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A non-partisan collective is targeting the general elections for equal representation of women in Parliament, but the road to gender-just politics is tricky to traverse

The former Ecuadorian Minister of Foreign Affairs who leads the 193-member world body, pointed out that in 2105 it would have taken 30 years to close the gender gap, but now, she told the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), if current trends continue, gender parity will not be reached for “107 years”.

UNITED NATIONS, March 12 (Xinhua) -- The proportion of women ministers is at an all-time high at 20.7 percent, 2.4 percentage points higher than that in 2017, according to data in the 2019 edition of the biennial IPU (Inter-Parliamentary Union)-UN Women map released Tuesday.

By Ellen Wulfhorst,

UNITED NATIONS (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The number of women in the top echelons of world politics has crawled to an all-time high, but progress is so slow that more quotas and incentives are called for, female leaders said at the United Nations on Tuesday.

International Women’s Day presents an opportunity to take stock and reinforce the sought-after goals for women’s empowerment in all spheres of life. The global pursuit to #BalanceforBetter can only be attained when there is zero tolerance for any form of discrimination against women and girls, when there is no impunity for violence against all women and girls, not because they are daughters, sisters, wives or mothers but simply because they are human.

Statement for International Women’s Day by Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women

International Women’s Day
40th Anniversary of CEDAW

Women’s leadership and the equal participation of women and men in public affairs and decision-making are matters of human rights which are key elements of democracy and lasting peace, and prerequisites for achieving sustainable development.

Women and girls are impatient for change, and it’s easy to understand why.
 
Women still earn only 77 cents for every dollar men earn for the same work.
 
At least 200 million women and girls alive today have undergone female genital mutilation.
 
Women account for just 24 percent of parliamentarians.
 
35 percent of women globally have experienced physical and/or sexual violence.
 

According to the IPU’s yearly analysis, the share of women in national parliaments increased by nearly one percentage point last year, from 23.4 per cent in 2017 to 24.3 per cent in 2018. This 0.9 percentage point increase confirms the continuing rise of women in parliament, at a slightly faster rate of change compared to previous years.