Women's Leadership
Milestones for notable women this week include birthdays for: Lois Wessel, Amy Poehler, Alexis Bledel, Caroline James, Soledad O’Brien, Nancy Bocskor and Lauren Leader. It’s also the anniversary of the week that Harriet Tubman set herself free in 1849, that Carla Hayden was named the first female librarian of Congress, and Margaret Chase Smith was the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate in her own right.
The 30th anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action is a moment to reaffirm global commitments to gender equality
2025 is a pivotal year for women and girls. It marks three major milestones: the thirtieth anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, the twenty-fifth anniversary of United Nations Security Council resolution 1325 on women, peace and security, and the eightieth anniversary of the United Nations. Notable progress on laws, policies and some development outcomes for women and girls has occurred, especially since the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015. In the final five-year stretch before the 2030 deadline of the Goals, it is urgent to accelerate action and investment.
The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, adopted in 1995 by 189 countries, laid out transformative measures across 12 critical areas of concern, serving as a foundation for progress on gender equality and the SDGs. Drawing on evidence from the thirtieth-anniversary review – including 159 Member State reports and broad consultations – UN Women has developed the Beijing+30 Action Agenda. This bold, forward-looking framework sets out six priority actions to accelerate progress on both the Platform and the SDGs. It positions gender equality at the heart of global development efforts. This section highlights this Agenda noting the investments needed and the benefits not only for women and girls, but at large for societies and economies. The rest of the report assesses gender equality under each of the 17 SDGs, spotlighting actions and investments to accelerate change.
Despite a slight increase in female representation in Parliament, gender advocates warn that Jamaica still falls short in addressing women’s issues at the national level. Judith Wedderburn highlighted ongoing challenges, including securing party backing and meaningful influence in Cabinet-level decisions. Newly re-elected MPs like Juliet Cuthbert-Flynn stressed that women in Parliament must focus on advancing policies affecting women, from domestic violence to support for mothers in difficult circumstances.
Gender advocate spurns tokenism in women’s political participation
Jamaica Gleaner/14 Sep 2025/Karen Madden Sunday/ Gleaner Writer
DESPITE A marginal increase in the number of women that will sit in Lower House when it resumes, at least one gender advocate believes the country is still falling short in its representation of women in the seat of power.
Gender and development practitioner Judith Wedderburn has, however, acknowledged the efforts the leadership of the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and the opposition People’s National Party (PNP) have made to bring more women into representational politics.
Of the 189 candidates nominated for the 2025 election, 136 were men and 53 were women. In the new Parliament, 19 women will take their seats – just one more than in 2020 and seven more than in 2016.
Full article here.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 17. Azerbaijani Parliament Speaker Sahiba Gafarova, who is visiting the city of Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia for the 46th General Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA) of the Association of SoutheastAsian Nations, has delivered a speech at the 2nd Forum of AIPA Women Political Leaders today, a source in the parliament told Trend.
Speaking at the opening of the event, AIPA Secretary General Siti Rozaimeriyanty Dato Haji Abdul Rahman voiced his ideas about the significance of the congregation.
Also, he greeted Gafarova and witnessed appreciation of her participation in the forum.
Full article here.
Political scientist Ivabelle Arroyo and director of the Center for Gender Research (UNAM) Amneris Chaparro agree that the key issues in political and social debates, both within and outside feminism, focus more on women’s bodies (motherhood, sexuality, gender identity, micro-violence, femicide, sexual harassment, and abuse) than on addressing the structural causes of gender inequality, which require consistent policies in both the medium and long term.
Conservatism around sexuality and gender roles is surprisingly on the rise within liberal democracies. While this is happening, feminists are divided on issues such as trans women.
Amneris Chaparro: I believe that being a woman is not just about the body, a type of experience, or certain biological signs. The differences within feminism respond to a question with no single answer: what is a woman? Now, there is a historical need to recognize invisible and marginalized subjects, placed in the position of otherness, of being different and seen as inferior, such as trans women, who are linked to the feminine. The tension always has to do with women because, curiously, no one has any problem with trans men; they are not part of the public discourse. What do we do with trans women who come to feminism deeply wounded, victims of violence marked on their bodies seen as feminized? They are not women in the biological sense but because of the cultural construction of gender, of what is socially considered acceptable because of having a body of a certain sex. Feminist positions that exclude them, bordering with transphobia, make biology the only determining factor in being a woman. We need open-mindedness, humility, listening, and the creation of spaces for dialogue and true liberation. Sometimes it is valid to change one’s mind and remember that being a feminist who excludes trans women in some way can be a violation of human rights.
Full article here.
Opening the annual conference of the Gender Equality Commission, the Deputy Secretary of the Council of Europe Bjørn Berge emphasised that “only 27 countries around the world have a woman serving as Head of State or Government and 103 countries have never had a woman in their top executive office. And even where women occupy ministerial roles, they are largely outside of the powerful portfolios such as defence, foreign affairs or finance. There has been, not only a failure to advance, but a regression in gender equality.”
Despite progress in gender equality, women in politics continue to face disproportionate levels of harassment, exclusion, and violence. While gender quotas and anti-discrimination laws have helped increase women’s representation in public life, problems persist. Sexism and violence – both online and offline – continue to deter women from entering or remaining in politics. These threats not only violate human rights but also undermine the foundations of democratic governance.
“Advances in technology and artificial intelligence mean exponential increases in the amount of intimidation, humiliation and disinformation women are subject to. No longer a whisper in a corridor, but an artificially manipulated video or photograph, gone viral in seconds. We cannot say that we have true democracy if half the population does not experience equal access to the public life, experience violence or is effectively silenced,” Deputy Secretary Berge said.
Full article here.
How to Include the Missing Perspectives of Women of All Colors in News Leadership and Coverage — a new report from Luba Kassova.
From Outrage to Opportunity: How to Include the Missing Perspectives of Women of All Colors in News Leadership and Coverage is a solutions-focused sequel to the award-winning independent reports, The Missing Perspectives of Women in News/COVID-19 News, authored by Luba Kassova and commissioned by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. It examines the harsh realities facing women of all colors in news leadership and coverage in India, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, the UK, and the USA.
In both editorial leadership roles and in news coverage, women continue to be significantly under-represented in an industry persistently dominated by men. While women in news have it hard, women of color have it even harder. In countries with multi-racial populations, women of color experience greater exclusion in the news industry.
Click here to access the report.
With the support of UNESCO, the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) has published a groundbreaking, book-length global study on online violence against women journalists, documenting alarming trends and offering solutions to this pernicious problem.
The Chilling: A global study of online violence against women journalists is the most geographically, linguistically and ethnically diverse research ever published on the theme. Publication of the 300-page book, concludes a three-year research project originally commissioned by UNESCO in 2019.
Click here to access the report.
Violence against women in all its forms is perceived by the OSCE as one of the most pervasive impediments to women’s full, equal and effective participation in political and public life and as a threat to human security. Yet, it is prevalent across the OSCE region, and it is especially, but not exclusively, affecting young, disabled, ethnic minority women. Women are targeted with violence not only for their political views but also to prevent current and aspiring women politicians from engaging in politics and decision-making altogether. Violence is not a price women should have to pay in order to enjoy their political and civil rights. In addition to individual suffering and violation of women’s rights, this violence weakens democratic governance, political pluralism and the inclusivity of public institutions. This toolkit provides recommendations for legislators, governments, parliaments and political parties as well as guidance for civil society and women politicians affected by violence. It consolidates existing definitions and compiles examples of promising practices on preventing violence against women in politics from a variety of States. The toolkit is based upon international standards and OSCE commitments.
Click here to access the report.
This paper proposes replacing the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) Gender Inequality Index with two new gender indexes: the Global Gender Parity Index (GGPI) and the Women’s Empowerment Index (WEI).
The proposal builds on a review of concepts of gender equality in the capability approach that underpins UNDP’s human development paradigm and the international policy frameworks of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the Beijing Platform for Action, and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It also implements current proposals for reform, which emphasize measuring gender inequality in capabilities (rather than institutional inputs or resources that enable or constrain these capabilities) and measuring gaps in achievements between women and men and the level of women’s potential for empowerment by different indexes.
Evaluating the options for measurement, the paper identifies several Sustainable Development Goal indicators and novel data as potentially useful in translating the selected capabilities into new indexes. The first index, the GGPI, is a relative measure of well-being, which encompasses the dimensions of health, education, decent standard of living and decision-making. The second, the WEI, focuses solely on women and measures freedom from early motherhood, reproductive choice, and freedom from intimate partner violence as well as women’s capabilities to seek education, pursue science, technology, engineering, and math degrees, have voice in national and local governing bodies, and hold economic leadership positions.
Click here to access the report.
UCC research, carried out on behalf of Cork City Council’s Women’s Caucus, has recommended that gender quota legislation be introduced before the next local government elections to help increase the number of female councillors around the country.
Gender quotas are in place for national elections but not at local government level. The authors called for legislation to introduce a 40% gender quota for the 2024 elections so that Ireland is in line with other European countries. At present any gender quotas are informal, as agreed by individual political parties.
The authors of ‘Women’s Voice in the Council Chamber’ Dr. Aodh Quinlivan, Dr Fiona Buckley, Olajumoke Olumwaferanmi Igun and John Ger O’Riordan, also recommended that maternity leave and paternity leave be extended to councillors, that of the three councillors nominated by each local authority to the Association of Irish Local Government (AILG), that at least one should be a woman. They also called for a specific mentoring programme for newly elected women councillors and community-based education around the role of local government and the councillors.
Click here to access the report.
Building on the data in the global report on Gender Equality in Public Administration (GEPA), this policy brief looks at women's participation in and leadership of environmental protection ministries as well as all ministries tasked officially with each country's response to climate change. While progress in women's participation in public administration across many other sectors has improved, there are still significant gaps – with the largest ones affecting environment and climate spheres.
Click here to access the report.