Democracy and the equal participation of men and women in the political arena are closely intertwined. No parliament or any decision-making body can claim to be representative without the participation of both men and women. As stated in the Universal Declaration on Democracy adopted by the Inter-Parliamentary Union’s Member Parliaments in 1997, "The achievement of democracy presupposes a genuine partnership between men and women in the conduct of the affairs of society in which they work in equality and complementarity, drawing mutual enrichment from their differences."
Recent years have seen a steady increase in the number of women in parliament, though the world average of less than 22 percent remains far from the goal of parity between women and men. The election of women to the highest positions of state and government in several countries has also contributed to the changing face of politics.
While the road to election is a difficult one, the challenges for women do not stop there. Once women enter parliament or other bodies, they are faced with many new challenges. Parliament is traditionally a male-oriented domain where the rules and practices have been written by men. It is, therefore, an ongoing challenge to transform parliament into a gender-sensitive environment, to ensure that actions are gender-sensitive and to guarantee that gender is mainstreamed throughout the legislature.
A record number of women have been elected to the Australian Parliament. Anger about the Coalition Government's lack of action on gender equality has been one of the issues propelling the teal independents into parliament.
The sexist comment was made as the two parties sparred over reservations for OBC (Other Backward Class) in Maharashtra.
'A proud moment for us,' says Dalit body after Midha's election; she represents the Labour Party.
A country ranking among the world’s lowest for political participation by women has enormous social bias to overcome.
Cambodia organised the National Forum on ‘Women in Leadership and Governance’ acknowledging increasing number of women in key leadership roles in the country.
Diversity advocates welcome new additions but say there is still a long way to go before parliament reflects Australian society
"Women hold just 30 per cent of seats in Parliament; only two of 12 premiers are women. It matters because women matter."
The result announcement of elections held on May 13 have revealed two women candidates as the winners of mayoral elections in two local levels of Rautahat district.
