Elections

Highlighted Resources

Hope for women in Fiji's 2022/2023 general election

Some of the countries in the Melanesian region has a low percentage of women in the Parliament when compared to the global average. There are countries which do not have any women in the parliament after the latest elections. While #Fiji is among the better ones, this trend shows that...

Side-event to CSW65: Role of EMBs in promoting women's political participation

This webinar, co-organized by UNDP and the Electoral Assistance Division of the United Nations Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, aimed at raising awareness on the status of women’s political participation and showcasing the efforts of EMBs in tackling the many obstacles women face...

Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru (seated centre) with other female politicians from different political parties speak to journalists at a Nairobi hotel in 2019. Credits: Evans Habil | Nation Media Group

Kenya: How political parties have treated women leaders

President Uhuru Kenyatta’s inaction on former Chief Justice David Maraga’s September 2020 recommendation to dissolve Parliament for failure to enact gender parity laws is the latest bump in the long road to equality for Kenyan women in political leadership.The Constitution requires Parliament to...

Kenya: How female political aspirants are wooing voters

Female aspirants seeking elective seats in the 2022 General Election have adopted varying strategies to woo voters.Esnahs Nyaramba, an aspirant for Kisii Woman County Representative has found mobilising youth to register for national identity cards, a beneficial means of selling her agenda.“I...

2021 Southern Region Workshop on Women’s Political Participation. Credits: Papua New Guinea

In Papua New Guinea, women are making the change

In many parts of Papua New Guinea, fear of violence and harassment has caused a set back to the lives and small businesses of many women, but new candidates who now intend to enter politics aim to change this for the better.“People within the community have approached me to stand for election - to...

Women show voter ID cards during Panchayat election, at Bakkas polling centre on April 19, 2021 in Lucknow, India. Deepak Gupta/Hindustan Times via Getty Images / Time

India’s Congress Party Courts Women in Major State Elections

An actress jailed for protesting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s controversial citizenship law, the mother of a rape survivor, and a beauty pageant winner. These are the women leading India’s once-dominant Congress party as it seeks to reinvent itself in a hotly contested state election.The slew of...

Why rules and systems matter: lessons from around the world

This Represent Women's report explores how rules and systems, particularly gender quotas and proportional representation systems, have helped nations around the world sustain progress toward gender parity in elected office. Understanding the impact of systems on representation in government is...

Relaunch: Resilience and rebuilding for women candidates after an electoral loss (2018)

Some women candidates may be hesitant to run again because they know that the barriers for women running for office are higher than they are for men - why should the standard after a loss be any different? This research shows that voters think women who have lost their elections are still qualified...

Making gender visible in election violence: Strategies for data collection

Election violence is an important issue from a number of perspectives. Understanding the causes and consequences of violations of personal integrity is always relevant, but election violence adds a different dimension to this already serious issue: it also violates electoral integrity and decreases...

Paper on women legislators and economic performance

The ” Women legislators and economic performance” working paper by researchers at the universities of Essex, Michigan, Siegen, and Youngstown has found that Indian constituencies that elected women recorded “significantly higher growth” in economic activity over those that elected men.The...

Voting for Women in Belgium's Flexible List System

AbstractProportional electoral systems tend to be more beneficial for women's descriptive representation than majority systems. However, within proportional systems the gender equality of election outcomes differs, highlighting the importance of studying the actual use of electoral provisions in...

Proceedings Report of the “Gender and Electoral Reform: Making A Difference” Conference in Malaysia

The National Conference on “Gender and Electoral Reform: Making A Difference” in Malaysia was envisioned to look at current debates and obstacles as well as innovative strategies and alternative models in women’s representation in the Malaysian electoral process. This Conference introduced a panel...