Women's Leadership
The discussion focused on the unique challenges women politicians face in digital spaces, including online harassment, gender-based cyber violence, and the spread of misinformation. Speakers emphasized the urgent need for stronger legal protections, improved digital literacy, and safer online environments to support women's political participation. They also underscored the importance of involving men in these conversations, engaging women at the grassroots level, and using cases of online abuse to drive awareness and deter further incidents.
Summary
The conversation explored the expanding role of digital platforms in politics, offering new opportunities for engagement while also exposing women to targeted attacks. While online spaces provide cost-effective ways to mobilize, campaign, and connect with the public, they also make women more vulnerable to intimidation, disinformation, and reputational harm. The anonymity of the internet has enabled bad actors to silence female politicians and discourage them from participating in political processes, ultimately limiting diversity and reinforcing existing power imbalances.
To address these challenges, participants called for a multi-stakeholder approach involving policymakers, civil society organizations, and technology companies. Electoral commissions must take a more active role in raising awareness about online threats, engaging with key stakeholders, and advocating for policy reforms that protect women in digital political spaces. Political parties must establish and enforce policies that safeguard female candidates, publicly condemn online abuse, and hold perpetrators accountable. Civil society organizations should contribute to the development of online safety policies and provide direct support for women affected by digital harassment. Additionally, digital platforms must adopt and enforce gender-sensitive community standards, improve content moderation, and take concrete action against online violence targeting women in politics.
The discussion reaffirmed the need for collective action to create inclusive digital spaces where women in politics can safely and effectively participate. Moving forward, efforts will focus on enhancing digital literacy, strengthening policy protections, and fostering an online environment free from abuse and discrimination. Key priorities include developing training programs, launching awareness campaigns, and reinforcing regulatory frameworks to ensure that women politicians can engage without fear.
Next Steps
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Electoral commissions to raise awareness among their staff about online challenges faced by women in politics.
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Electoral commissions to collaborate with civil society organizations, political parties, and female candidates to better understand and address these digital threats.
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Electoral commissions to advocate for policy reforms that protect women in online political spaces.
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Political parties to develop and implement policies that safeguard female candidates from online abuse.
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Political parties to publicly condemn and take action against online attacks targeting women in politics.
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Organizations working on women's rights to push for stronger institutional support for women in politics.
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I Know Politics to continue facilitating discussions and webinars on women's political participation in the digital age.
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Digital literacy programs to incorporate a gender perspective, particularly in relation to AI and digital tools in politics.
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Technology platforms to implement and enforce gender-sensitive community guidelines to protect women in digital political spaces.
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Civil society organizations working on gender issues to be actively involved in shaping online safety policies.
Women’s participation in politics and leadership remains low in African countries due to various factors, including online harassment and a patriarchal system that hinders their involvement.
This was highlighted during a workshop attended by journalists from Sub-Saharan African countries, held in Nairobi, Kenya and spearheaded by International IDEA https://www.idea.int/ and WYDE.
Speaking at the workshop, Josephine Mwangi, the Program Manager for the Women’s Political Participation Project in Africa and West Asia from IDEA, stated that the limited participation of women in politics is driven by multiple factors, including the way media portrays women.
The African Barometer report, published in November 2024, revealed that women’s representation in African parliaments stood at only 27% in 2024. Additionally, the report showed that the increase in women’s political participation in Africa has stagnated, with only a 1% rise recorded between 2021 and 2024.
The workshop also highlighted that one of the key barriers to women’s representation in politics is the threats and harassment they face, both when participating in politics and when using social media platforms.
Read here the full article published by WinoTz on 21 February 2025.
Image by WinoTz
Young women in America have seen two female presidential candidates lose to President Donald Trump during some of the most formative years of their lives.
Four young voters on the GBH News video series “Politics IRL,” debated whether the glass ceiling is breakable, and if the country is making progress toward one day seeing a woman in the oval office in wake of Trump’s latest victory.
“The fact that we’re nominating female candidates is least a move in the right direction,” said 26-year-old independent Leandena Dankese.
She noted former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley’s 2024 run for president. “It was admirable to see women in office actually trying to reach for the presidency and getting closer and closer each time.”Jaclyn Corriveau, a 34-year-old Republican, said Kamala Harris’ candidacy is a bad case study for female candidates, considering her “forced nomination.”
“We need to think about how Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris came into their nominations. I think Hillary came up through a much more democratic process. Kamala Harris was anointed,” Corriveau said.
Read here the full article published by GBH News on 4 February 2025.
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COLOMBO, Sri Lanka – It was a brief remark during a mundane session of parliament. But to Harini Amarasuriya, Sri Lanka’s prime minister, it was the moment she realized that her country, wrecked not long ago by strongman leaders and their populist politics, had entered a potentially transformative moment for women.
A male colleague (and “not a very feminist” one, as Amarasuriya described him) stood up to say that the island nation could not get more women into the formal workforce unless it officially recognized the “care economy” – work caring for others.
To Amarasuriya, it was “one of the biggest thrills” to hear language in government that had long been confined to activists or to largely forgotten gender departments. “I was like, ‘OK, all those years of fighting with you have paid off,’” she said with a laugh during an interview in December at her office in Colombo, the capital.
Two years after Sri Lankans rose up and cast out a political dynasty whose profligacy had brought economic ruin, the country is in the midst of a once-in-a-lifetime reinvention.
Read here the full article published by The Spokesman-Review on 4 February 2025.
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Worsening levels of abuse are deterring future politicians from careers in parliament, a group of MPs have warned.
Bradford West MP Naz Shah, Rother Valley MP Jake Richards and ex-Dewsbury MP Mark Eastwood said women received more threats and abuse than male colleagues - and it was discouraging their staff from careers in politics.
The politicians made the claims after Spen Valley MP Kim Leadbeater told Radio 4 earlier this week that the level of abuse had increased since her sister Jo Cox was murdered by a far right terrorist in 2016.
Leadbeater said the level of "abuse and nastiness in politics" then was "nowhere near what it is like now".
Richards, who worked on the prosecution of Cox's killer as a junior lawyer, said the abuse had caused members of his parliamentary staff to reconsider careers in politics, which was "pretty shocking".
He said: "We need people from all backgrounds and perspectives to get into public life and to represent us or we'll go wrong politically.
"It's not just about looking after MPs and not hurting feelings, it's about how we make our politics work better."
Read the full article here.
1. Defends Mexico’s Sovereignty
Claudia Sheinbaum, the newly elected president of Mexico, has reiterated the need to “keep calm” in the face of several executive orders and threats issued by President Donald Trump regarding trade, migration, and other issues that impact U.S.-Mexican relations.
2. International Criminal Court Prosecutor Requests Arrest Warrants for Taliban Leaders
This week, a prosecutor from the International Criminal Court (ICC) officially requested arrest warrants for two Taliban leaders in Afghanistan under charges of gender-based persecution. The warrants, which cite article 7(1)(h) of the Rome Statute, target supreme spiritual leader Hibatullah Akhundzada and Abdul Hakim Haqqani, who has been the chief justice of Afghanistan since 2021.
3. Iraqi Parliament Passes Law to Permit Marriage of Girls as Young as Nine
The Iraqi parliament has enacted legislation allowing the marriage of girls as young as nine. The law revokes a ban enacted in 1959 that made the statutory minimum age for marriage eighteen, with some allowance for individuals as young as fifteen to marry with legal approval.
Read here the full article published by the Council on Foreign Relations on 24 January 2025 .
This year, 18 of Africa’s 54 countries went to the polls for presidential or general elections, making 2024 a significant year on the continent. There were high hopes for renewed commitment to fair governance, transparency and equal representation. In particular there were hopes for women’s political participation, for more women to be elected to office to shape policies that address the needs of all citizens.
For more than a decade, we at the human rights organisation Make Every Woman Count (MEWC) have been tracking women’s political participation across Africa. Unfortunately, we did not see the progress we hoped for this year. In 2014, there were three women serving as heads of state across Africa. In 2024, there were two: the president of Tanzania, Samia Suluhu Hassan, and Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, who became Namibia’s first female president-elect on 3 December; the result is being contested in court. Nandi-Ndaitwah was the sole woman among 15 candidates, underscoring the persistent gender disparity in contests for high office.
Ghana also made history by electing Prof Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang as its first female vice-president.
Read here the full article published by The Guardian on 31 December 2024.
Image by The Guardian
Significant and, arguably, profound changes took place in Baltic high politics over the past four years. The peak pandemic years — 2020 and 2021 — proved quite pivotal for both Lithuania and Estonia, as both saw the emergence of the first most gender-balanced cabinets in the history of these countries, with Latvia following in 2022. The Estonian parliament elected the first woman prime minister, Kaja Kallas, whose cabinet had the largest number of women ministers. For almost a year, Estonia’s top political positions — the presidency and prime ministership — were held by two women, making Estonia the only parliamentary democracy ruled by elected women. Meanwhile, the Lithuanian prime minister, Ingrida Šimonytė, was the second woman to hold this position. Unlike her predecessor, Danutė Prunskienė, who served as the first woman prime minister of Lithuania more than 30 years ago (1990-1991) and was the only woman in her all-male cabinet, Šimonytė’s cabinet was the most gender-balanced in the modern history of the country. With the election of Evika Siliņa in September 2023 as Latvia’s prime minister, all three Baltic prime ministerships were held by women for about ten months — a historical first in the Baltic states’ politics.
Read here the full article published by the Foreign Policy Research Institute on 19 December 2024.
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Introduction
Gender equality has been a point of debate in the recent past. This is based on the ability to accord equal rights and opportunity for both genders where discrimination and prejudice are prevented. In Nigeria, gender equality and related issues are prevalent in different cases.
This is where the female gender is facing different inequalities and challenges, which are making it hard for them to cope and become effective in community participation and development (. This is based on the rise of various forms of conflict in the region, such as the Boko Haram and Harder-Farmer conflicts.
These are negatively impacting the country’s economy, and they are also affecting women and gender dynamics in the area. Therefore, this research outlines the way such conflicts have led to issues impacting women, such as gender-based violence, and also impacts the roles of women in society. Also, the discussion outlines the relationship between conflict and political participation of women in the country and the post-conflict challenges and opportunities available in the case of women in Nigeria.
Read here the full article published by The Vanguard on 7 January 2025.
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This is the second issue of our policy insight series on gender-inclusive conflict transformation. This paper explores the political re-conversion pathways that women ex-combatants pursue after the signing of a peace agreement. From 2022 to 2023, we engaged in focus group discussions, interviews, and peer-learning workshops with over 70 women ex-combatants from Colombia, El Salvador, and the Philippines. In this publication, we present their testimonies and analyse their experiences of continuing their engagement post-war through nonviolent means in both formal and informal political spheres.
Click here to read the full article published by Relief Web on 17 December 2024.
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International IDEA organized in August 2024, in Kampala, Uganda, a roundtable with the Adeela Foundation to discuss and evaluate the role of Sudanese women in peace and ending war initiatives. The dialogue covered the war’s economic, social and political impacts on women’s groups. Also, it addressed the violations that Sudanese women are subjected to in a systematic and regular manner by all parties to the war without exception.
The participants discussed the role of Sudanese women in establishing women’s initiatives to stop the war and the role of Sudanese women in peace initiatives and ending the war led by regional and international institutions. Among the important topics discussed by the participants was the issue of the challenges and difficulties that hinder the participation of Sudanese women in building peace and restoring stability in Sudan. The participants agreed on practical, responsive and implementable recommendations. The dialogue results and the final recommendations were directed to local, regional and international policymaking institutions.
Click here to read the full report published by International IDEA on 20 December 2024.
Despite some progress over the past decade, women's representation in political leadership remains limited globally. As of 1 January 2024, only 27 out of 159 countries are led by women – a modest increase from just 18 countries a decade ago (United Nations Women Headquarters Office 2024). Women represent 23% of cabinet members heading ministries worldwide in 2024; in Europe and Northern America, this share is 33%.
On the one hand, these numbers hint at the long road ahead to reach the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal of gender equality (SDG 5), which aims to ensure equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic, and public life (United Nations 2015). On the other hand, they underscore the need to understand to what extent the underrepresentation of women politicians matters for policy choices, especially in times of crises.
Read here the full article published by the Centre for Economic Policy Research on 12 November 2024.
Image by Centre for Economic Policy Research