Women's political participation

The 2014 Lok Sabha elections saw many highs for women. 

Does this mean that finally the Women’s Reservation Bill and others Bills pertaining to women’s representation, security and development will be passed?

The 16th Lok Sabha will have the highest number of women MPs since the first election in 1952, 61. It had the maximum number of women candidates, 668 and the highest women voter turnout in numbers. 

Big brows may be trendy, but the American public’s sense of propriety gets inflamed if they’re on a female elected official’s face. According to a recent study from Dartmouth University, and published in Social Psychological and Personality Science, female candidates are less likely to win elections in conservative states if their faces have mannish, or gender atypical, features. That includes thick eyebrows, ladies.

More participation of women in politics will go along way in making democracy in Nigeria an interesting game, even as it would help in stamping out corruption in the political system. This position was made by the Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi.

Amaechi called on women in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state to actively participate in politics and win elective positions in the upcoming 2015 elections.

They might not be getting their due when it comes to representation in parliament, but women have increased their participation in the voting process by nearly 10 percent in this general election, even surpassing men in eight states.

Comparatively, the male voter turnout increased to 67.17 percent from 60.24 percent last time.

IPU has recommended a comprehensive series of affirmative action and implementation measures aimed at ensuring a minimum-level representation of women and other under-represented groups in the next Egyptian parliament. The recommendations to Ministers and the committee working on drafting a new electoral law to be adopted before elections for a new parliament can go ahead this year were made by an IPU mission to Egypt in late April.

As polling ended on Monday, the 2014 elections recorded the highest ever turnout with 66.38 per cent voters casting their votes to elect 543 members of the 16th Lok Sabha, beating the previous high of 64.01 per cent in the 1984-85 elections.

There is a need for women to organise themselves as a pressure group to be able to carve a niche in the political sphere, three Delhi-based women journalists said Saturday.

Women may get 79 or 14 percent of the total seats in the House of Representatives following April's legislative election; a figure that was lower than the historic high of 18 percent or 103 seats in the 2009 election, researchers said Monday.

This is despite more women candidates, accounting for 37 percent or 2,467 of the total 6,619 candidates, contesting the 560 House seats.

It is already the fifth time today that Rama makes a cross in the last column of the table that is displayed on her monitor screen. The column is reserved for sexual harassment. A 16-year-old girl has just informed her on the phone that she "was threatened with a weapon."

Rama works at "Helpline 181," an emergency service for women. "I like to work here," says the 20-year-old, adding that "in my own case, the police did not help me and I felt being left alone. By working here, I can help other women so that they have it better."