Women's political participation

Charging the former Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government of "betraying women by not giving reservation to them in decision-making bodies", BJP today said it was committed to political empowerment of the fairer sex by granting 33 per cent reservation to them.

United Nations assistant secretary general Lakshmi Puri , who is also the deputy executive director, UN Women—an organization that espouses gender equality and women’s empowerment—says reservations for women in legislature, judiciary and the police force will help break gender-based stereotyping of division of work.

As the vote count at the UML general convention continues, 10 women candidates from Madhav Kumar Nepal panel and nine contestants from KP Oli have won the election to the Central Committee of the party. 

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Australia's Ambassador for Women and Girls says Australia can help Pacific nations improve poor levels of female leadership.

Natasha Stott-Despoja is the head of an Australian delegation to Tonga to meet about 30 women in politics from around the region.

Female representation in Pacific parliaments is around five per cent compared to the global average of almost 22 per cent.

Susan Wismer, challenger of incumbent Gov. Dennis Daugaard, is the first woman to be nominated by a major party for the state's high office.

Wismer says that had nothing to do with her decision to run, but she knows it matters to some of the women who support her. "I'm understanding more and more how much it means to women across the state," said Wismer, a state representative from Britton.

A recent study found black women are underrepresented at all levels of politics — federal, state and local government.

Rutgers Center for American Women and Politics and Higher Heights for America, a national nonprofit that seeks to elevate the voice of black women in politics, conducted the study. The group argues black women face distinct challenges when running for political office and are more like to be discouraged from running than their white counterparts or black men.

While Lebanon suffers from a paucity of female politicians, establishing a quota is not the only way to bolster women’s participation in the political sphere, say members of UNDP’s Lebanese Electoral Assistance Program.

Parties from all across the political spectrum acknowledge the need to include more women in Lebanese politics, but agreeing what steps to take toward that end have proved more difficult said Richard Chambers, the Chief Technical Adviser at LEAP.