Role of women in society

At current rates of progress it will take 120 years before women make up half of world leaders and more than 50 years before women are equally represented in the world’s parliaments, warns a new report published today (10 Sept 2013) by international development charity VSO. Globally, women and girls make up almost two thirds of those living in extreme poverty, yet women have the least say in what is done to tackle it.

A haredi woman running for the new Ometz Lev party in Jerusalem’s municipal elections has received anonymous threats demanding that she withdraw her candidacy.

Masada Porat, founder of a Web portal for women called Womenet, has been given the party’s sixth slot on its electoral list in the October 22 elections for the Jerusalem City Council.

In the past two days she and her husband have received numerous threatening phone threats with the anonymous callers demanding she step away from the political campaign.

On a sunny day in early May, in Ndu, northwest Cameroon, a group of women, many of whom have taken the day off from work on their farms, are evaluating the performance of an aspiring politician. One suggests smiling more, another that the candidate project her voice more and not look at her feet while talking.The women are here in the Bishop Shanahan Centre to improve their public-speaking skills and learn more about electoral procedures.

Nova Peris has become the first Indigenous woman to be elected to the Federal Parliament. The Olympic hockey gold medal winner will take a place in the Senate representing the Northern Territory for Labor. She gave her victory speech immediately after Luke Gosling conceded in the Darwin-based Lower House seat of Solomon.

Across Canada, just one-quarter of our Members of Parliament are women. In many ridings, they’re seen as “sacrificial lambs” running for a party that’s unlikely to win. And Melanee Thomas, a two-time candidate in Lethbridge, isn’t predicting sudden change.

We invite our users to read the full article published September 6 2013

Freda Prempeh, Member of Parliament (MP) for Tano North Constituency in the Brong Ahafo region has noted with worry that culture is still an obstacle hindering many qualified women to go into politics.

Ms Prempeh is one of the two female parliamentarians out of the twenty-nine MPs from her region.

Ms Prempeh said the situation is not encouraging women who are capable to go into politics even at the local level elections to represent the various electoral areas at the Metropolitan Municipal District Assemblies (MMDAs).

Laura Boldrini, Cecile Kyenge and Emma Bonino are among those doing “far better than men”, Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta said during an interview with television channel Russian 24 ahead of the G20 summit, which gets underway in St Petersburg on Thursday.

The number of women who have entered the Italian government since Letta came on board has increased from 20 to 30 percent. “I wanted my government to have the largest number of women in Italian history”, he said.