to gender equality, in particular target 5.5, which aims to ensure women’s equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political and public life.
A thorough desktop review was conducted to develop the conceptual framework for the study and establish a knowledge base on the status of women’s presence in decision-making and public life. This was supported by a survey completed by member States on the status of women’s political representation, as well as national measures to enhance it. Interviews were carried out with women who sought to participate in public life, regardless of whether they were successful or not. Case studies were conducted in four countries in the region, in order to establish an in-depth understanding of the status of women’s representation within their national political context.
This study examined women’s representation in the legislative, executive, and judiciary branches, as well as in local councils, with the understanding that the analysis was incomplete in certain cases due to data limitation. Regional analysis was conducted to showcase new forms of women’s representation, such as their participation in peace talks, national dialogues and constitutional committees, which challenge traditional roles and representations.
Click here to access the report.
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