empowerment

The two most powerful women in Bangladesh — Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and opposition leader, Bangladesh National Party chairperson Khaleda Zia — have made international headlines this month as elections in the troubled nation resulted in violence.

Despite this, some Westerners are surprised to learn that Bengali women have vibrant and influential leadership roles that are helping shape the nation’s future. It’s a predominantly Islamic nation with constant calls to prayer and laws restricting the sale of alcohol.

“When I began my research on the representation of women and female politicians in the media in the eighties, people kept telling me that ‘it will take time, but it will get better’. I believe that I have good reason to say that it hasn’t. It has become worse,” says Liesbet van Zoonen.

Although a good turnout of female voters has been recorded in the recent Assembly elections, the Election Commission of India wants to identify areas where the women turnout has been low and reasons for it. 

The ECI has issued instructions to states to focus on low women participation areas under the Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) plan for the forth coming Lok Sabha elections. 

The likely victory of Michelle Bachelet in Chile’s presidential elections will strengthen women’s political power in Latin America, a region where while progressing, still sees millions of women as the victims of discrimination and violence.

Despite women’s success in top positions in politics, a Latin American woman with thirteen or more years of schooling still earns 37% less than men with the same education, according to the Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLA).

Remarks of Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, UN Women Executive Director, at the UN Broadband Commission Working Group on Gender, New York, 20 September 2013.

We invite our users to read the complete speech here

New studies in brain science reveal how women’s leadership can push conflicts, whether personal or political, from violent to diplomatic resolution.
In “The Better Angels of Our Nature,” Harvard professor and cognitive scientist Steven Pinker compiles research about the human brain and historical trends. Data points to a biological difference between individuals inclined towards violent or nonviolent solutions. The defining factor is gender.

By some measures, women are making huge gains when it comes to elected politics in Canada.
Currently, five provinces and one territory representing 85 per cent of Canada’s total population are governed by women premiers and a record high of 76 women were elected to Parliament in the last federal election in 2011, including a record 18 women under the age of 40.

That’s an amazing turnaround from even a few years ago when there wasn’t a single woman premier in the country and the number of women elected to Parliament was actually falling.