Women’s Caucus Fact Sheet
The Women Caucus Sheet analyses the objectives when forming a women´s caucus, its structure, and results. It also highlghts some emblematic cases.
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.
Parliament, the Budget and Gender: Handbook for Parliamentarians
This handbook sets out practical examples of parliament's active engagement in the budgetary process.
The Impact of Women’s Participation and Leadership on Policy Outcomes: A Focus on Women’s Policy Machineries
This paper is to focus on the role of women policy agencies in enhancing women’s political participation with a particular emphasis on their influence on women’s participation and leadership in policy outcomes.
Explaining Women’s Representation: The Role of Legislative Recruitment & Electoral Systems
This paper examines the principal steps involved in the process of recruiting individuals to countries’ legislatures. It also looks at the effect of development, culture, and a country’s electoral system on women’s representation.
The Participation of Women and Men in Decision-Making: The Parliamentary Dimension
This paper focuses on the quantitative aspect of women's participation in parliaments, primarily in the past ten years.
Equality in Politics: A Survey of Women and Men in Parliaments
This survey collates insights from both men and women parliamentarians into the factors that shape decision making.
Women in Parliament in 2007: The Year in Perspective
This brochure provides an overview and analysis of progress made, and setbacks encountered, by women in accessing parliament during elections and renewals held in 2007.
Women in Politics: 2008 (Poster)
This poster provides a snapshot of the presence of women in the executive and legislative branches of government in January 2008.
The Role of Parliamentary Committees in Mainstreaming Gender and Promoting the Status of Women
As part of its efforts to strengthen the capacity of parliaments to promote gender equality and respect for women's rights, the IPU organised a first seminar of parliamentary bodies dealing with gender issues.