Women's Leadership

Research shows that female political leadership directs countries to adopt more robust climate change policies. Even though women globally are just 26.3 per cent of all parliamentarians, they are able to make a disproportionate impact.

The IPU is committed to increasing the ranks of women MPs from the current 11,653 and is happy to showcase these representative seven, who are already having a profound influence on national and global efforts to mitigate climate change: 

1. Mia Mottley

Prime Minister of Barbados since 2018 and leader of the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) since 2008, Mottley is the first woman to hold either position. Awarded the UN’s Champion of the Earth Award for policy leadership in 2021, she has spent years campaigning against pollution, climate change and deforestation, turning Barbados into a frontrunner in the global environmental movement. At COP26 last year, she made global headlines for an impassioned speech in which she castigated major countries for pushing the world towards a climate catastrophe and imperilling the future of small island states like her own.

Click here to read the full article published by The Inter-Parliamentary Union on 27 July 2022.

In the months of July and August, Senegal and Kenya will hold their general elections. However, the big question remains: Where do Senegalese and Kenyan women stand on their quest to parliamentary mandates and political offices?

Recent statistics from Afrobarometer, the number of women in politics, academia and in business has been slowly but steadily increasing on the African continent over the last two decades. At a quick glance, this could paint a picture of success in gender equity. However, that is not the case.

In the months of July and August, Senegal and Kenya will hold their general elections. However, the big question remains: Where do Senegalese and Kenyan women stand on their quest to parliamentary mandates and political offices? Are legal and policy frameworks that the respective governments have put in place to enhance gender equality in politics yielded any fruits?

Click here to read the full article published by Heinrich Böll Stiftung on 18 July 2022.

Prime Minister Kaja Kallas has regained her parliamentary majority with the swearing in of a new government made up of a three-party coalition. Despite the return of stability, the PM has warned of "hard times" ahead.

Estonia's new government was sworn in on Monday, providing a ruling majority for Prime Minister Kaja Kallas.

The move comes after Kallas resigned last week, paving the way for the formation of a new coalition with her liberal Reform Party, the Social Democrats and the conservative Isamaa party.

The PM's warning of 'hard times' ahead

Kallas wasted no time pointing to the challenges facing Estonia's economy being battered by soaring energy costs and rampant inflation.

Click here to read the full article published by DW on 18 July 2022.

Satoko Kishimoto sets sights on ‘radical change’ in Japan, where only 2% of local government leaders are women.

The first female mayor of a district in Tokyo has vowed to challenge Japan’s male-dominated politics, weeks after she became one of only two women leading municipalities in the Japanese capital.

Satoko Kishimoto was elected mayor of Suginami ward last month to become the district’s first female leader in its 90-year history. The progressive candidate beat the conservative incumbent – by just 187 votes – despite having recently returned to Japan after a decade living in Belgium.

In one of her first public appearances since taking office, Kishimoto said she had decided to run for office to “promote democracy” in a country with low levels of female representation and to champion causes close to her heart, including labour rights and the environment.

Click here to read the full article published by The Guardian on 21 July 2022.

Gender parity is not recovering, according to the Global Gender Gap Report 2022. It will take another 132 years to close the global gender gap. As crises are compounding, women's workforce outcomes are suffering and the risk of global gender parity backsliding further intensifies.

The Global Gender Gap Index benchmarks the current state and evolution of gender parity across four key dimensions (Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, and Political Empowerment). It is the longest-standing index which tracks progress towards closing these gaps over time since its inception in 2006.

Click here to access the report.

NEW DELHI — About 5,000 Indian lawmakers on Thursday elected Draupadi Murmu, an Indigenous tribal woman with humble roots, to be the country’s next president, marking a breakthrough for one of India’s marginalized minority groups.

The 64-year-old former governor of Jharkhand state was nominated by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which controlled enough seats in federal and state legislatures to install its preferred nominee in the presidency. Murmu will be the first Indigenous person and second woman to serve as India’s head of state, a role that holds limited powers compared with the powers of the post of prime minister, now held by Narendra Modi.

But in a democracy often driven by caste, religion and regional identities, Murmu’s elevation could reverberate far beyond her largely ceremonial office, particularly among the 100 million tribal people in India who have long sat at the foot of the country’s socioeconomic ladder — and who have been assiduously wooed, critics note, by a BJP that has been trying to expand its appeal beyond its traditional base of upper-caste Hindus.

Click here to read the full article published by the Washington Post on 21 July 2022.