Women's Leadership
The topic of gender equality has been a prominent subject of discussion in the international discourse for a considerable period. The acknowledgment of women’s rights and their involvement in diverse domains of society, including the political realm, has been a protracted and hard-won struggle.
Within the domain of global politics, this conflict assumes notable importance, given that choices taken within the international arena carry extensive ramifications that affect individuals around the globe. Despite some advancements, achieving gender equality in the realm of international politics remains a challenging objective, with women persistently facing a lack of representation in crucial positions of power and influence. The progression of gender equality within the realm of international politics is a crucial yet unfinished undertaking, necessitating the implementation of comprehensive strategies that enable women and eliminate obstacles to their full engagement in decision-making procedures.
In the realm of international politics, there has been notable advancement in the pursuit of gender equality. This achievement can be attributed to the concerted efforts of international organizations, governments, and civil society, all of whom have been actively advocating for more women’s participation in global decision-making mechanisms. The milestone of women’s empowerment was signified by the acceptance of international agreements such as the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action by the United Nations in 1995 (Women).
Click here to read the full article published by Eurasia Review on 26 February 2024.
Image source: Eurasia Review
In the heart of Athens, beneath the watchful eyes of history, a groundbreaking event is set to unfold that promises to reshape the landscape of political leadership across the globe. From April 19-21, the Women Political Leaders (WPL) network will convene for its annual summit, a gathering that not only honors the strides taken towards gender equality in political arenas but also, under the patronage of President Katerina Sakellaropoulou, aims to dismantle the longstanding barriers still facing women in politics today. Organized in collaboration with Greece's Ministries of Tourism and Cohesion & Family Affairs, this summit isn't just a meeting; it's a testament to the country's commitment to leading by example in the quest for a more inclusive political discourse.
Empowering Women Leaders: The Agenda
The Athens summit is more than a ceremonial congregation; it's a beacon of hope and a call to action. With over 200 delegates expected to participate, the discussions will pivot around not just celebrating past achievements but forging new pathways to ensure women's voices are not just heard but are influential in shaping policies and decisions. The highlight of the event is an awards ceremony that pays tribute to women politicians who have been instrumental in breaking down stereotypes and challenging the discrimination that has historically sidelined women from political leadership roles. Among the awardees is none other than Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou, whose own career reflects the summit's core mission of elevating women to positions of power and influence.
Click here to read the full article published by BNN Breaking News on 26 February 2024.
Image source: BNN Breaking News
In a parliamentary democracy like Namibia, all power shall be vested in the people through freely elected representatives exercising this power.
Some 51 % of Namibia’s population are women who still face many injustices based on their gender.
Namibia has a long history of many types of social inequality, including gender inequality.
Many challenges women face in Namibia today have been influenced by the historical imbalance of power between women and men, social structural factors such as poverty, unemployment and related social problems.
This includes economic inequalities, like no acknowledgement of unpaid domestic work women disproportionately often do in their households, being exposed to gender-based violence, or being single mothers without any or insufficient support from children’s fathers.
Some of these inequalities are based on political, cultural, traditional or religious beliefs that promote gender inequality.
For example, the cultural concept of the alleged supremacy of men over women.
This makes it even more important that women are represented in parliament and have a say in who makes decisions in Namibia by participating more in the election process and casting their votes.
The voices of women must be present and respected in decision-making at all levels.
Click here to read the full article published by The Namibian on 22 February 2024.
Image source: The Namibian
Discover how the University of Tasmania's Pathways to Politics for Women program is empowering aspiring female politicians in Tasmania. Supported by political vanguards, this initiative is reshaping the political landscape and fostering inclusive representation.
Imagine a political landscape where the voices of women are not just heard but amplified, where the halls of power resonate with the diverse experiences and perspectives of over half the population. This vision is on the cusp of becoming a reality in Tasmania, as the University of Tasmania steps into the spotlight with its groundbreaking Pathways to Politics for Women program. Supported by a formidable alliance of Tasmania's political vanguards, this initiative is poised to dismantle the barriers that have historically sidelined Tasmanian women from political arenas.
A Unifying Endeavor
The Pathways to Politics for Women program, originally kindled in 2016, has burgeoned into a beacon of hope and action for aspiring female politicians across Australia. Its expansion into Tasmania, facilitated by the Trawalla Foundation's generous funding, is a testament to its remarkable success in catalyzing political careers. The program's ethos, championed by figures like Tasmania's first female premier Lara Giddings, former Greens leader Christine Milne, and past premier Will Hodgman, transcends partisan lines, emphasizing the universal benefit of diversifying political representation.
Click here to read the full article published by BNN Breakings News on 22 February 2024.
Image source: BNN Breakings News
Discover the impactful conversations and calls to action from the Women's Rights Conference 2024 in Malaysia, addressing the critical issues of female political representation and the collective efforts towards gender equality.
In the heart of Nairobi, a seismic shift in the narrative of law enforcement is underway. The Kenyan government, in a move as bold as it is necessary, has announced a substantial 40% salary increase for National Police officers, a decision set to roll out in July this year.
This initiative, born from the recommendations of the Maraga-led committee, is not merely a financial adjustment; it's a beacon of hope, signaling a transformative era for police welfare and institutional reforms within the police and prisons departments.
Click here to read the full article published by BNN Breakings News on 24 February 2024.
Image source: BNN Breakings News
Auckland, New Zealand – Numbers speak volumes, and in the Pacific, they tell a concerning story: less than 7 percent of parliamentarians are women.
Serving as the impetus for further collective action, women leaders from parliaments across the Pacific have convened on Auckland for the Pacific Women in Power Forum.
The three-day forum – supported by the people of New Zealand, Australia and Japan – sees women members of parliaments as well as parliamentary officials coming together to discuss opportunities for improving women’s representation, approaches to improving inclusivity, and the effectiveness of parliaments in tackling gender inequality.
The forum will discuss the many challenges women in politics face, including persistent online harassment fueled by the anonymity of social media; abuse that unfortunately dominates the daily lives of many women MPs worldwide.
Despite women's representation in politics still languishing as the worst in any region across the world – and progress sitting somewhere between stalled and gradual – a shift in attitudes across the Pacific is demanding change.
Click here to read the full article published by UNDP on 21 February 2024.
Image source: UNDP
With the support of UNESCO, the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) has published a groundbreaking, book-length global study on online violence against women journalists, documenting alarming trends and offering solutions to this pernicious problem.
The Chilling: A global study of online violence against women journalists is the most geographically, linguistically and ethnically diverse research ever published on the theme. Publication of the 300-page book, concludes a three-year research project originally commissioned by UNESCO in 2019.
Click here to access the report.
Violence against women in all its forms is perceived by the OSCE as one of the most pervasive impediments to women’s full, equal and effective participation in political and public life and as a threat to human security. Yet, it is prevalent across the OSCE region, and it is especially, but not exclusively, affecting young, disabled, ethnic minority women. Women are targeted with violence not only for their political views but also to prevent current and aspiring women politicians from engaging in politics and decision-making altogether. Violence is not a price women should have to pay in order to enjoy their political and civil rights. In addition to individual suffering and violation of women’s rights, this violence weakens democratic governance, political pluralism and the inclusivity of public institutions. This toolkit provides recommendations for legislators, governments, parliaments and political parties as well as guidance for civil society and women politicians affected by violence. It consolidates existing definitions and compiles examples of promising practices on preventing violence against women in politics from a variety of States. The toolkit is based upon international standards and OSCE commitments.
Click here to access the report.
This paper proposes replacing the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) Gender Inequality Index with two new gender indexes: the Global Gender Parity Index (GGPI) and the Women’s Empowerment Index (WEI).
The proposal builds on a review of concepts of gender equality in the capability approach that underpins UNDP’s human development paradigm and the international policy frameworks of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the Beijing Platform for Action, and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It also implements current proposals for reform, which emphasize measuring gender inequality in capabilities (rather than institutional inputs or resources that enable or constrain these capabilities) and measuring gaps in achievements between women and men and the level of women’s potential for empowerment by different indexes.
Evaluating the options for measurement, the paper identifies several Sustainable Development Goal indicators and novel data as potentially useful in translating the selected capabilities into new indexes. The first index, the GGPI, is a relative measure of well-being, which encompasses the dimensions of health, education, decent standard of living and decision-making. The second, the WEI, focuses solely on women and measures freedom from early motherhood, reproductive choice, and freedom from intimate partner violence as well as women’s capabilities to seek education, pursue science, technology, engineering, and math degrees, have voice in national and local governing bodies, and hold economic leadership positions.
Click here to access the report.
UCC research, carried out on behalf of Cork City Council’s Women’s Caucus, has recommended that gender quota legislation be introduced before the next local government elections to help increase the number of female councillors around the country.
Gender quotas are in place for national elections but not at local government level. The authors called for legislation to introduce a 40% gender quota for the 2024 elections so that Ireland is in line with other European countries. At present any gender quotas are informal, as agreed by individual political parties.
The authors of ‘Women’s Voice in the Council Chamber’ Dr. Aodh Quinlivan, Dr Fiona Buckley, Olajumoke Olumwaferanmi Igun and John Ger O’Riordan, also recommended that maternity leave and paternity leave be extended to councillors, that of the three councillors nominated by each local authority to the Association of Irish Local Government (AILG), that at least one should be a woman. They also called for a specific mentoring programme for newly elected women councillors and community-based education around the role of local government and the councillors.
Click here to access the report.
Building on the data in the global report on Gender Equality in Public Administration (GEPA), this policy brief looks at women's participation in and leadership of environmental protection ministries as well as all ministries tasked officially with each country's response to climate change. While progress in women's participation in public administration across many other sectors has improved, there are still significant gaps – with the largest ones affecting environment and climate spheres.
Click here to access the report.
increase gender parity in politics, global efforts have struggled to ensure equal female representation. This is likely tied to implicit gender biases against women in authority. In this work, we present a comprehensive study of gender biases that appear in online political discussion. To this end, we collect 10 million comments on Reddit in conversations about male and female politicians, which enables an exhaustive study of automatic gender bias detection. We address not only misogynistic language, but also other manifestations of bias, like benevolent sexism in the form of seemingly positive sentiment and dominance attributed to female politicians, or differences in descriptor attribution. Finally, we conduct a multi-faceted study of gender bias towards politicians investigating both linguistic and extra-linguistic cues. We assess 5 different types of gender bias, evaluating coverage, combinatorial, nominal, sentimental and lexical biases extant in social media language and discourse. Overall, we find that, contrary to previous research, coverage and sentiment biases suggest equal public interest in female politicians. Rather than overt hostile or benevolent sexism, the results of the nominal and lexical analyses suggest this interest is not as professional or respectful as that expressed about male politicians. Female politicians are often named by their first names and are described in relation to their body, clothing, or family; this is a treatment that is not similarly extended to men. On the now banned far-right subreddits, this disparity is greatest, though differences in gender biases still appear in the right and left-leaning subreddits. We release the curated dataset to the public for future studies.
Click here to read the full article published by Plos One on 26 October 2022.