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Parliaments and Representatives

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.

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#NotInMyParliament—Sexism, harassment and violence against women parliamentarians

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#NotInMyParliament—Sexism, harassment and violence against women parliamentarians

Violence against women is one of the most widespread human rights violations, and the world of politics is also affected by this scourge.

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July 3, 2019
To accelerate gender equality, UN Women launches a Call to Action to parliamentarians

(Tokyo, 27 June)—In the lead up to the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (Beijing+25) and UN Women’s ground-breaking campaign commemorating the anniversary, “Generation Equality: Realizing women’s rights for an equal

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July 3, 2019
Meet the European Parliament's youngest ever MEP

The new-look European Parliament includes the youngest person ever to sit as an MEP.

Kira Peter-Hansen, from Denmark, is just 21 and was still studying at university when she was elected.

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June 21, 2019
Malawi Parliament picks first woman Speaker: Catherine Gotani Hara

Hon Catherine Gotani Hara, a lawmaker with the main opposition Malawi Congress Party, MCP, has been elected speaker of the country’s parliament becoming the first woman speaker.

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June 10, 2019
Scottish Parliament campaign launched to get more women to becomes MSPs

A major Holyrood drive has been unveiled aimed at getting more women to become MSPs after numbers stalled in recent years.

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June 6, 2019
Finland's new female-powered government sworn in

Finland's new center-left coalition government has been sworn in, with the country's first Social Democratic prime minister in 16 years assuming office along with a climate issue-focused Cabinet where women are in the majority.

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June 6, 2019
Breaking the glass ceiling: How these women parliamentarians made it

With a record 78 MPs, this election proved that female candidates can win.

Meet some first-timers without any political lineage to find out the odds they conquered on the way to Parliament.

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June 3, 2019
Record number of women become MEPs – but men still dominate

More women have been elected to the European parliament than ever before but men still account for 60% of MEPs, according to an early analysis of the European 

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May 31, 2019
724 women contested Lok Sabha polls, 78 were elected, yet only 3 made it to PM Modi's cabinet

The newly-elected 17th Lok Sabha set the record with highest number of woman: 78 MPs. However, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet, which was sworn-in on Thursday, in a largest-ever gathering, has only six women ministers in the government.

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