Opening the Door: Women Leaders and Constitution Building in Iraq and Afghanistan

Recent decades have witnesses growing demands for the inclusion and empowerment of women leaders as elected representatives. Women representatives have made important strides in some nations, but progress worldwide has proved sluggish. A global comparison shows that on average women are one-sixth of all members of the lower houses of parliament today (16.6 percent), a proportion that has risen by less than five porcentage points during the last two decades...

This study concludes that new constitution in postconflict peace settlements represent a critical opportunity to secure the voices of women leaders in the reconstuction of society.