Women's Leadership

Domestic responsibilities and social constructs are the biggest hurdles to improving women's participation in politics, a researcher at the University of Indonesia's Politics Review Center (Puskapol UI), Beni Telaumbanua, has said.

"Women encounter a domestic challenge in the form of their responsibility as a wife or a mother," he noted at a webinar on 'Ensuring Women's Participation in the General Election', streamed live on YouTube here on Tuesday.

Was it the year of the woman? Angela Merkel left the political stage. New Zealand's Jacinda Ardern and Taiwan’s Tsai Ing-wen were given gold stars for their respective responses to the pandemic. And Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya emerged as Belarus’ democracy warrior.

Democracy Works Foundation (DWF) in conjunction with Botswana Editors Forum Botswana recently held a two-day workshop to train journalists on how media can play a supportive role in advancing meaningful participation of women in politics.

Currently DWF is implementing a year-long program in Botswana geared towards the advancement and development of women in politics.

In just two years, the pandemic has threatened decades worth of progress towards gender equality. As of December 2020, women suffered a net loss of over 5 million jobs due to COVID-19; in 2021, one in three women reported that they may end up downshifting their careers or leaving the workforce entirely if conditions don’t improve in the United States.

In a society of transition, the role of women is also in transition in Bhutan, but the farsighted leadership of Their Majesties the Kings has helped Bhutanese women progress. This message came out strongly as three Bhutanese women, who worked closely with women, talked about their experience as important leaders and trailblazers for the Friedrich Naumann Foundation in Germany on the night of December 16.

Forty. That's the number of countries around the world that have chosen a woman to lead since Julia Gillard was ousted on June 27, 2013. In the past year alone, Sweden, Tunisia, Samoa and Estonia all elected their first female prime ministers while Tanzania, Honduras and Barbados chose women as their presidents.

This month, Germany's Angela Merkel handed over the reins after four consecutive terms as chancellor — 16 years and 16 days to be precise, just 10 days shy of a record.