Women's Leadership
“Increasing the proportion of women in public institutions makes them more representative, increases innovation, improves decision-making and benefits whole societies” - António Guterres, United Nations Secretary-General, Message on International Women’s Day 2017
Background
In 2015, governments unanimously endorsed the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda and, through its Goal 16 on “promoting just, peaceful and inclusive societies” and Goal 5 on “ensuring gender equality and women’s empowerment,” recognized the role of gender equality and inclusive public administration and institutions in achieving more peaceful, prosperous, equal and sustainable societies.
Public administration refers to the aggregate state-funded machinery, including agencies, policies and services, in charge of the management and implementation of laws, regulations and decisions of the government. It enables countries to implement national policies and programmes and is essential in driving sustainable development[1].
In many countries, public institutions continue to be male-dominated and patriarchal, perpetuating harmful, and sometimes violent, attitudes and practices. Although there is no global baseline on women’s participation in public administration, existing research from UNDP shows that women are under-represented, especially in leadership and decision-making roles. The available data suggests that women make up on average 45% of public administration, yet there is high variation of women’s participation across countries, ranging from 3% to 77%. The overall share of women in public administration is highest, on average, in OECD countries (55.1%), and lowest in the Arab States (35.9%). However, when looking at the share of women in decision-making positions in public administration, the highest average share is found in Latin America and the Caribbean (43.4%) and the lowest in Africa (25.1%). Moreover, just 20% of countries have reached parity (50%) in the share of women in decision-making positions of public administration[2].
Diversity, including equal access of women to leadership roles, is not only the right thing to do but also the most productive. A recent UNDP and McKinsey study found that female participation in public administration and in decision-making roles is positively correlated with economic development as well as gender equality in society. It also suggests that women’s equal participation and leadership creates conducive environment for a better and more effective government. These findings are reinforced by another recent report by the Wilson Center that concludes: “where there are more women in power, there is better governance, and where there is good governance, there are more women in power.”
Objective
This e-Discussion is a forum to promote a dialogue on the role of women in public administration and decision-making and exchange knowledge and good practices on ways to increase and strengthen women’s participation in public administration and decision-making and ensure public institutions are safe and free of sexual harassment and gender-based violence. Please join the e-Discussion from 28 March to 19 April 2019. Women and men in politics and in public administration, national and local government representatives, civil society activists, experts, practitioners, and academia are invited to contribute with their experiences by answering to one or more of the below questions. The submissions will contribute to the elaboration of a Consolidated Reply that will augment the knowledge base available on the topic.
Questions
- Data is essential in identifying trends and shape targeted and effective policy responses. What is the level of women’s participation in public administration in your country? What about women in senior management positions in public institutions?
- There are many barriers to women’s full and equal participation in public administration and leadership. For example, women in public administration often face sexual harassment and gender-based violence[3]. Do women in public administration in your country face sexual harassment and/or gender-based violence? What are other barriers hindering women’s equal participation in leadership and decision-making roles in your country?
- What can be done to increase the equal and full participation of women, including young women, in public administration at all levels? What can be done to ensure public administration is free from sexual harassment and gender-based violence? Please share examples of good practices.
- Have women in public administration in your country used their position to advance sustainable development and peace? Please share examples.
To contribute
- Use the below comment section below.
- Send your contribution to connect@iknowpolitics.org so that we can post it on your behalf.
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[1] Public Administration Reform: Practice Note. UNDP, 2004.
[2] GEPA Initiative Database. UNDP and University of Pittsburgh, 2019.
[3] A recent report by the Inter-Parliamentary Union and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe revealed an alarming amount of sexual and psychological harassment/bullying targeting female staff of parliaments in Europe. 40.5% of those interviewed said that they had suffered acts of sexual harassment in their work and 50% had received comments of a sexual nature.
Over the last decade, iKNOW Politics has spoken with many women leaders around the world about the challenges they face in political life. Women interviewed often speak openly about the difficulties of combining a political career with family responsibilities, and in particular, the frequent travel required to meet with constituents or attend parliamentary sessions and committee meetings, usually held away from the family home, in the capital. This travel necessarily involves leaving family members – young or old – in the care of others, such as partners, parents and professional carers (e.g. nannies, child care workers, nurses, respite careers).
Some women politicians also expressed concern for their family members who become endangered when as MPs they are seen to be “too outspoken” on sensitive issues.
In this discussion, we want to hear about good practices in improving work/life balance for women and men MPs, and parliamentary staff who can also work the same long hours as MPs and who frequently travel with MPs in support of committee meetings.
Measures to encourage work/life balance
• What measures have MPs personally put in place to balance work and family responsibilities?
• What measures have been put in place by the political workplace (be it the parliament, the local council, the government department/ministry) to ensure work/life balance?
Transforming social norms and gender stereotypes
• What attitudinal barriers do women face in trying to balance work and family?
• Do men face the same attitudinal barriers?
• What good practices are evident in transforming social norms and gender stereotypes about women’s role in public life?
The impact of work/life balance on the political career
• What are the research findings on the impact of work/life balance on political careers of women?
• Is work/life balance a consideration for both men and women when deciding to embark on a political career? Why or why not?
Welcome to the circle on Young Women and Political Leadership. In this circle, iKNOW Politics members are invited to share their ideas and experiences about the participation of young women in politics and public life. It would be interesting to hear what iKNOW Politics members think are are the main obstacles for young women to participate in politics? Are there any effective measures to overcome such barriers and to engage more young women in politics?
Politics is a tough subject: it can either paint you as a villain or the master of progress.Sithembile Mbete is a political analyst whose passion goes beyond reporting. She questions the status quo and is not afraid to call out those who abuse power.
How did you become a political analyst?
I studied politics, French and economics for my undergraduate degree, then did honours and masters in international relations at UCT. My first job was at IDASA, a think tank, where I monitored parliamentary committee meetings and helped analyse the 2011 local government elections. That’s where I learned the ropes of political analysis.
I also got involved in civil society campaigning against the “Secrecy Bill”, which gave me insight into political activism and grassroots organising. After that I worked in the Presidency as a researcher for the National Planning Commission Secretariat, which gave me an insider’s view of the government. It was quite an education! I decided to further my studies with a PhD at the University of Pretoria where I’ve been a senior lecturer and researcher since 2013.
Read here the full interview published by Glamour on 28 March 2025.
Image by Glamour
In this final episode of Season 1, we reflect upon what women political leaders in South Asia have told us about their career journeys with our guests. We delve into bringing role models closer to youth, especially young women aspiring to be in politics.
Listen here to the full podcast posted by the Centre for Gender And Politics South Asia on 11 November 2024.
Black women have long played a key role in protecting voting rights and urging their communities to cast ballots. This three-part series highlights their work as they build political power and demand a seat at the table.
ATLANTA ‒ Mary-Pat Hector headed one recent afternoon down the promenade that connects historically Black colleges here, stopping at a table draped with a bright blue tablecloth. “Rise” was emblazoned across the front.
The 26-year-old leader of the nonpartisan organization checked in with organizers who had spent hours urging students at Clark Atlanta University to register to vote.
“Excuse me, queen. Are you registered to vote?’’ one organizer asked a passerby.
Before she left, Hector had collected the 263 cards from students who pledged to vote and seven forms from students who'd registered. The stop was one of many in the organization’s effort to connect with thousands of students across the country.
“It always felt like this was something I just needed to do,’’ said Hector, whose passion to protect voting rights grew during the 2016 presidential election. “I knew that there was a sense of urgency, that we were like beating down the clock ‒ the same feeling that I feel right now.”
Read here the full article published by USA Today News on 20 October 2024.
Image by USA Today News
NPR's Ari Shapiro talks to University of Houston's Mirya Holman about why women in political leadership tend to be referred to by their first names more often than their male counterparts.
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST: A moment from four years ago might feel familiar to any woman in a position of authority.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
SUSAN PAGE: Kamala Harris - Senator Harris, I mean - I'm sorry.
KAMALA HARRIS: That's fine. I'm Kamala.
PAGE: No, no, no...
HARRIS: (Laughter).
PAGE: ...You're Senator Harris to me.
SHAPIRO: That was the vice presidential debate in 2020, where moderator Susan Page slipped and called Senator Harris by her first name. Research shows that this happens to women in positions of power all the time, whether they are authors, professors or even vice president of the United States. So if you've noticed people referring to Trump, Biden and Kamala, it's not your imagination.
Mirya Holman studies gender in American politics at the Hobby School of Public Affairs at the University of Houston, and I asked her whether this first-name gender gap is simply evidence of a bias against women.
MIRYA HOLMAN: One of the pieces that I think is going on here is that women are not seen as the norm in politics. They're unusual. And so people think about who they are in a different way. I do actually think it is a sign of disrespect in an environment where you have multiple candidates, and you're referring to one by her first name and then all of the men by their last name. You are making her the exception and not giving her that very small piece of respect that we give people in positions of power.
Read here the full interview published by NPR on 24 July 2024.
Image by NPR
Welcome to the first installment of the new "International Election Series," where they explore the vital role women play in shaping democratic processes around the world. In this episode, they delve into the recent Mexican elections, examining how women candidates influence politics.
RepresentWomen’s Communications Director Ashley Thurston, International Research Manager Fatma Tawfik, and Mexican scholar interviewed Jennifer Piscopo and Catherine Reyes-Housholder about the historic Mexican elections.
See here the full episode published by RepresentWomen on 8 July 2024.
Image by RepresentWomen
Here we are in another presidential election year. (Pause for scream.) Chaos will surely abound on the campaign trail and elsewhere, but we here at Cosmo have found a way to not only survive elections but to use them to feel tangibly better about the world: Focus on the women.
A few elections ago, this took the form of our award-winning guide telling women exactly How to Run for Office. It felt urgent—at the time, only 8 percent of women told us they’d even consider running for office. Fast-forward seven years and nearly one-third of our state legislature seats are held by women. Twenty-eight percent of elected officials in Congress are women (compared to 19 percent 10 years ago). And we have our first-ever woman Vice President.
Now there’s a new urgency: While more women are gaining elected positions, they’re facing frustrating—and frustratingly gendered—obstacles once they’re on the job. So we’ve decided to publish a new guide about how to succeed in office once you get there.
It’s perhaps no surprise that for elected women, success requires the support of other women. Take it from our partner on the project, Pivotal Ventures, an investment and philanthropic company founded by Melinda French Gates to put $1 billion toward expanding women’s power and influence in the U.S. I caught up with Melinda—or “MFG” as her colleagues fondly call her and now so do I—this spring, right before Election Year 2024 really went into overdrive, to talk about our shared passion for helping all women thrive.
Read here the full article published by Cosmopolitan on 16 May 2024.
Image by Cosmopolitan
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VVEngage is a Vital Voices signature fellowship supporting outstanding women political leaders making and influencing policy across the globe. Through this fully-funded fellowship, we aim to increase the capacity, decision-making power and effectiveness of women leaders in politics and government, shifting culture around women’s public leadership and moving towards equality in public representation globally. We also aim to work towards a more inclusive and equitable world by advancing the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through policy.
Through this fellowship, Vital Voices advances women’s political leadership and the SDGs by conducting online and in-person* trainings with experts such as women leaders from the Vital Voices Global Network and professors from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. The fellowship also connects participants to a global network of peers and mentors, such as current and former female heads of state with the Council of Women World Leaders, with whom they can brainstorm and share challenges and best practices.
Click here to learn more and to access application details.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has developed a 10-Point Action Agenda for Advancing Gender Equality in Crisis Settings (10PAA), a roadmap to guide its development programming towards results that will help transform and advance gender equality in crisis contexts and achieve the Women, Peace and Security agenda. The 10PAA is central to UNDP’s new Crisis Offer, as well as its new Gender Equality Strategy 2022-2025. It represents a strong corporate commitment to addressing the most stubborn roots of gender inequalities.
The 10PAA is the result of a broad consultation process that aimed at finding entry points to strengthen gender-transformational results and women’s leadership and participation in crisis contexts. It is grounded in the understanding that deep-rooted, intersectional discrimination sits at the heart of the multiple challenges humanity faces and reinforces models of dominance that exclude and leave women behind, especially in crisis settings.
Click here to access the publication.
Online violence against women in politics (OVAW-P) poses a deepening challenge to democracy, serving as a key tool of illiberalism and democratic backsliding across the globe. OVAW-P encompasses all forms of aggression, coercion, and intimidation seeking to exclude women from politics simply because they are women. This online behavior seeks to achieve political outcomes: targeting individual women to harm them or drive them out of public life, while also sending a message that women in general should not be involved in politics. This online violence has a chilling effect on the political ambitions and engagement of women and girls, decreasing their presence and agency in politics and public life. Stopping gender-based attacks online is a solvable problem, and it is the fastest and clearest investment toward building an internet that enables everyone to be politically engaged.
This report includes a list of interventions that technology platforms, governments, civil society organizations, and the media can take to make meaningful progress towards ending online violence against women in politics.
Click here to access the report.
The Women in Government Fellowship is a six-month program that is focused on capacity-building, training, and mentorship of women in politics. It seeks to enhance and improve the quality of political participation of women.
The fellows will undergo in-person workshops, intensive virtual learning sessions, and hands-on mentorship by seasoned women politicians. This three-pronged approach will provide an academic grounding of democratic frameworks and policy-making, up-skill them with practical know-hows of electioneering, build the fellows' personal brands through personalised Public Narrative trainings by coaches from Harvard Kennedy School, and learn the ropes of politicking directly from a mentor who is undergoing the realities and tackling the challenges of being a woman in public office.
Application deadline: 30th November 2022
Shortlisted applicants' interviews: 5-15th December 2022
Selected Fellows list: 21st December 2022
Click here to learn more.
A compendium of ideas to reach gender parity in municipal politics
How can we begin to overcome the countless obstacles that are preventing women from fully participating in municipal politics?
The suggestions in this Inventory were compiled following consultations we carried out across Canada, as part of FCM’s Toward Parity Project.
These actions are not official FCM recommendations. They are potential strategies that need to be assessed to determine whether they can be adapted to fit local realities and opportunities.
Click here to access the guide.
To inform our own programming on advancing gender-balanced appointments and to establish a scalable, replicable, transformative model for advancing gender-balanced appointments, RepresentWomen gathered learnings from five similar initiatives around the country.
The following summary reviews these conversations:
- Key ingredients for success
- Stumbling blocks
- What they wish they knew
- Common tactics
Click here to access the guide.
For its inaugural Solutions Summit, RepresentWomen gathered experts in election administration, voting rights, and democracy reform to discuss the viable, scalable, and transformative initiatives that will strengthen our democracy. Over the course of three days, they held sessions on fair elections, fair access, and fair representation, ending each day with ways we could take actions to advance the solutions discussed that day.
They compiled all of those ideas, resources, and guides into one place to create this 2022 Solutions Summit Resource Guide, which provides a plethora of take-action options so you can be a part of the solution.
Click here to download the guide.
The internet is a tool that can simplify and encourage democratic engagement, but the rise of online disinformation challenges even the world’s most robust democracies. While the most recognizable disinformation campaigns are related to national politics, disinformers frequently employ narratives targeting women’s gender and sexuality in order to disrupt democracy. This is often then amplified by media agents and the general population, who may not have the intent to drive disinformation nor the capacity to discern it. NDI’s robust research in this field concludes that gendered disinformation is the use of false information to confuse or mislead by manipulating gender as a social cleavage to attack women and/or to sway political outcomes. It has three primary goals: to keep women out of politics; to change the views of women and men about women’s political participation; and specifically to change party policies or political outcomes. In short, it aims to undermine women’s free and equal participation in politics to the detriment of inclusive, resilient democracy.
Based on research conclusions, this paper outlines recommendations for NDI, its partners and those working globally to mitigate the democratic harms of disinformation, to ensure women’s safe participation and leadership in politics, and to monitor the social media and information environment in elections.
Click here to access the guide.
This guide is designed to increase the understanding of the legal obligations of countries in the West and Central Africa (WCA) region to achieve gender equality in decision-making. It focuses on strengthening efforts to improve the legal framework in the region to ensure that laws are clearly drafted, implementable and effective. Special focus is devoted to the processes by which laws supporting political participation of women are developed, negotiated, drafted, passed and implemented. It aims to strengthen law-making processes that build and secure the legal rights of women who want to run for elections and who are ready to take over leadership positions in their parliaments and governments. Legal instruments are presented that can be used to advance the political participation of women.
The comparative experiences presented in this guide address both examples of good practices and laws that have failed because their regulations are imprecise, unclear and/or lack effective sanctions. The guide presents also various provisions of laws resulting from different constitutional requirements or electoral systems, assessing their advantages and disadvantages.
Click here to download the guide published by UN Women in 2021.
This Handbook has been developed as publication by register of Political Parties with support from the Papua New Guinea Election Commission and the United Nations Development Programme in Papua New Guinea. This is part of UN Women Make the Change programme funded by the Australian Government’s Pacific Women Shaping Pacific Development Programme.
Click here to download the report.