Addressing Inequalities through Increased Political Representation of Women in International Relations

While the number of women parliamentarians is understood to have increased by 75% since 19951, such trends are not as encouraging considering that women continue to be at the ‘bottom of the power pyramid’  and represent only 19.7% of parliamentarians worldwide…In this paper, the argument is made that representation in national parliaments, will not lead to women’s empowerment, unless such representation, both descriptive and substantive, is realized in other institutions and structures where power is exercised and in particular, on the international plane.