Political Parties

Unfriendly political environmental factors, culture, tradition and religious belief, low level of education as some of the barriers militating against Nigerian women’s participation in politics. Barriers, including gender discrimination, marginalised party policies, lack of confidence and self assertion, family value, among others, also prevent women from playing active roles in the Nigerian political terrain, declaring that these notwithstanding, women still had important roles to play in the political arena.

In a bid to connect with women voters, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)'s women's wing has completed its first objective of setting up units in all the 70 Assembly segments of Delhi, the party has said.

The recent upheaval in Selangor over the post of Menteri Besar (MB) has suddenly led the country to a situation where we might soon be witnessing a major breakthrough for women in politics.

Over the years we have seen women slowly occupy positions in the political arena. Data from the Ministry for Women, Family and Community Development shows that in 2013 women made up only 13.1% of local councillors, 28.8% of senators, 11.3% state legislative assembly members, 10.4% members of parliament and 12.3% of cabinet ministers and deputy ministers.

Photo-stephaniechang.com

When Stephanie Chang began knocking on doors in and around Detroit in pursuit of a statehouse seat in the Michigan legislature, the most common question she received didn’t have anything to do with her policy positions or her decade of experience as a community organizer.

“How old are you, anyways?” voters asked. Chang is 30, but admits to looking a more youthful 20.

Photo-AFP

Some accused it of being predictable and even boring - a presidential election in which the incumbent was all but guaranteed of being re-elected without, perhaps, even the need for a second round of voting.

But then tragedy intervened and changed everything.

We simply do not know what kind of president Eduardo Campos, the presidential candidate for Brazil's Socialist Party who was killed in a plane crash last week, would have been.