Women's Leadership

This article is the second in a two-part series examining the impact of gender quotas. The first article discussed the structure of gender quotas and their general impacts.

Gender quotas play a varied and complex role in political life; every country maintains its own reason for their implementation and experiences unique outcomes from their existence. This article aims not to present a definitive case for or against gender quotas. Rather, it explores two very different manifestations of gender quotas and how they concretely impact the political atmosphere of India and Sweden. These two countries help demonstrate how quotas may bring gender equality in name, but not in practice. Both countries suffer from a similar “moral hazard” problem where quotas may encourage complacency in addressing women’s issues, leaving deeper problems unresolved.  

Click here to read the full article published by Harvard International Review on 15 August 2022.

As custodians of natural resources and archivists of scientific and traditional knowledge, Indigenous women play an essential role in preserving forests and natural ecosystems. Indigenous women are indispensable to achieving climate justice, taking the lead to defend Indigenous peoples’ lands and territories and advocating for Indigenous peoples’ collective rights worldwide.

The 2022 International Day of World’s Indigenous Peoples highlights “The role of Indigenous women in the preservation and transmission of traditional knowledge”. Here are five Indigenous women climate activists you should know about.

Click here to read the full article published by UNDP on 16 August 2022.

In the larger scheme of things, where global capital and politics come into the picture, tribal women’s voices are missing.

Bhim Rao Ambedkar would not have thought while writing the constitutional safeguards for Scheduled Tribes (ST) and Scheduled Castes (SC) that India would take 75 years to get its first tribal president.

Why then did this happen? Do tribal people lack interest in politics? Do tribal women activists lack political orientation to join Indian politics?

Perhaps the answer lies in the nature of the Indian political system which relies hugely on vote banks. Tribal communities are used as conduits to power rather than the system empowering them.

Click here to read the full article published by Down To Earth on 4 August 2022.

Three powerful women in charge of finance, defence and foreign affairs frame the Canadian Prime Minister during press conferences. It’s the first time in our history that these three top cabinet jobs have been held simultaneously by women. And in the context of the war in Ukraine, Chrystia Freeland, Anita Anand and Mélanie Joly are making decisions historically made by men.

Individually or together, these women are proof that gender parity in politics works.

Canada doesn’t have a gender quota law for elections to parliament. But Trudeau promised in 2015 that if he won the election, he’d have gender parity in cabinet. He’s kept that promise, with equal numbers of women and men ministers ever since.

Click here to read the full article published by Winnipeg Free Press on 23 March 2022.

This compilation of resources from across Canada and around the world are some of the many tools, best practices, projects, research and ideas which have been pulled together with the hopes of promoting and achieving parity in municipal representation. The hub is intended to be a complement to the Run, Win, Lean, Toward Parity in Municipal Politics, a sectoral framework with the intention to support the attainment and retention of gender parity in local government. Based on a pan-Canadian extensive consultation about the challenges and opportunities to promote diverse and equal representation in local leadership. The Toward Parity project categorized these realties into four pillars of intervention.

Click here to access the website.

According to the polls, the UK is on its way to having its third female Prime Minister. This is good news, and it’s made even better by the fact that Liz Truss (as Theresa May before her) can hardly be described as having all the qualities you’d ideally want in a Prime Minister. At long last, the top jobs seem to be up for grabs by women with all levels of ability, a luxury that men have long enjoyed. Though we are still very far from real equality in politics: a dishevelled-looking woman who behaves so chaotically — in her private live as much as in politics — as Boris Johnson did, would never become Prime Minister.

Click here to read the full article published by Evening Standard on 3 August 2022.