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.
In Cameroon, defenders of gender equality and the empowerment of women today have a reason to celebrate. This follows the announcement of the results of the legislative elections held on 30 September 2013.
Hillary Clinton's near-tear on the eve of the 2008 New Hampshire primary was a political game-changer.
The Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi has only seven women candidates out of 62. AAP is struggling to find women candidates willing to join politics. CNN-IBN spoke to some of the women candidates, including Rakhi Birla, who is contesting from the Mangolpuri constituency, a seat reserved for Dalits.
Yesterday I sat through three hours of evidence trying to get to the bottom of who said what at a meeting about who said what during a five minute altercation a year ago.
The Pacific region has the lowest level of representation of women in national legislatures, a tag that it would like to shake off.
But one woman who has made it into her national parliament is Charmaine Scotty.
Senator Patty Murray, D-Wash., once said her experience as a preschool teacher was excellent training for Congress.