Women's Leadership
In 1991, Anita Hill testified about her allegations of sexual harassment against then-Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas. As she stood before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Hill was attacked, vilified, and dismissed by a group of 14 senators—all of them white males—and the threat to women’s fundamental rights posed by a male-dominated government was realized in a very public arena. This inspired a surge of women to run for office, a number of whom were elected to the Senate in 1992, dubbed the Year of the Woman.
Fast-forward 27 years, and here we are again, in the midst of a disturbing déjà vu. The Senate Judiciary Committee convened, once more, over sexual misconduct allegations made against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh—a man appointed by a president who, himself, has been accused of sexual harassment and assault by 22 women. Kavanaugh has now been confirmed and sworn into the highest court in the land. As such, the progress made by generations before us is at stake—from the push towards holding men accountable for their actions, to preserving women’s reproductive rights, and everything in between.
But outrage has again been channeled into political action this election cycle, as more women seek office. And they’re not just signing up to run in record numbers—they’re winning. Currently only 23 of the 100 senators are female, while less than 20 percent of the House is made up of women. Prominent female candidates are gaining momentum though, and a historic 256 women have qualified for the November ballot in House or Senate races. They bring with them diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and professional experiences that can help restore balance and push for greater representation in our halls of power.
This year presents a particularly extraordinary opportunity to shatter glass ceilings of all types, from Georgia’s Stacey Abrams, who could be the first African-American woman governor in the country, to Arizona’s Kyrsten Sinema, who could be the first openly bisexual woman in the Senate. We spoke to a range of leaders, from congressional nominees to campaign organizers, about the increased involvement of politically active women in the wake of President Donald Trump’s election. How do they believe the future of politics will change as a result, and what advice do they have for women who want to get involved? Are we on the precipice of a new Year of the Woman? Here’s what they had to say:
Click here to read the interviews published by Coverteur on 23 October 2018.
KAMPOT, Cambodia — Chan Kanha is the deputy mayor for the Cambodian People’s Party in this small port town, which sits along Cambodia’s southern coast and still retains much of its French colonial architecture. The Cambodian People’s Party, or CCP, is led by Prime Minister Hun Sen, who has run the country for the last 33 years. He claimed victory again in an election in August, winning an estimated 100 of 125 parliamentary seats in what could only be described as a single-party election. The party claims to have won 80 percent of the vote.
Apart from a serious lack of plurality, what Cambodian politics is largely missing is women. In the Parliament, which is controlled by the Party, for example, only eight of the 58 senators are women.
Click here to read the full interview published by Pass Blue on 23 October 2018.
In a deeply personal journey, Strike a rock follows Primrose Sonti and Thumeka Magwangqana, two grandmothers and best-friends living in Nkaneng, Marikana, an informal-settlement in rural South-Africa that sprung up around a mine operated by Lonmin Plc. This was the company at the heart of the 2012 Marikana massacre, when 37 striking-mineworkers were killed by police.
In this podcast you'll hear from Director Aliki Saragas, Acting Deputy Director of the Centre for Applied Legal Studies, Palesa Madi and former congresswoman for Maryland's 4th congressional district, Donna Edwards
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A record-breaking number of women are running for office in 2018. CNN's Brooke Baldwin hits the trail with some of the women looking to make history, gaining unprecedented access and behind-the-scenes coverage of a historical election cycle.
Click here to watch the video.
By Josephine Agbonkhese Poised to halt the slide in their political fortune ahead of the 2019 general elections, women politicians from various political affiliations in states across the country recently launched a coalition, the Women in Politics Interparty Network. In this interview, Dr Emilia Ezeude, President of the Lagos chapter and an aspirant to the House of Representatives on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, under the Ajeromi-Ifelodun Federal Constituency, speaks of the coalition’s plans and reels out lessons from her political experiences.
Click here to read the full article published by Vanguard on 23 August 2018.
Forbes Women Africa met up with former Malawian President Joyce Banda in Johannesburg just before her return to Malawi after four years away. One of four female presidents Africa has ever had, she spoke about her plans but is guarded about her return to politics.
Click here to read the interview.
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.