Women's Leadership

Policy frameworks are set to include women in the political process for empowering women, and enhancing rural development, and national development as a whole. Over the years public policies have been made, and revised to mandatorily include women for their participation at the local government levels.

Women by and large compete in the national and local elections and contest with their male counterparts.

The success of women representatives in terms of inclusion is noteworthy. However, their decision-making is influenced by their relatives and elderly in society rather than by their own.

Click here to read the full article published by Khabarhub on 13 November 2022.

Insights from the second cohort of African Young Women Leaders (AfYWL) fellows during a leadership training that took place in Kigali, Rwanda, from 17 to 21 October 2022.

A leader is visionary, selfless and committed to transformation. She is compassionate, resilient, and proud to be a nurturer. A leader is driven by a purpose that is bigger than herself; and this gives her the courage to wake up and navigate the challenges of each day.

A leader invests her time in getting to understand those around her. She makes sure that her voice is heard ­– even if, on the inside, she feels unsure of herself. A leader also knows that leadership is a decision: something that can and should be learnt, grown and consistently practiced.

These are some of the insights learnt and expressed by the second cohort of African Young Women Leaders (AfYWL) fellows during a leadership training that took place in Kigali, Rwanda, from 17 to 21 October 2022. The timing of the training was opportune, as it allowed the 38 fellows to reflect on the first six months of their fellowship, and plan for the second half, and beyond.

Click here to read the full article published by UNDP on 10 November 2022.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A record 12 women will take their seats as their state’s highest-ranking elected officials when the nation’s governors are sworn in this winter.

The number tops the high mark set in 2004 of nine, with The Associated Press’ calling the Arizona governor’s election for Democrat Katie Hobbs on Monday, as well as Democrat Maura Healey in Massachusetts and Republican Sarah Huckabee Sanders in Arkansas winning last week’s elections.

“This is not an incremental growth. We’re still far from political parity for women serving as chief executives. But it does feel like a breakthrough,” said Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. “It’s significant particularly because these chief executive positions have been very hard to crack. These women in many ways disrupt fundamentally who a chief executive can be.”

Click here to read the full article published by AP on 15 November 2022.

Even at 92, Vigdis Finnbogadottir, who became the first elected female president of a country in 1980, is still a consummate politician and continues to speak out for women’s rights.

Finnbogadottir made a recent appearance at the Reykjavik Global Forum, where her attendance was celebrated by the country’s prime minister, Katrin Jakobsdottir and other high-level women in politics. The former president, in an interview, discussed women in leadership, women’s rights, and the situation in Afghanistan.

Breaking Barriers

When Finnbogadottir was elected in her country’s top job, she did not only become the world’s first elected woman president, but she went on to being the world’s longest-serving one as well. She was the country’s president for 16 years, between 1980 and 1996, and many Icelandic women and girls grew up with her as a role model, encouraging others to be involved in the country’s political life.

Click here to read the full article published by Forbes on 14 November 2022.

WASHINGTON (AP) — There are two searing scenes of Nancy Pelosi confronting the violent extremism that spilled into the open late in her storied political career. In one, she’s uncharacteristically shaken in a TV interview as she recounts the brutal attack on her husband.

In the other, the House speaker rips open a package of beef jerky with her teeth during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection, while on the phone with Mike Pence, firmly instructing the Republican vice president how to stay safe from the mob that came for them both. “Don’t let anybody know where you are,” she said.

That Pelosi, composed and in command at a time of chaos, tart but parochial-school proper at every turn, is the one whom lawmakers have obeyed, tangled with, respected and feared for two decades.

She is the most powerful woman in American politics and one of the nation’s most consequential legislative leaders — through times of war, financial turmoil, a pandemic and an assault on democracy.

Now, at 82, in the face of political loss and personal trauma, she decided her era was ending.

Click here to read the full article published by AP News on 18 November 2022.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says New Zealand has an “even stronger” footing to speak on gender equality as lawmakers past and present celebrated Parliament becoming one of few in the world to be the majority women.

Dame Jenny Shipley, the first woman prime minister, and former prime minister Helen Clark were among the political figures to speak at an event in Parliament on Wednesday night after Labour MP Soraya Peke-Mason was last month sworn in as the 177th woman MP.

“We got here through blood, sweat and electoral reform,” Ardern said.

Click here to read the full article published by Stuff on 10 November 2022.