gender equality

In 1967, Shirley Temple Black ran for Congress in California, attempting to become the first woman in the Golden State’s congressional delegation.

“I think men are fine and here to stay but I have a hunch that it wouldn’t hurt to have a woman’s viewpoint expressed in that delegation of 38 men,” she said, according to an Associated Press dispatch of her press conference. “One congresswoman among 38 congressmen is not unfair, fellows.”

The media plays a crucial role in the political or electoral process. It's the ears and eyes of the public and help mould perceptions. 

People rely on it for information on making decisions on a range of issues such as choosing their political leaders, informing them about their activities, mandate of political campaigns and giving them effective coverage while in office.

Both houses of the Afghan Parliament have voted to pass an act that would prohibit relatives from testifying against a criminal defendant in a judicial proceeding. If signed by President Hamid Karzai, the proposed change to the Afghan criminal code would prevent family members from testifying as victims or witnesses in all criminal cases, including domestic violence, child abuse, and sexual assault cases. The act would also ban children and doctors – including those who may have examined victims – from testifying against the accused.

Twenty-seven presidential hopefuls have registered as candidates for Afghanistan's crucial April 5 vote, setting the stage for a wide-open race among former warlords, powerful officials, and several prominent Western-educated technocrats...

A Kenyan politician has apologised for suggesting that unmarried women are not effective leaders.

Local leaders and activists criticised the comments by Kiambu County Governor William Kabogo, saying they were demeaning to the women.

The row involved unmarried MP Alice Ng'ang'a, who opposed his new taxes.

The dispute highlights the cultural and social stereotypes that have held back women from running for public office in the past.

A group of Pacific women politicians and leaders have met in Fiji to find ways to boost the number of Pacific women in elected positions.

The Pacific has the lowest number of women in government in the world at just 4-point-7 percent.

Twenty women from seven Pacific Islands states came together for a workshop in Fiji last week, which was organised by the Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development and the Fiji Women's Rights Movement

Efforts to boost the participation of women in Afghan politics are in serious jeopardy, an IWPR debate has heard.

Noor Mohammad Noor, a spokesman for the Independent Elections Commission (IEC), said that attitudes towards female members of parliament and provincial councillors remained "backward" and that it was proving difficult to change public perceptions.

Addressing more than 20 students from universities in Kabul and Nangarhar, he claimed legislation passed in July last year to reduce the number of provincial council seats reserved for women was a mistake.

Women should have at least 100 of the 444 seats in the next parliament, the National Council for Women said in a statement Thursday.

Representation of women should be proportionate to their weight in society and their wide-scale participation in the constitutional referendum, NCW said, adding that an opportunity should be given to women to change the stereotypical idea of their role.

Jenny Pierce's recent piece about El Salvador on the Inter-American Development Bank's blog, Sin Miedos, questioned where women's voices fit into discussions surrounding the (in)famous gang truce brokered in 2012.