The lack of female federal MPs could be due in part to women being held back from climbing the political staffer career ladder, says the author of a study that reveals women start lower in the staffer hierarchy and progress at a slower rate than men.

The Australian National University study looked at staff phone directories from 1979 to 2010 - which list employees' job titles - to track the career progression of men and women in government political offices.

Arabs are increasingly saying they are no longer religious, according to the largest and most in-depth survey undertaken of the Middle East and North Africa.

The finding is one of a number on how Arabs feel about a wide range of issues, from women's rights and migration to security and sexuality.

For the first time ever, members of Parliament will have the right to take paid parental leave from their jobs on Parliament Hill when they adopt or give birth.

The House of Commons unanimously agreed to new rules that will allow new parents who are serving as MPs to take up to 12 months of parental leave. The rules give MPs who are expecting babies the right to take up to four weeks off as leave at the ends of pregnancies as well.

More than three-quarters of Democrats say gender and sexism factored into Hillary Clinton's 2016 election loss and a significant percentage of left-leaning male voters still don't trust a woman to defeat President Donald Trump in 2020.

A record number of women are running to be the next president of the United States, but Americans still don’t seem to think the country is ready for them, according to a new Daily Beast and Ipsos poll.