Analysts say a spate of attacks on high-profile Afghan women has heightened fears that the limited gains for women’s rights will be reversed after NATO forces withdraw next year.

The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection is calling on media organizations to empanel more women for political discussions. This is part of a campaign for increased women’s participation in governance.

Last May, Afghanistan’s upper house of parliament quietly removed an electoral law that stipulated that a quarter of all provincial council seats should be allotted to women. When women politicians found out nearly a month later, they fought to have the bill recalled.

The Lib Dems could introduce positive discrimination to redress the party's gender and ethnic imbalance, one of its cabinet ministers has said.

High-profile mayoral elections this year have already proved that the steps to City Hall remain steep for female candidates.

The National Party Women’s Caucus paid tribute to New Zealand’s first National Party Member of Parliament, Dame Hilda Ross, at an event held last night in her honour. The Party also holds a Memorial Fund in her name.

Women's representation in parliaments is most likely to increase where there is some sort of system of quotas, an analysis of international elections held last year shows.

The just concluded parliamentary elections featured women who didn't ask for equality and leadership to be handed to them on a platter. They chose to fight it out with male candidates for their respective positions.

In 1985, I made it to the front page of The Herald newspaper. It was a photo of me wearing a big smile, shaking President Robert Mugabe’s hand during the five-year independence celebrations. This roused my dream to one day become a politician and lead the country. 

Why are there so few female elected officials in the second largest city in the country? Of 18 elected positions in City Hall, only one is held by a woman — Nury Martinez, who joined the council in July.