Women’s Power Index Shows Stalled Progress for Women’s Political Participation
Source: Council on Foreign Relations
The Women and Foreign Policy program’s most recent update of the “Women’s Power Index” ranks 193 United Nations (UN) member states on their progress toward gender parity in political participation. It analyzes the proportion of women who serve as heads of state or government, in cabinets, in national legislatures, as candidates for national legislatures, and in local government bodies, and visualizes the gender gap in political representation.
Over the past year global progress toward gender parity in political representation has remained flat at 29 on the 100-point aggregate scale employed in which a 100-point score represents gender parity. The number of countries that are halfway or more to parity has remained the same. Twenty-eight countries exceeded fifty in their gender parity score, including Canada, Dominica, Moldova, and the United Kingdom in the past year. Mozambique, Peru, Rwanda, and Senegal fell below that halfway to parity mark in the past year. The U.S. gender parity score is slightly above the global average at 35. Iceland has maintained its position in first place, with a score of 86, Mexico and Andorra occupy second and third place, with scores of 75 and 73, respectively.
Progress in women’s political leadership at the national level has been stalling recently. Since the end of World War II, 82 of the 193 countries have elected a female head of state or government, with the most progress coming in the past two decades. Eleven countries elected their first woman into high office during the 2000s, twenty-five in the 2010s, and seventeen thus far in the 2020s. Most recently, Namibia elected its first woman president, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, in 2025, and Mexico elected its first woman president, Claudia Sheinbaum, in 2024.
Read here the full article published by the Council on Foreign Relations on 2 April 2025.
Image by the Council on Foreign Relations
The Women and Foreign Policy program’s most recent update of the “Women’s Power Index” ranks 193 United Nations (UN) member states on their progress toward gender parity in political participation. It analyzes the proportion of women who serve as heads of state or government, in cabinets, in national legislatures, as candidates for national legislatures, and in local government bodies, and visualizes the gender gap in political representation.
Over the past year global progress toward gender parity in political representation has remained flat at 29 on the 100-point aggregate scale employed in which a 100-point score represents gender parity. The number of countries that are halfway or more to parity has remained the same. Twenty-eight countries exceeded fifty in their gender parity score, including Canada, Dominica, Moldova, and the United Kingdom in the past year. Mozambique, Peru, Rwanda, and Senegal fell below that halfway to parity mark in the past year. The U.S. gender parity score is slightly above the global average at 35. Iceland has maintained its position in first place, with a score of 86, Mexico and Andorra occupy second and third place, with scores of 75 and 73, respectively.
Progress in women’s political leadership at the national level has been stalling recently. Since the end of World War II, 82 of the 193 countries have elected a female head of state or government, with the most progress coming in the past two decades. Eleven countries elected their first woman into high office during the 2000s, twenty-five in the 2010s, and seventeen thus far in the 2020s. Most recently, Namibia elected its first woman president, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, in 2025, and Mexico elected its first woman president, Claudia Sheinbaum, in 2024.
Read here the full article published by the Council on Foreign Relations on 2 April 2025.
Image by the Council on Foreign Relations