Youth
Moreover, online harassment and violence limit their opportunities to access the technological ecosystem.
With the aim of reducing the digital divide, and with the support of the Women’s Secretariat of Córdoba Province (Argentina), UN Women and Nokia launched a new phase of their global partnership to promote women’s empowerment through technology.
The initiative, “Connected to the Future: The Potential of Digital Training to Accelerate Equality”, was implemented throughout 2025 to improve women’s access to employment in key sectors and to foster entrepreneurship through training and the development of local networks.
“Gender inequalities are yet another expression of the structural inequalities that run through our societies. Good intentions are not enough: we need concrete political decisions, sustained over time and coordinated with all sectors,” stated Claudia Martínez, Women’s Secretary of Córdoba Province.
This partnership stands out for its collaborative and innovative approach alongside the private sector, its use of global and local resources, and UN Women’s expertise as a strategic partner.
The project is also aligned with the UN Women Strategic Plan 2022–2025, its digital inclusion strategy for Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs).
Full article here.
An overwhelming majority of American voters believe it’s important to elect more women to political office, but younger voters are the least open to voting for a woman as president, according to a new poll.
Despite broad support for more women in office across all demographics, Americans under 50 are the least likely to elect a woman president themselves, according to survey results from American University.
Nearly one in five voters said they or someone with whom they are close would not vote for a woman as president — including one-quarter of women under 50 and nearly 20 percent of men under 50. Only 13 percent of men and women over 50 said they would support a woman candidate.
The survey of 801 registered voters through the university’s Women and Politics Institute was performed online from September 3-6 and has a 3.5-point margin of error.
Despite wide majority support for more women in politics, the survey reveals paradoxical thinking among voters, who trust women on critical issues and want to see more of them in office while “persistent bias” and narrow expectations emerge when it comes to envisioning them as president.
Full article here.
When men outnumber women in a room on gender equality, it challenges the norm. Too often, these discussions are left to women alone. Men's active involvement shows shared responsibility, while women contribute authenticity and life experiences. Together, they strengthen the dialogue and help #DebunkSocialNorms.
The recent dialogue on male engagement in gender equality, convened by International IDEA through the EU-funded Women and Youth Democratic Engagement (WYDE) Women’s Leadership Initiative, highlighted an urgent truth: gender equality is not just a women’s issue. Addressing social norms and barriers to women’s political participation requires dismantling patriarchal systems that silence women and youth. This transformation cannot happen without men as proactive, transformative allies, moving beyond silent sympathy to meaningful action.
True engagement means that men challenge harmful social norms and stereotypes, reshape institutions and leadership cultures, take responsibility, and hold one another accountable. They must create space for women’s leadership in families, communities, institutions, and political systems. Promoting transformative masculinities rooted in equality, respect, and dignity is essential for reimagining political life. Men are not only stakeholders but also beneficiaries of gender equality, as patriarchy harms men too, trapping them in rigid expectations that limit health, relationships, and freedom. Gender equality uplifts women while liberating men, enabling societies where all can thrive.
Kevin Casas-Zamora, Secretary-General of International IDEA, reinforced this message, stating, “Gender equality is not a women’s issue. It is a democratic imperative about fairness, inclusion, and better outcomes for everyone.” He highlighted the persistent underrepresentation of women in leadership, the damaging effects of patriarchal norms on both genders, and the urgent need for men to act as allies and agents of change. His call to participants was clear: turn dialogue into concrete action. (View the Secretary-General's full video message for the Male Dialogue on Advancing Gender Equality and the Transformation of Social Norms, 21 August 2025, in Nairobi, Kenya.)
Framing gender equality solely as a “women’s issue” is misleading. Patriarchy harms men too, trapping them in rigid expectations that restrict health, relationships, and freedom. True gender equality uplifts women and liberates men, creating a society where everyone can thrive. Achieving gender equality requires a holistic approach, as patriarchal norms are reproduced across families, communities, economies, media, and political institutions. Only by addressing these interconnected systems can societies achieve inclusive, gender-equal democracies where everyone has the freedom to lead, participate, and thrive.
Globally, men continue to dominate political leadership, reflecting deeply entrenched patriarchal norms. According to the 2023 UNDP Gender Social Norms Index (GSNI), nearly half of the world believes men make better political leaders and only a third consider women’s equal rights essential to democracy.
In the family, gendered expectations often define women’s roles narrowly around caregiving and unpaid labor, while discouraging men from active participation in care and household responsibilities. In communities, traditions and cultural practices can reinforce unequal power dynamics, limiting women’s mobility, voice and opportunities. Traditional and religious male leaders often reinforce these biases. In the economy, structural inequalities are sustained by wage gaps, lack of access to resources, and the undervaluation of women’s contributions. The media plays a powerful role by shaping perceptions of leadership and success, often amplifying male voices while sidelining women’s achievements. Political parties, frequently led by men, act as powerful gatekeepers who decide which candidates are supported and which voices are heard.
Male engagement must extend into all of these spheres, dismantling harmful norms, promoting shared responsibility, and modeling equitable behavior. Only by addressing the interconnected systems that reproduce inequality can we achieve lasting change.
Overcoming these barriers requires more than legal frameworks or quotas. Inclusive democracy depends on cultural change across institutions, communities, and political spaces. Promoting transformative masculinities allows both women and men to lead, while dismantling norms that restrict participation and leadership. Despite persistent challenges, women continue to show resilience, leading communities, mobilizing support and advancing politically. Progress requires multi-level action: stronger legal frameworks, economic empowerment, recognition of invisible labor, media accountability, and genuine male allyship.
Therefore, #DebunkSocialNorms and #MenAsAllies must move beyond symbolic gestures, actively dismantling patriarchal structures to build a #DemocracyforAll that reflects the voices and capacities of everyone.
Despite calls for inclusive governance, women and youth remain underrepresented in national politics; experts urge the government to address structural barriers, harassment, and tokenistic participation that limit meaningful engagement and hinder the country from fully harnessing its most dynamic demographic.
Addressing the challenges, the Centre for Governance Studies (CGS), in collaboration with the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, hosted a roundtable on "Inclusive Politics: Women and Youth's Pathways to Leadership" today (25 September) in Dhaka.
CGS President Zillur Rahman, presiding over the dialogue, noted that Bangladesh's youth remain sidelined even a year after the July Uprising, and women continue to face societal and institutional barriers. "The success of any initiative to promote inclusive politics depends on political will," he said.
UN Women applauds the ECOSOC adoption today by consensus of the resolution on the revitalization of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), a process that will strengthen the leading UN body in advancing gender equality and the rights and empowerment of all women and girls.
This important resolution comes at a pivotal moment, reinforcing trust in international cooperation and demonstrating that progress through unity is not only possible, but essential. As the United Nations marks its 80th anniversary and advances its reform agenda, the resolution stands as a tangible triumph for multilateralism, placing gender equality at its heart. It is also a clear expression of shared commitment to the United Nations, the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action, and the advancement of the Pact for the Future.
UN Women commends the strengthened accountability measures introduced by the resolution. These measures will help accelerate implementation, translate commitments into measurable results, and create space for Member States to share best practices and lessons learned. The resolution also enables the Commission to convene its five-yearly review sessions in rotating locations around the world. This will bring CSW closer to the lived realities of women and girls and help bridge the gap between global commitments and local experiences.
2025 is a crossroads. One road leads to deeper poverty, weaker economies, and human rights stripped away. The other, propels economies forward, building safer societies and fairer futures for everyone.
What makes this year pivotal is the timeline: Just five years remain before the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development deadline, which the world set to make equality a reality for all. The Gender Snapshot 2025, produced by UN Women and the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, shows both the cost of failure and the gains within reach.
There are reasons to be hopeful. Girls are surpassing boys in school completion, women are gaining seats in parliament, and in just five years nearly 100 countries have scrapped discriminatory laws – from protecting girls from child marriage to establishing consent-based rape laws. But poverty, hunger, war, climate disasters, and backlash against feminism are eroding progress and could obliterate the gains made by a generation.
The data makes the choice we face clear: Equality could still be a reality for girls born today, but the world must invest now.
The global proportion of MPs aged under 30 has edged up to 2.6 per cent, according to the latest IPU report on Youth Participation in National Parliaments. This represents an increase of 0.4 percentage points compared with two years ago. However, with 50 per cent of the world’s population under 30, the report highlights a sizeable deficit in the political representation of young people worldwide.
Just over ten years ago, the IPU’s Member Parliaments adopted the 2010 resolution on youth participation in the democratic process. The resolution led to the creation of the Forum of Young Parliamentarians, the premier global body for the world’s youngest MPs. It also led the IPU to collect data and information on youth participation in parliaments. This latest report is the fourth in the series and is based on data from 2020.
Click here to access the report.
Summary of facts and figures on the participation of young people in politics based on 2020 figures.
Click here to access the infographic.
This Discussion Paper puts together relevant data on the inclusion of young people and women in European Parliament elections.
It is focused on two pitfalls of EU electoral democracy: voter absenteeism on the part of young people, and the under-representation of women in the European Parliament. Data have been combined from the European Election Studies (EES), the European Parliament, the Gender Statistics Database of the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE), face-to-face and telephone interviews, and semi-structured questionnaires. Additionally, policy papers and other relevant texts (authored by organizations dedicated to young people, women and think tanks, as well as Europarties and groups in the European Parliament) have been considered. The scope of the paper is European, although data at a national level from France, Poland and Spain (a founding EU country, an Eastern European country and a Southern European country) are introduced in different sections to shed light on national differences. With the purpose of enriching and making EU electoral democracy stronger, the author presents, as food for thought, some evidence on key elements to foster participation in European Parliament elections, as well as to reach a more balanced composition of the European Parliament in terms of age and gender.
Click here to see the academic article.
The Second Annual Summer School for Young Leaders from African Political Parties took place in Kigali, Rwanda, on 6–8 June 2018. The overall theme was ‘Youth participation in political processes: emerging trends of the negative aspects of money in politics’.
The Summer School unfolded in a context that recognized that youth participation in politics, especially by young women, either in the form of direct representation in political structures or within less formal modes of political engagement, remains limited across Africa.
These low levels of active participation and influence by young people unfold in a situation where young people constitute a very large and growing proportion of the general population.
Click here to see the report.
The Research and Advocacy Unit (RAU) has cited violence as a leading factor discouraging young women from actively participating in politics.
Zimbabwe will hold general elections next year, and women participation is pivotal as they constitute 52% of the population.
In a recent report titled “Do middle class women defend democracy?” RAU noted that young women shied away from politics mainly because of violence, polarization, corruption and nepotism.
“The general consensus was that political participation is risky and violence is too frequently a part of the contest; and politics are strongly associated with corruption and nepotism,” read part of the report.
Other reasons given for poor participation of young women in politics were difficulties encountered in registering to vote.
“The young women want to participate but are failing to find spaces they are comfortable in to express themselves politically, and it is important for them to see that sitting out is also a political statement.
Click here to read the report.
The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, or CEDAW, is an international legal instrument that requires countries to eliminate discrimination against women in all areas and promotes women’s equal rights. CEDAW is often described as the international bill of rights for women.