Women's Leadership
Even at 92, Vigdis Finnbogadottir, who became the first elected female president of a country in 1980, is still a consummate politician and continues to speak out for women’s rights.
Finnbogadottir made a recent appearance at the Reykjavik Global Forum, where her attendance was celebrated by the country’s prime minister, Katrin Jakobsdottir and other high-level women in politics. The former president, in an interview, discussed women in leadership, women’s rights, and the situation in Afghanistan.
Breaking Barriers
When Finnbogadottir was elected in her country’s top job, she did not only become the world’s first elected woman president, but she went on to being the world’s longest-serving one as well. She was the country’s president for 16 years, between 1980 and 1996, and many Icelandic women and girls grew up with her as a role model, encouraging others to be involved in the country’s political life.
Click here to read the full article published by Forbes on 14 November 2022.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield and Gayle Smith on the choices they had to make to succeed, and why — from Iran to Afghanistan to America’s heartland — they think today’s young women will build a better world.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield and Gayle Smith both know what it’s like to be the only woman in the room. “I seethe every time I think about it,” says Thomas-Greenfield, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, recalling the moment at a U.N. meeting when a man across the table told her, “we thought you were going to be a good girl.”
Fearful of being labeled an “angry Black woman” she bit her tongue, and regrets it to this day.
In the latest installment of POLITICO’s 15 Conversations series, Thomas-Greenfield talks with Smith, a former USAID administrator, President Joe Biden’s global Covid response coordinator and now head of the ONE Campaign, about how to make sure more women are involved in crafting the future of the world — and why that would be better for everyone.
Click here to access the video.
Pourquoi privilégier l’étude des médias quand on travaille sur les questions de genre ?
En ce qui me concerne, je poserai la question des femmes politiques à partir de mon terrain d’observation qui est celui des médias, et plus spécifiquement, des médias d’information. Pourquoi privilégier cette focale quand on travaille sur les questions de genre ? Parce que, pour reprendre le propos du philosophe Michel Foucault, les médias sont « des technologies de pouvoir ». Reprenant Michel Foucault, Teresa de Lauretis, grande théoricienne du genre, va plus loin, et parle quant à elle de « technologies de genre » : à l’instar de l’école, de la famille ou des tribunaux, les médias participent à l’imposition de valeurs et de normes, de genre en particulier, tout en prétendant n’en être que le reflet.
Les médias d’information se présentent volontiers comme «le reflet de la réalité», «le miroir du monde». Il n’en est rien: comme le dit le Chat de Gelück, une autre de mes grandes références ! : «Quand on lit le journal, on croit apprendre ce qui se passe dans le monde. En réalité, on n’apprend que ce qui se passe dans le journal.» Journalistes et rédactions sont pétris des stéréotypes de genre et des rapports de domination genrés qui caractérisent la société dans son ensemble.
Cliquez ici pour lire l’article publié par 50/50 Magazine, le 22 septembre 2022.
Fixing discrimination isn't as easy as putting anti-discrimination laws on the books. But, there is a tool that can at least chip away at the effects of discrimination: quotas. Over 130 countries have adopted gender quotas…and around one-quarter of the world uses some form of affirmative action programs. So, do quotas actually work at creating more diverse and equitable societies.
In this episode of Entitled, Claudia and Tom learn how quotas are working—or not working—around the world. They speak with Rumbidzai Kandawasvika-Nhundu, senior adviser for democracy and inclusion at International IDEA; Tarunabh Khaitan, professor of Public Law and Legal Theroy at the University of Oxford; and Jessie Majome, former member of the National Assembly of Zimbabwe.
Click here to access the podcast.
About Women in Political Participation Project
Women in Political Participation (WPP) is a Pan-African gender project on the different facets of Women and Politics in Africa. Funded by Sida and implemented by International IDEA, its aim is to contribute to advancing the goal of gender equality in politics and governance, in line with the Maputo Protocol of 2003; various associated sub-regional protocols and standards, and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Inclusive of International IDEA as a leading partner, the Project brings together a consortium of seven partner organisations: The Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE), The African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET), Gender Links, Universite Cheikh Anta Diop’s Gender Laboratory (IFAN), Padare/Enkundleni Men’s Forum on Gender and Women and Law Southern Africa (WLSA). The project will be expanded across Africa once funds permit.
Click here to learn more.
Rabea Abouras is Member of the Libyan House of Representatives.
This interview was conducted on 8 September 2021, in Vienna (Austria), during the Fifth World Conference of Speakers of Parliament.
Click on the Settings button for subtitles in English, French, and Spanish.
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.