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Political Parties

The Japanese Communist Party (JCP) chose Tomoko Tamura as its first-ever female leader Thursday, apparently in the hope of broadening its support base and attracting a wider array of voters.

Upper House member Tamura, 58, takes over the chair of the 102-year-old political party — Japan’s oldest — from 69-year-old Kazuo Shii, who had served in the position since 2000 and was the longest-serving head of a major Japanese political party. The decision was made on the final day of the party’s congress in the city of Atami, Shizuoka Prefecture.

Also Thursday, Shii was appointed chair of the JCP’s central committee, a key policy-making body, where he will continue to have a strong influence over the party’s direction.

Click here to read the full article published by The Japan Times on 18 January 2024.

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday presented its slate of 18 female legislator-at-large nominees and outlined its policies on gender equality.

The DPP has marked several milestones when it comes to women’s participation in Taiwanese politics, DPP Department of Gender Equality division director Lee Yen-jong (李晏榕) told a news conference at party headquarters in Taipei.

It was the first party in Taiwan to have a female vice president in Annette Lu (呂秀蓮), who assumed office in 2000, Lee said, adding that Lu also became the first female commissioner for then-Taoyuan County in 1997.            

Click here to read the full article published by the Taipei Times on 1 December 2023.

Why do women continue to be under-represented in politics? The causes of this democratic deficit are well-studied, with women’s under-representation (and men’s over-representation) a combination of who comes forward for office and what obstacles are placed in their path.

Much popular and academic discussion around why women might not come forward has centred on political ambition—their interest in running for, and holding, elected office.

Click here to read the full article published by Social Europe on 27 October 2023.

The Women’s Reservation Bill was introduced in Lok Sabha on 21st September and became law on 29th September with the approval of the President of India. The new bill, officially known as Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, aims to increase the presence of women in Parliament and state legislatures by assigning 33% of seats to women. However, the one hundred and twenty-eighth Constitution Amendment Bill can only be implemented after the next census and the following electoral delimitation process.

Click here to read the full article published by the Financial Express on 25 October 2023.

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Political parties wax eloquently about women’s rights, but when it comes to giving tickets in the assembly elections, they fail to walk the talk. This time, with the passing of the Women’s Bill in Parliament, many had expected that more women would be given tickets. However, so far, both Congress and BJP have disappointed the women.

Click here to read the full article published by Free Press Journal on 17 October 2023.

Although women have come out of backwardness, there is still a long way to go. Although progress has been made in the position of women in education, employment, and politics, there is still a lot of backwardness. To establish equality between men and women, women must be present at all levels of decision-making. That is why women should have an active role in politics. The Prime Minister is a woman, the head of the opposition and another major party is a woman, and the Speaker of the National Parliament is a woman. Still, it is not enough to promote women’s leadership as expected.

Click here to read the full article published by Risingbd on 15 October 2023.

Why do women continue to be under-represented in politics? The causes of this democratic deficit are well-studied, with women’s under-representation (and men’s over-representation) a combination of who comes forward for office and what obstacles are placed in their path.

Much popular and academic discussion around why women might not come forward has centred on political ambition—their interest in running for, and holding, elected office.

Click here to read the full article published by Social Europe on 27 October 2023.

Preventing Violence Against Women in Politics – Benchmarks for Political Parties (2022) is a joint paper by democracy organisations working with political parties, which presents interventions for political parties on how to prevent and address any form of violence against women in politics (VAWIP) in order to strengthen women’s participation and representation in politics and political decision-making.

The paper is produced by Demo Finland, International IDEAThe Oslo Center and The National Democratic Institute (NDI) as part of the Political Party Peer Network (PPPeer).

Click here to access the report.

Racial/ethnic minorities and women continue to be underrepresented in public office in the United States. Here, we evaluate the role of general election political party support for women and minorities in structuring these inequalities, as a key part of general election success is support from party networks. With detailed data on party support and the demographics of congressional candidates, we use two difference-in-differences strategies to leverage within-district and candidate-constant change over time. Thus, we are able to separate the effect of race/ethnicity and gender from other factors we demonstrate to be associated with party support. We find that, all else equal, Democratic and Republican minority nominees do not receive less support than their white counterparts. We also find that white women receive more party support from Democrats than Democratic men or minority women in the general election and that this support is more responsive to changes in electoral competitiveness. These findings suggest that party elites may provide additional support to candidates from underrepresented groups in the general election to broaden their appeal to voters.

Click here to download the paper published by Sage Journals on 23 April 2022.

‘Leave no one behind’ (LNOB) is the central, transformative promise of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Hence, SDG 5—‘Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls’—is an intrinsic enabler for sustainable development and representative democracy for each country and the world at large. The SDG 5 stipulates the requisite collective action for transformation and creating conducive environments towards substantive equality for all women and girls. In order to take on the challenge of translating SDG 5 into reality for women and girls across the world, it is fundamental to address the key areas of gender inequality, such as gender-based discrimination in law and in practice, violence against women and girls, the lack of and unequal access to and ownership of economic resources, and women’s unequal participation and representation in both private and public decision-making positions.

This Technical Paper focuses on political parties’ responsibilities on achieving gender equality in politics and women’s political empowerment, particularly women’s participation and representation in positions of power and decision making at all levels.

Click here to access the paper published by International IDEA on 4 November 2021.

Abstract

Throughout history and across countries, women appear more likely than men to enter politics on the heels of a close family relative or spouse. To explain this dynastic bias in women’s representation, we introduce a theory that integrates political selection decisions with informational inequalities across social groups. Candidates with dynastic ties benefit from the established reputations of their predecessors, but these signals of quality are more important to political newcomers such as women. Legislator-level data from twelve democracies and candidate-level data from Ireland and Sweden support the idea that dynastic ties are differentially more helpful to women, and that the quality of predecessors may be more relevant for the entry and evaluation of female successors than their male counterparts. The role of informational inequalities is also reflected in the declining dynastic bias over time (as more women enter politics), and in the differential effect of a gender quota across Swedish municipalities.

Click here to read the full article published by Sage Journal on 3 July 2020.

The Win With Women Political Party Assessment (WWW Assessment) is an initiative designed to help political parties become more inclusive and representative through an assessment that gauges men and women's perceptions of women in leadership, the types of social norms held by members of parties, and the individual, institutional and socio-cultural barriers to gender equality.

Click here to see the report.