Spain

One of the challenges facing local governments—and institutional politics in general—is reversing the historically negligible presence of women in political parties and administrations. Although the number of women on electoral lists and in council and mayoral positions has multiplied over the last decade, significant gaps still exist in the types of responsibilities men and women assume in city councils, and parity has not been achieved in the mayoral positions.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Saturday announced a gender equality law that will require more equal representation of women and men in politics, business and other spheres of public life.

The Equal Representation Law will apply gender parity measures to electoral lists, the boards of directors of big companies and governing boards of professional associations.

Spain’s government minister for economic affairs is making a stand for gender equality, saying she won’t take part in any more events or official group photographs where she is the only woman present.

Spain’s government minister for economic affairs, Nadia Calviño, made a stand for gender equality Thursday, saying she won’t take part in any more events or official group photographs where she is the only woman present.

The Socialist leader hopes the changes will help focus on the economic recovery and smooth thorny issues such as Catalan independence before Spaniards vote in the next election.

Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has carried out a sweeping Cabinet reshuffle, replacing some of his most important ministers, boosting the representation of women and reducing the average age of his team.

When Spanish deputy Clara Campoamor demanded women’s right to vote in a famous speech made on October 1, 1931, she was just one of three female members of Congress.

Spain’s new parliament, sworn in on Tuesday, has the largest share of women in any European legislature, no small achievement for a country still reinventing itself four decades after the end of a right-wing, traditionalist dictatorship.

Women’s rights have been prominent in the political debate for over a decade and remain controversial, to the point where the far-right Vox party entered the assembly for the first time on a platform that seeks to reverse some equality laws.

Do two of Europe's most recent elections signal a new trend on the continent?

Recent polls in Spain and Finland have seen both countries elect record proportions of women to their respective parliaments.

After a general election in Spain on Sunday, 164 women will now sit alongside 186 men in the country's Congress of Deputies.

Spain's new Socialist government announced Wednesday a female-dominated Cabinet, including women appointed to key positions overseeing the national economy, finance and defense.

The new government includes 11 female ministers and five men, as well as Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez who said it is the first time since Spain returned to a democratic system in the late 1970s that there are more women than men in the Cabinet.