This mammoth year of elections has shown how badly global politics is neglecting women
Source: The Guardian
This has been a historic electoral year, with more than 1.6 billion citizens called to cast their votes in 2024. In more than 70 countries, people have decided the political path of their nations. Yet we end this cycle with the sense that democracy is more threatened than ever.
There is an undeniable disconnect between citizens and their leaders. The scepticism and lack of trust should not surprise us. We are not leaving an easy world behind, especially for younger generations. Climate breakdown, the lack of economic opportunities, social injustice, the global housing crisis – these challenges have steadily eroded the democratic ideal. As a result, our societies are facing a wave of distrust in democratic institutions, particularly among younger citizens.
This scenario highlights a fundamental issue many governments face: is it possible that representative democracy has stopped representing us?
There is one area where the numbers speak for themselves, and the message isn’t a positive one. Globally, less than 30% of parliamentary seats are held by women, and fewer than 30 countries are led by women. While these figures are better than in previous years, they still reflect a chronic problem; at this pace, it would take us roughly 130 years to achieve gender equality.
To put this into perspective, a plastic bag takes about 100 years to decompose. If we were to use one today, it would vanish from this planet before democracies achieve gender parity. Gender isn’t the only example of the disconnect between politics and people, but it is a particularly stark one: how can our system of representation neglect half of the people it is meant to represent?
Read here the full article published by The Guardian on 6 December 2024.
Image by Guardian
This has been a historic electoral year, with more than 1.6 billion citizens called to cast their votes in 2024. In more than 70 countries, people have decided the political path of their nations. Yet we end this cycle with the sense that democracy is more threatened than ever.
There is an undeniable disconnect between citizens and their leaders. The scepticism and lack of trust should not surprise us. We are not leaving an easy world behind, especially for younger generations. Climate breakdown, the lack of economic opportunities, social injustice, the global housing crisis – these challenges have steadily eroded the democratic ideal. As a result, our societies are facing a wave of distrust in democratic institutions, particularly among younger citizens.
This scenario highlights a fundamental issue many governments face: is it possible that representative democracy has stopped representing us?
There is one area where the numbers speak for themselves, and the message isn’t a positive one. Globally, less than 30% of parliamentary seats are held by women, and fewer than 30 countries are led by women. While these figures are better than in previous years, they still reflect a chronic problem; at this pace, it would take us roughly 130 years to achieve gender equality.
To put this into perspective, a plastic bag takes about 100 years to decompose. If we were to use one today, it would vanish from this planet before democracies achieve gender parity. Gender isn’t the only example of the disconnect between politics and people, but it is a particularly stark one: how can our system of representation neglect half of the people it is meant to represent?
Read here the full article published by The Guardian on 6 December 2024.
Image by Guardian