Quotas

In 2013, a Christian democratic politician from Belgium and I sat down in her office in the Senate, the upper house of the federal parliament in Brussels. The senator recalled a long battle within her party to get more women candidates on party lists.

Despite historic gains in the past two congressional elections in the US, women hold just 27% of the seats. As Americans prepare to reshape Congress in the midterms, could Bolivia inspire change?

Introduction

UN Women’s East and Southern Africa programming on Governance, Leadership and Political Participation is focused on providing technical support and capacity building to Member States, civil society and regional organizations, to enable women to fully a

In 2008, the Rwanda Chamber of Deputies was the first elected national parliament where women were the majority. The proportion of MPs who are women is at 61.25% today, way above the current global average of 26.4%.

Italy recently joined Great Britain, Finland and New Zealand after the country elected its first woman prime minister.

Despite being 53% of eligible voters, participation of women in Brazilian politics is still much lower compared to men.

Fixing discrimination isn't as easy as putting anti-discrimination laws on the books. But, there is a tool that can at least chip away at the effects of discrimination: quotas.