Women's Leadership
For women political leaders, social media had the potential to be a big gamechanger. Often left invisible in the media and lacking access to large financial resources, this was the space where they could overcome traditional barriers and engage with citizens directly. But instead, the online world has increasingly become another site of harassment and abuse for many women politicians across the world.
Gendered abuse, misogynistic comments, even rape threats, doctored images, fake nudes, and doxing of personal information are common, and often come via armies of organized “trolls”. It has affected their well-being, forced many to reconsider their decision to be in politics, and even enabled murderous attacks on women.
This is what Lucina Di Meco, co-founder of #ShePersisted Global, found in her research on the role social media is playing in fostering gender-inclusive and participatory democracies. She found “overwhelming” abuse for women around the world - with similar misogynistic tropes routinely adapting themselves to local contexts in countries as diverse as India, Italy and the Philippines.
Click here to read the full article and interview published by WomenLead on 17 June 2021.
Women’s Political Empowerment is an integral component of International IDEA's Sudan Program. The program seeks to support initiatives aimed at enhancing women's political participation and promote the broad participation of women in every aspect of Sudan’s democratic transition process.
This short documentary celebrates five stories of women’s political participation in Sudan. It highlights the importance of expanding our understanding of political participation beyond mainstream political activities.
Source: International IDEA
Amina Mohammed has risen from humble beginnings in Nigeria to become the most powerful woman in the United Nations. For more than 30 years, she has worked hard to shine a light on the developmental challenges facing our world – particularly women.
At a time when there are concerns that the COVID-19 pandemic could wipe out the progress made towards gender equality in multiple areas, what can be done to build back a fair world for women after the injustices of the pandemic? And would she like to become Nigeria's first female president?
The swearing in of Kamala Harris as the first female vice president of the United States has renewed conversations on women in political leadership around the world. In Southasia, where several women have assumed the prime ministerial and presidential offices in the past, these discussions are complicated by the dynastic background of the leaders, from Sirimavo Bandaranaike and Indira Gandhi, to Benazir Bhutto and Sheikh Hasina.
But does dynasty alone explain the presence of a few prominent women in national electoral politics in Southasia? How do we view the space for women leaders in provincial or municipal politics, especially in light of the region’s complex caste, religious and linguistic makeup? And have Southasia’s women leaders brought alternative styles of leadership in their political journeys? These are the questions that inspire this first edition of ‘Southasian Conversation’ — our new crossborder discussion series.
The online panel discussion, conducted live over Zoom and Facebook Live on 24 January 2021, brought together speakers from four cities in Southasia:
- Hameeda Hossain (Human-rights activist and scholar. Founding member of Ain o Salish Kendra, a legal aid and human rights organisation. Based in Dhaka.)
- Neelam Hussain (Academic, translator and activist. Founding member and Executive Director of Simorgh Women’s Resource and Publication Centre, and a member of the Women’s Action Forum. Based in Lahore.)
- Manushi Yami Bhattarai (Political activist, organiser and academic. Central committee member of Janata Samajwadi Party, and teaches Gender Studies in Kathmandu.)
- Ambika Satkunanathan (Lawyer, human rights advocate and former commissioner on the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka. Based in Colombo.)
The conversation was moderated by our contributing editor Laxmi Murthy (Journalist, writer and editor; Director of Hri Institute for Southasian Research and Exchange. Based in Bengaluru.)
Source: Himalmag
The Changing the Face of Politics podcast series is an initiative by the National Democratic Institute, launched as part of NDI's commitment to a decade of action to accelerate the pace of change on women's political empowerment.
In candid conversations recorded from home, an intergenerational, multi-sectoral and multi-national array of established and emerging women activists and politicians from around the world will interview each other about their experiences of political leadership, and reflect on how the Changing the Face of Politics campaign can actively protect and promote women’s political empowerment globally.
Instead of a single host the series will be built on a “daisy chain” model, whereby each participant is first a guest, and then an interviewer.
The hope is that this podcast presents inspirational examples to other women, particularly young women and marginalized women, of the possibilities of political leadership.
Watch NDI's media partner, Devex, discusses highlights from the episodes here.
By Emma Batha
LONDON, Feb 1 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Countries must put more women into leadership roles to build a stronger post-pandemic world, a top U.N. official said on Monday as data showed women could be waiting more than a century to see equality at the highest political echelons.
Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, who made history as South Africa's first female deputy president in 2005, said gender-balanced cabinets made better decisions not just for women, but for society as a whole.
Global progress on getting more women into top roles is frustratingly slow, she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
But she believes Kamala Harris's appointment as the first female U.S. vice president will make other countries take note and spur more women to consider running for office.
"It does help if a big country breaks the mould. It pushes other countries forward," she said.
Mlambo-Ngcuka said Harris, who is of Indian and Jamaican heritage, was a particularly important role model for young women of colour.
"They now have someone who looks like them, who they can identify with," she said, adding that she had witnessed how her own appointment in 2005 had encouraged the ambitions of a younger generation.
"It was such a fulfilling feeling to hear young women (saying) 'Wow, this is on the table. I can also go for this'," Mlambo-Ngcuka said.
Only 22 countries have an elected woman head of state or government, while 119 nations have never had a woman leader, according to U.N. Women, which said gender parity would not be achieved for another 130 years at the current rate of progress.
Click here to read the full article published by Reuters on 1 February 2021.
VVEngage is a Vital Voices signature fellowship supporting outstanding women political leaders making and influencing policy across the globe. Through this fully-funded fellowship, we aim to increase the capacity, decision-making power and effectiveness of women leaders in politics and government, shifting culture around women’s public leadership and moving towards equality in public representation globally. We also aim to work towards a more inclusive and equitable world by advancing the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through policy.
Through this fellowship, Vital Voices advances women’s political leadership and the SDGs by conducting online and in-person* trainings with experts such as women leaders from the Vital Voices Global Network and professors from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. The fellowship also connects participants to a global network of peers and mentors, such as current and former female heads of state with the Council of Women World Leaders, with whom they can brainstorm and share challenges and best practices.
Click here to learn more and to access application details.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has developed a 10-Point Action Agenda for Advancing Gender Equality in Crisis Settings (10PAA), a roadmap to guide its development programming towards results that will help transform and advance gender equality in crisis contexts and achieve the Women, Peace and Security agenda. The 10PAA is central to UNDP’s new Crisis Offer, as well as its new Gender Equality Strategy 2022-2025. It represents a strong corporate commitment to addressing the most stubborn roots of gender inequalities.
The 10PAA is the result of a broad consultation process that aimed at finding entry points to strengthen gender-transformational results and women’s leadership and participation in crisis contexts. It is grounded in the understanding that deep-rooted, intersectional discrimination sits at the heart of the multiple challenges humanity faces and reinforces models of dominance that exclude and leave women behind, especially in crisis settings.
Click here to access the publication.
Online violence against women in politics (OVAW-P) poses a deepening challenge to democracy, serving as a key tool of illiberalism and democratic backsliding across the globe. OVAW-P encompasses all forms of aggression, coercion, and intimidation seeking to exclude women from politics simply because they are women. This online behavior seeks to achieve political outcomes: targeting individual women to harm them or drive them out of public life, while also sending a message that women in general should not be involved in politics. This online violence has a chilling effect on the political ambitions and engagement of women and girls, decreasing their presence and agency in politics and public life. Stopping gender-based attacks online is a solvable problem, and it is the fastest and clearest investment toward building an internet that enables everyone to be politically engaged.
This report includes a list of interventions that technology platforms, governments, civil society organizations, and the media can take to make meaningful progress towards ending online violence against women in politics.
Click here to access the report.
The Women in Government Fellowship is a six-month program that is focused on capacity-building, training, and mentorship of women in politics. It seeks to enhance and improve the quality of political participation of women.
The fellows will undergo in-person workshops, intensive virtual learning sessions, and hands-on mentorship by seasoned women politicians. This three-pronged approach will provide an academic grounding of democratic frameworks and policy-making, up-skill them with practical know-hows of electioneering, build the fellows' personal brands through personalised Public Narrative trainings by coaches from Harvard Kennedy School, and learn the ropes of politicking directly from a mentor who is undergoing the realities and tackling the challenges of being a woman in public office.
Application deadline: 30th November 2022
Shortlisted applicants' interviews: 5-15th December 2022
Selected Fellows list: 21st December 2022
Click here to learn more.
A compendium of ideas to reach gender parity in municipal politics
How can we begin to overcome the countless obstacles that are preventing women from fully participating in municipal politics?
The suggestions in this Inventory were compiled following consultations we carried out across Canada, as part of FCM’s Toward Parity Project.
These actions are not official FCM recommendations. They are potential strategies that need to be assessed to determine whether they can be adapted to fit local realities and opportunities.
Click here to access the guide.
To inform our own programming on advancing gender-balanced appointments and to establish a scalable, replicable, transformative model for advancing gender-balanced appointments, RepresentWomen gathered learnings from five similar initiatives around the country.
The following summary reviews these conversations:
- Key ingredients for success
- Stumbling blocks
- What they wish they knew
- Common tactics
Click here to access the guide.
For its inaugural Solutions Summit, RepresentWomen gathered experts in election administration, voting rights, and democracy reform to discuss the viable, scalable, and transformative initiatives that will strengthen our democracy. Over the course of three days, they held sessions on fair elections, fair access, and fair representation, ending each day with ways we could take actions to advance the solutions discussed that day.
They compiled all of those ideas, resources, and guides into one place to create this 2022 Solutions Summit Resource Guide, which provides a plethora of take-action options so you can be a part of the solution.
Click here to download the guide.
The internet is a tool that can simplify and encourage democratic engagement, but the rise of online disinformation challenges even the world’s most robust democracies. While the most recognizable disinformation campaigns are related to national politics, disinformers frequently employ narratives targeting women’s gender and sexuality in order to disrupt democracy. This is often then amplified by media agents and the general population, who may not have the intent to drive disinformation nor the capacity to discern it. NDI’s robust research in this field concludes that gendered disinformation is the use of false information to confuse or mislead by manipulating gender as a social cleavage to attack women and/or to sway political outcomes. It has three primary goals: to keep women out of politics; to change the views of women and men about women’s political participation; and specifically to change party policies or political outcomes. In short, it aims to undermine women’s free and equal participation in politics to the detriment of inclusive, resilient democracy.
Based on research conclusions, this paper outlines recommendations for NDI, its partners and those working globally to mitigate the democratic harms of disinformation, to ensure women’s safe participation and leadership in politics, and to monitor the social media and information environment in elections.
Click here to access the guide.
This guide is designed to increase the understanding of the legal obligations of countries in the West and Central Africa (WCA) region to achieve gender equality in decision-making. It focuses on strengthening efforts to improve the legal framework in the region to ensure that laws are clearly drafted, implementable and effective. Special focus is devoted to the processes by which laws supporting political participation of women are developed, negotiated, drafted, passed and implemented. It aims to strengthen law-making processes that build and secure the legal rights of women who want to run for elections and who are ready to take over leadership positions in their parliaments and governments. Legal instruments are presented that can be used to advance the political participation of women.
The comparative experiences presented in this guide address both examples of good practices and laws that have failed because their regulations are imprecise, unclear and/or lack effective sanctions. The guide presents also various provisions of laws resulting from different constitutional requirements or electoral systems, assessing their advantages and disadvantages.
Click here to download the guide published by UN Women in 2021.
This Handbook has been developed as publication by register of Political Parties with support from the Papua New Guinea Election Commission and the United Nations Development Programme in Papua New Guinea. This is part of UN Women Make the Change programme funded by the Australian Government’s Pacific Women Shaping Pacific Development Programme.
Click here to download the report.