Youth
In recent years, young men and women in Generation Z have moved in opposite political directions, producing a gender gap unlike any other generation before. Young men have increasingly leaned towards the conservative, Republican party while women have moved towards the liberal, Democratic party. While gender gaps are a feature in every generation, none have been as stark as Gen Z.
Who is the main driver? Women. They are now the force pushing Gen Z towards the left politically and socially, and becoming increasingly more civically active compared to any other generation. There are divides not just about how they feel about political candidates, but cultural issues which could deeply affect America.
Read More here.
International Women’s Day 2026 | Rights. Justice. Action. For ALL Women and Girls.
This International Women’s Day, we’re inviting people across the Pacific to share, through poetry, spoken word, or song, what fairness, dignity, safety, freedom and opportunity for women and girls really looks like in their lives.
Submit one original creative piece and be part of a Pacific-wide call for voices, truth, and action for gender equality.
Read More here.
Digital spaces offer both opportunities and risks for women in politics. While online platforms can enhance visibility, engagement, and political participation, they also expose women to harassment, disinformation, and exclusion risks that are amplified for marginalized groups. A recent discussion highlighted how social norms, gender biases, and power hierarchies are reproduced online, and explored strategies to protect women, including legal frameworks, community support, digital literacy, and proactive allyship. The conversation emphasized the need for systemic accountability, individual resilience, and cultural change to create safer, more inclusive digital spaces for women’s political participation worldwide.
Full report available here.
Full webinar available here.
Elon Musk’s X “is not doing enough to keep its customers safe online”, a minister has said, as the UK government prepares to outline possible action against the platform over the mass production of sexualised images of woman and children.
Peter Kyle, the business secretary, said the government would fully support any action taken by Ofcom, the media regulator, against X – including the possibility that the platform could be blocked in the UK.
Kyle said Ofcom had received information it had requested from X as part of a fast-tracked investigation into the use of platform’s built-in AI tool, Grok, to generate large numbers of manipulated images of people, often depicting them in minimal clothing or sexualised poses.
The technology secretary, Liz Kendall, who said on Friday that she expected action from Ofcom within days, is due to give a statement to the Commons on Monday afternoon.
In its 2025 Year in Review, WONGOSOL highlighted sustained advocacy efforts, strong partnerships with government institutions and expanded grassroots engagement that strengthened women’s leadership and amplified the voices of women, youth, and persons with disabilities nationwide.
Throughout 2025, WONGOSOL remained actively engaged with the Executive, Legislature and Judiciary to promote gender-responsive laws and policies.
Key focus areas included women’s political participation, access to justice, gender-responsive budgeting, and accountability in governance. The organization worked closely with the Women Legislative Caucus of Liberia and relevant government ministries, including the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Health, and Ministry of Internal Affairs, to advance the Liberian Women’s Agenda.
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.