women in politics

As it stands today, Tuesday 29th April 2014, 187 Labour Party candidates have been selected to run in the Local Elections in May 2014. Currently 55 of these candidates are women which is just under thirty percent (29.4%). Seventeen of the fifty-five female candidates, (31%) are first time candidates. 

Labour Women will be rolling out a range of supports for all our local election candidates including mentoring, training, (wo)man power for help with canvassing and drops and financial support in 2014.

ANC Women's League President, Angie Motshekga, has called on young people not to heed calls to boycott upcoming elections. She was speaking at a Freedom Day rally organised by the Young Communist League (YCL) and other alliance partners in Mfuleni on the Cape Flats.

There is an Ethel, a Melanie, a Dana, a Jolie, a Melody, a Nancy, a Judith, and a Margaret who would prefer voters call her Peggy.

Women are all over Lake and Porter county ballots this spring.

Some 51 Democrats and 45 Republicans are competing with men and sometimes other women for the state legislature, county, township and municipal offices May 6.

They represent almost a third of all candidates for public elective offices. More than 25 of them are incumbent officials running for re-election.

With 59 winners of the total 556 contestants, women candidates seem to have had a dream run in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections. May 16 will tell if their success story repeats this time too.

African women from 15 countries across the continent gathered in Nairobi, Kenya from April 23rd to the 24th to deliberate and strategize on women's political leadership in Africa. Convened by FEMNET (African Women's Development and Communication Network) and Urgent Action Fund – Africa (UAF-Africa), the meeting engaged seasoned politicians, aspirants, women's rights activists, leading organizations engaged in enhancing women's political leadership, donors, UN agencies and the media.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, where women hold just 23 percent of the seats in national parliaments and there are only three women heads of state, Catherine Samba-Panza, president of the Central African Republic (CAR), is an inspirational figure. Her position as the first female president of a Francophone country is a powerful symbol for African women, showing they can succeed even in countries where armed conflict, corruption and inequality have been the norm.

With the results still being counted from Afghanistan's recent presidential election, the top United Nations official in the country today urged efforts to ensure that women remain meaningfully engaged in the political process and improve political life there.

In 1952, a decade after the Indian independence activist Aruna Asaf Ali hoisted the flag of the Indian National Congress at the Gowalia Tank maidan, India held its first general elections. Women had come out in massive numbers to take part in the marches and rallies of the Indian freedom movement, and had filled the prisons of the British Raj alongside the men. Now they thronged in equally large numbers to see for themselves the new ballot boxes, and to cast their votes.