Women's Leadership

Highlighted Resources

Image credit: Canva Archive/International IDEA

Breaking barriers as a woman in electoral management: “the price I paid for my leadership”

As revealed by International IDEA's recent research, in many countries worldwide, women who serve as electoral officials face numerous challenges in the online space that threaten their mental well-being and physical and online safety. From devaluation of work to being falsely accused of...

Celebrating 10 women MPs who are active on IPU committees

As the IPU celebrates International Women’s Day, these are just some of the inspiring women MPs working actively in the IPU’s committees to promote gender equality, youth participation, peace and sustainable development.Sahar Albazar, EgyptPresident of the Board of the Forum of Young...

Women at the table: Insights from Lebanese women in politics

UN Women and ESCWA conducted in-depth interviews with seven Lebanese women in politics who were all ‘first’s’ in different ways. They include the first female Minister of Interior in Lebanon and the Arab world, the first female Minister to have a child, the first female independent Member of...

Listening to women in politics: New report by UN Women and UN ESCWA tells the stories of 7 trailblazing Lebanese women in politics who have broken ‘glass ceilings’

Beirut, 12 December 2022 – Today, UN Women and ESCWA jointly launched a report on women’s political participation entitled “Women at the Table: Insights from Lebanese Women in Politics”. The report analyses a set of seven in-depth interviews with female Lebanese political actors and...

“Their courage should give us hope and direction”: Generation Equality Action Coalition on Feminist Movements and Leadership uplifts the contributions and priorities of women human rights defenders

On 29 November, the Action Coalition on Feminist Movements and Leadership, together with UN Women and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, held their first official commemoration of International Women Human Rights Defenders Day to centre the voices and experiences of women human...

UN scores Nigeria low on women participation in politics

INEC urges political parties to respect their constitutionsThe United Nations (UN) has scored Nigeria low in the area of women participation in politics.The UN Women Representative to Nigeria and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Ms. Beatrice Eyong, who spoke yesterday in...

Gender and race differences in mayors’ experiences of violence

After national news coverage of a COVID-19 mask requirement controversy in Dodge City, Kansas in December of 2020, Mayor Joyce Warshaw received numerous threats such as “Burn in hell”; “Get murdered”; and “We’re coming for you.” Fifteen days later, Mayor Warshaw resigned saying that she...

Equal representation? The debate over gender quotas (Part 2)

This article is the second in a two-part series examining the impact of gender quotas. The first article discussed the structure of gender quotas and their general impacts.Gender quotas play a varied and complex role in political life; every country maintains its own reason for their implementation...

The WEF global gender gap report 2022

Gender parity is not recovering, according to the Global Gender Gap Report 2022. It will take another 132 years to close the global gender gap. As crises are compounding, women's workforce outcomes are suffering and the risk of global gender parity backsliding further intensifies.The...

Gender balanced cabinets: Where we stand, why it matters

More than 100 years after women gained full citizenship rights through the 19th Amendment, women are still under-represented in government. While it is widely known that no woman has become president, it is not only the highest executive offices where women have not had access: women also face...

BBC / Getty Images (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-62053997)

Women in Tunisia: Has a female prime minister changed Tunisia?

Tunisia has seen a marked shift in attitudes towards women political leaders since Najla Bouden became the first female prime minister in the Arab world. However, this doesn't mean that life has dramatically improved for Tunisia's women, writes BBC News Arabic's Jessie Williams.Bochra Belhaj Hmida...

Political violence targeting women in West Africa

Women around the world are facing unprecedented levels of targeted political violence. This is also true in West Africa. Women can be targeted in a myriad of ways, by an array of types of perpetrators, during and outside of periods of conflict and contentious crises. The result though is consistent...