More young women from diverse backgrounds are running — and winning.

As Nadia Mohamed doorknocked for her City Council campaign, the 23-year-old often fielded questions from St. Louis Park residents about her age. Just how young are you, they asked her, and what could such a fresh face possibly know about sidewalks?

Delegations of women in Cameroon are visiting towns and villages to encourage women to run for office in the upcoming February local and parliamentary elections.  Although half the population, women make up less than a third of Cameroon’s 180 lawmakers and just six percent of the country’s 380 mayors.

Members of the activist group More Women in Politics try to convince 62-year old Diedonne Kemche to allow one of his six wives to run as candidate for the local council election.

For groups training the next generation of women in politics, the main message is: Do not post. Anything. It’s not fair. It’s not the same for men. But anything you post will be fair game.

The young women in the room knew the story of the California legislator and first-time candidate who did the unexpected in 2018: She beat a Republican incumbent and became the first Democrat elected in her district in decades.

Gloria De Piero, who is stepping down after nine years as a Labour MP, is urging women to “come into parliament and change it,” despite the proliferation of threats and abuse faced by many female MPs.

One of 58 MPs who have announced that they will not be standing in the 12 December general election, De Piero, who represents Ashfield in Nottinghamshire, said she hoped women would not be deterred from entering frontline politics.

A TD says she left her home for a week after getting threatening phone calls in the middle of the night.

It is one of a number of instances of abuse against female politicians, including death and rape threats.

The National Women's Council of Ireland (NWCI) has highlighted the abuse as one of the many issues providing a barrier to women entering politics.