Chief electoral officer Pansy Tlakula called on Friday for a quota system to improve women's representation in the public and private sector. She said the Independent Electoral Commission was not happy with the number of women candidates in local government elections to be held on May 18.
Since the first democratic elections in 1994, women representation in Parliament has soared, owing partly to the ruling party's 50/50 principle at national and provincial spheres of government.
The 41st Parliament in Canada will have 76 women – up from 69 elected in 2008. Most are from the NDP, whose 40 women make up 39 per cent of its caucus. That’s the highest number of women in a Canadian federal caucus, but the percentage is lower than the NDP’s figures from the 2006 election.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has challenged men to champion the cause for the empowerment of women, saying women remained ``second-class citizens" and are often subjected to violence in many societies.
In Sierra Leone’s highly patriarchal society, where institutionalised gender inequalities are exacerbated by discriminatory customs, one group is singing its way towards changing this.
MORE women than ever are holding powerful political roles in India after two female regional leaders scored massive victories in state assembly elections.
Her defeat in the Aljunied Group Representation Constituency electoral battle means that "the score (for female full Cabinet ministers) has now dropped back to zero again" but Mrs Lim Hwee Hua, Minister in the Prime Minister's Office, said she would continue to encourage women to participate in