Political Parties

The National Council of Women in Fiji is embarking on a project that aims to increase the representation of women in politics in the lead-up to the elections promised for next year.

Its general secretary, Fay Volatabu, says it will work with the United Nations Democracy Fund to raise public awareness and train women as leaders.

Ms Volatabu says the new constitution is silent on the issue of women participating in politics, so it is up to the political parties to decide who they will nominate, and the public to who they are going to vote for.

No less than 35 percent of the newly elected MPs in Zimbabwe are women, thanks to a special electoral quota system to increase women's representation in Parliament. At age 29, Tionei Melody Dziva is the youngest of them. She has a strong desire to uplift the lives of women and youths.

Courtesy of the proportional representation of women in parliament, brought about by the new Zimbabwean constitution that came into effect in March this year, women's representation in the country's parliament more than doubled after the 31 July elections.

Four decades after the election that shattered the glass ceiling for women in the Minnesota Legislature, gender equality is still elusive at the state Capitol.

Women hold 34 percent of the 201 seats in the Legislature, giving Minnesota the fourth-highest share of female state lawmakers in the nation.

But as the candidate recruiting season intensifies a year before the 2014 election, more men than women step forward to run, and female candidates still face more barriers than their male counterparts.