Women's Leadership
The political structure and processes in Bangladesh remain predominantly patriarchal and under male control. The patriarchal society of Bangladesh does not favour women's participation in the country's political framework, resulting in low female representation at all levels of political parties. Selim Jahan explores where women stand in the upcoming elections.
After the July 2024 uprising, a question that emerged was, "Where are the women warriors of July?"
This question had context. During the July uprising, women were at the forefront of the struggle—leading, demanding, and visible. There is no doubt that women's participation was a significant catalyst in the success of the July movement.
Historically, this is not new in our country. In the 1971 Liberation War of Bangladesh, women fought shoulder to shoulder with men—directly on the battlefield and indirectly across the nation.
Across the world, women are underrepresented. Globally, fewer than one in four parliamentarians are women. In many Asia–Pacific countries, including Bangladesh, systemic barriers continue to limit women’s political participation. Social norms, structural bias, and unequal access to political networks constrain both candidacy and success. Yet, without women’s meaningful representation in politics and decision-making spaces, gender balance at work is not possible. Upcoming elections highlight this critical juncture: unless parties actively support women candidates, workplace policies that enable equality will remain underdeveloped and inequitable.
It is a direct correlation. Women in Bangladesh face barriers in entering formal employment, remaining in workplaces, and advancing to leadership. Many are concentrated in informal, low-paid, and insecure jobs, often exiting the labour market due to lack of childcare, unsafe commuting, or rigid working arrangements. These workplace realities are shaped by political choices—decisions about budget allocation, labour laws, social protection, and urban safety—made predominantly by male leadership.
It is worth repeating that women constitute half of society. Any decision-making without the equal participation of women is truncated and illegitimate from a democratic point of view. In addition to the principle of equality, the inclusion of women brings unique perspectives and experiences that improve the quality of decisions. At the local level, where policies directly affect the daily lives of citizens, women's participation is essential to address the real needs of the population.
Thanks to legal quotas and numerous efforts, the representation of women in Kosovo's municipal assemblies has increased over the years, but still remains below the target level. Meanwhile, in local leadership positions, such as mayors, women are almost absent. This is not only an injustice, but also a loss for society: ignoring half of the population in decision-making means leaving aside half of the social potential - of talent, ideas and possible solutions.
Personal observation from the field has shown me that when women actively participate in politics, the decision-making agenda is enriched with new ideas. I noticed a significant phenomenon while monitoring municipal budget hearings: in cases where only men were present, the demands made revolved mainly around asphalt and sports halls - as if these were the only solutions to society's problems. In general, in these cases, it seems that the vision of development begins and ends with concrete and sports. However, when women were also present, the panorama changed significantly. Their demands went beyond that, towards the most fundamental issues for the quality of life: opening daycare centers for children, installing solar panels in schools, or financing training programs for parents of children with autism. Ideas that had a great multiplier effect and improved life both now and in the distant future.
The Minister of Solidarity, Social Inclusion and Family, Naïma Ben Yahia, announced on Monday in Rabat the upcoming launch of a nationwide awareness campaign promoting women’s political participation and tackling discrimination and stereotypes in politics.
Answering oral questions in the House of Representatives, Ben Yahia said the initiative is part of the «Moucharaka» programme, which aims to strengthen women’s participation in the political process ahead of the 2026 and 2027 electoral deadlines.
The programme will include training sessions for women members of political parties, in coordination with the leaders of women’s party structures, as well as research projects carried out with universities to identify ways to improve women’s political representation. These studies will also assess electoral processes through analyses conducted before and after legislative elections, with the results to be made public.
United Nations Assistant Secretary-General and UN Women Deputy Executive Director, Ms Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda, is in Zimbabwe from January 12 to 16 on a mission to strengthen national efforts to advance gender equality.
She is accompanied by the UN Women Deputy Regional Director for East and Southern Africa, Ms Adama Moussa.
UN Women said the visit is aimed at reaffirming the agency’s commitment to Zimbabwe, deepening partnerships with government and civil society, and mobilising support to sustain gains in women’s rights.
According to the agency, the strategic engagement will also seek to safeguard and accelerate progress on gender equality and the empowerment of women.
During the five-day visit, Gumbonzvanda is expected to advocate stronger integration of global gender frameworks including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the Beijing Platform for Action and Sustainable Development Goal 5 — into national policies.
During the fight against apartheid in South Africa, the African National Congress (ANC), home party of leader Nelson Mandela, considered what a future free society would look like and how that goal should be achieved, says historian Rachel Sandwell.
ANC members weren’t just focused on ending apartheid racism, “although that was obviously foundational,” said Sandwell, assistant professor of history in the College of Arts and Sciences. “They were also trying to define a future where men and women, Black and white, were equal and liberated to live well.”
Women played a major role in these debates, according to Sandwell’s new book, “National Liberation and the Political Life of Exile: Sex, Gender, and Nation in the Struggle against Apartheid.” Through an analysis of women’s diplomatic work and their advocacy for policies on sexual education, birth control, family life and child care, Sandwell challenges traditional narratives that have ignored or minimized women’s contributions.
The College of Arts and Sciences spoke with Sandwell about the book.
Previous work suggests that observing women officeholders increases women’s political ambition. Yet, jumps in women’s representation in the United States’ “Years of the Woman”—following the Anita Hill testimonies and the election of Donald Trump—are linked to women’s exclusion from political decision-making. Drawing on focus groups with prospective women candidates, we theorize that exclusion when combined with a gendered policy threat increases women’s political ambition. Using survey experiments replicated across different samples, we show that women who read about an all-male city council poised to legislate on women’s rights report increased ambition compared with their pretreatment ambition levels and to women in other treatment groups. Women’s increased sense of political efficacy drives these results. When women’s rights are not under discussion, men’s overrepresentation does not move (or even depresses) women’s ambition. Seeing the policy consequences of their exclusion causes some women to seek a seat at the table.
Click here to read the full article published by the American Political Science Association on 30 November 2023.
Image by The American Political Science Association
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Men still dominate political decision-making in the United Kingdom. Women hold just one or two seats on prestigious select committees in the House of Commons, like Defence, Foreign Affairs, and Justice. No women sit on the Domestic and Economic Affairs cabinet committee. And 95% of all local councils have majority-men membership.
Yet voters do care about women’s leadership in elected office. My research shows that when women are absent from political decision-making, voters view governments as less legitimate.
Click here to read the full article published by the Electoral Reform Society on 21 November 2023.
Image by Electoral Reform Society
To what extent has the glass ceiling in global governance been shattered? To answer this question, we need to look beyond the numbers on women’s representation and study how far women are perceived as inspiring and visionary leaders in global governance. This article offers an analysis of perceptions of inspiring and visionary leadership in global multistakeholder initiatives from a gender perspective. Based on 467 interviews with participants in a leading multistakeholder initiative, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), it presents four findings: (1) respondents identify more men than women as inspiring and visionary leaders, with the difference roughly corresponding to the share of women in leadership roles; (2) respondents tend to ascribe more leadership attributes to women than to men when explaining why they find them inspiring and visionary; (3) both feminine and masculine leadership traits are appreciated in relation to both men and women leaders at ICANN; (4) female respondents identify more women as inspiring and visionary leaders than male respondents. These findings contribute novel insights into gendered perceptions around leadership and the importance of role models in global governance. They also shed much-needed light on the demands and expectations from leadership in global multistakeholder arrangements.
Click here to read the full report published by the Cambridge University Press on 26 October 2023.
RepresentWomen is committed to researching and identifying the best practices for increasing women’s representation in politics, drawing from evidence around the world. Part of this work leads us to closely track parliamentary elections and compare the outcomes from year to year. In 2021 and 2022, we identified 43 elections where women achieved record highs for their representation in parliament. The purpose of this analysis is to bring attention to how election rules and voting systems shape opportunities for women to enter politics.
Click here to read the full report published by RepresentWomen on 11 October 2023.
Abstract
Extensive research investigates the impact of descriptive representation on women’s political participation; yet, the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. This article develops a novel theory of descriptive representation, arguing that women politicians mobilize women’s political participation by recruiting women as grassroots party activists. Evidence from a citizen survey and the natural experiment of gender quotas in India confirm that women politicians are more likely to recruit women party activists, and citizens report greater contact with them in reserved constituencies during elections. Furthermore, with women party activists at the helm, electoral campaigns are more likely to contact women, and activist contact is positively associated with political knowledge and participation. Evidence from representative surveys of politicians and party activists and fieldwork in campaigns, further support the theory. The findings highlight the pivotal role of women’s party activism in shaping women’s political behavior, especially in contexts with pervasive clientelism and persistent gender unequal norms.
Click here to read the full article published by the Cambridge University Press on 9 October 2023.
This publication is the latest instalment in the annual series jointly produced by UN Women and UN DESA. The report provides a comprehensive analysis of gender equality progress across all 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Halfway to the end point of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the world is failing to achieve gender equality, making it an increasingly distant goal. If current trends continue, more than 340 million women and girls will still live in extreme poverty by 2030, and close to one in four will experience moderate or severe food insecurity.
Click here to read the full article published by UN Women on 8 September 2023.