By Susan Chira

Conventional wisdom on women and politics goes like this:

“We young people, individually and collectively are a piece of peace”, said Lynrose Jane Dumandan Genon, a representative of the Young Women for Peace and Leadership programme of the Global Network for Women Peacebuilders in the Philippines, speaking at a side event in New York on 25 October, on the sidelines of the annual UN Security Council Open Debate on women, peace and security. “We do our part in making peace happen in whatever community we are in; we bring our little pieces together to create a bigger impact,” she added.

Halima Askari became the first woman head of the Provincial Council in Afghanistan’s conservative Wardak province in 2017. She is part of a new generation of women leaders who, little by little, are pushing for the transformation of governance. She ran for national Parliament this year and is awaiting the results. Regardless of the election results, Askari is determined to continue serving her community and advocating for girls’ and women’s education.

Sao Paulo - Joenia Wapichana never thought she would get into politics.

The 43-year-old indigenous lawyer also never imagined she'd make history, not just once but on three occasions.

But when she saw an "extreme, urgent necessity" to protect the rights of her community, she knew she had to take action.

A young Bosnian MP who denounced her uncle’s war crimes, a member of the Syrian opposition and a Gambian women’s rights campaigner are among the female parliamentarians who will sit in the House of Commons chamber this week.

A landmark event on Thursday will celebrate the centenary of women’s suffrage in the UK, involving more than 100 female politicians from around the world, from Afghanistan to the Vatican.

Ethiopia’s parliament on Thursday swore in the country’s first female supreme court president, building on efforts by reformist Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to achieve gender parity in government.

The appointment of Meaza Ashenafi comes two weeks after Abiy named 10 female ministers to make Ethiopia the third country in Africa - after Rwanda and Seychelles - to have its cabinet split equally between men and women.

Rashida Tlaib, running in a tough six-way Democratic primary for a House seat in Michigan and positioning herself to be the first Muslim woman in Congress, was thrilled when a man who champions Muslim candidates across the country donated just under $1,000 to her campaign.

Then she found out he had given three times as much — $2,700, the maximum allowed under federal law — to Representative Keith Ellison, the first Muslim man in Congress.