Women's Leadership

A century ago, Nancy Astor made the train journey from her constituency in Plymouth, a city on the coast of southwest England, to London. There, on Dec. 1, 1919, she took her seat in Parliament — the first woman in British history to do so.

Ursula von der Leyen will be the first woman to chair the European Commission and will do it with the most gender-balanced college ever, but even though the participation of women in politics has improved in the EU, it is still not enough.

The new Commission president has made the fight for equality one of her main priorities. Asking member states to provide two names – female and male – for her college of Commissioners was the first step.

Nazra for Feminist Studies launches a campaign entitled: “A Shuttered Public Sphere”, as part of the events of the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence Campaign that starts on the 25th of November each year, which is the international day for the elimination of violence against women, and ends on the 10th of December, international Human Rights Day.

Setaweet Movement, a movement established to “create a space for dialogue, research and activism by Ethiopian women and men,” organized its first Annual All-Women Academia Conference on Saturday, November 23, 2019 under the theme ‘’Writing our rights.’’

Every general election is haunted by the ghosts of campaigns past. The most significant spectre in 2019 has to be Nancy Astor, who on December 1 1919 was the first woman to take her seat in the House of Commons as an elected member of the UK parliament – and to whom a statue was unveiled in Plymouth on November 28, the anniversary of her election. One wonders what she would make of the gender politics of this campaign.