Asia and the Pacific

The seven women Union ministers are trying to understand and address the challenges women in the country face, said Union Minister for Food Processing Industries Harsimrat Kaur Badal at India Today Woman Summit and Awards 2014 on Saturday.

"We women understand the challenges and we will bring in the women angle. That's what is going to make the difference," she said in a Q&A session Power & Politics.

Women should get more involved in politics so that the voices of the fairer sex can be heard clearly.

Persatuan Kesedaran Komuniti Selangor (Empower) programme officer Wong Kar Fai said the decision-making process should benefit both genders without any discrimination.

"Women's voices are very marginalised in this country," he said.

Currently, there are only 23 women members of parliament out of 222, which is about 10% when the ideal figure should be 30%.

Photo: Alex Ellinghausen

A national meeting of Labor women has been told the government is making gender equality a tougher battle in Australia.

Deputy Opposition Leader Tanya Plibersek told the convention on Saturday that a range of budget measures announced in May will work against women and used as an example the story of a single mum living in her Sydney electorate.

Like many Australian women, Nicola Quin has become disillusioned with the number of women in parliament, both at the Federal level and in her home state of Victoria where women hold just 30% of parliamentary positions.

Women in Politics, a brand-new organisation for New Zealand women in political office, was met with overwhelming support at the 2014 Local Government New Zealand Conference held this weekend in Nelson.

The networking opportunities at the conference meant that the group’s new Chair Angela O’Leary - also a Hamilton City Councillor - was able to introduce the group to Elected Members from around the country.

The Queensland Legislative Assembly, where women hold the roles of Speaker and opposition leader, has the nation’s lowest female representation at 21.3 per cent, compared with a national average of 29 per cent of all Australian parliamentarians. Women make up a fifth of ministers in state and federal governments.

Mu Sochua’s arrest by Cambodian authorities on charges of insurrection was hardly the biggest international news headline in a week of war, death and destruction on front pages and throughout news feeds. Indeed, after the elected opposition Member of Parliament and five others were taken into custody after a clash in Phnom Penh’s Freedom Park over the rights and wages of Cambodian garment workers, coverage was understandably scant against the horrific backdrop of Gaza and Ukraine.