Elections

The average Swiss parliament member is male, well-educated and 50 years old. This year’s elections have accentuated an already existing trend.

“The 2023 elections have resulted in less diversity,” says Daniel Höhmann, a political scientist at the University of Basel. “This is a step backwards in terms of the representation of the different segments of the Swiss population.”

Political parties claim to have met the minimum national quota of 30 percent for female candidates, but a recent report has found that only one party competing in the 2024 legislative election meets the requirement at the district level. For two decades since the enactment of the 2003 Legislative Elections Law, each political party contesting a legislative election has been required to field a cohort of candidates of which at least 30 percent are female.

Almost every council in Australia has a gallery of “dead men”, says Licia Heath. In the Cairns regional council, the gallery of past mayors – overwhelmingly white and male – is in the civic reception room.

Nearly 17 months after the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade, abortion rights supporters celebrated in Ohio after voters added the right to access abortion care to the state’s constitution.

Move Forward Party MPs Wuttipong Thonglour and Chaiyamparwaan Manpianjit were expelled from the party after it was decided by the party’s disciplinary board that they had sexually harassed party volunteers.

Zimbabwe’s recent election has exposed weak gender policies both at the political party and governmental levels as women were sidelined despite the fact that they make up more than half of the 6.5 million electorate.

Herald on Sunday research shows that despite promises to act from most parties, just a third of all the candidates selected to fight the next general election are women.

The SNP has selected substantially more candidates than any other party, with 53 of the 57 they will need for the vote in place. Of those 35 are men, around 66%.