Parliaments and Representatives

Despite its apparent liberalism, Lebanon scores low in gender equality, especially in politics. According to the Gender Gap index, Lebanon ranks third last in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, with only Syria and Yemen, both plagued by war, scoring lower.

According to Reliefweb, since 2010, Lebanon has witnessed a consistent decline in its relative gender gap score – reaching close to zero in terms of political empowerment.

Lorraine Grillo was named as first deputy mayor; Anne Williams-Isom as deputy mayor for health and human services; Meera Joshi as deputy mayor for operations; Maria Torres-Springer as deputy mayor for economic and workforce development; and Sheena Wright as deputy mayor for strategic initiatives.

Forty. That's the number of countries around the world that have chosen a woman to lead since Julia Gillard was ousted on June 27, 2013. In the past year alone, Sweden, Tunisia, Samoa and Estonia all elected their first female prime ministers while Tanzania, Honduras and Barbados chose women as their presidents.

This month, Germany's Angela Merkel handed over the reins after four consecutive terms as chancellor — 16 years and 16 days to be precise, just 10 days shy of a record.

The United Nations has rallied the nation to stamp out widespread violence against women in politics (VAWP) across the country’s political divide during election period.

Violence against women in politics occurs within the political domain targeting women creating a barrier to women’s political participation.

The British High Commission, in partnership with the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD), UN Women and the Uganda Women Parliamentary Association (UWOPA) on December 07 launched the second cohort of their mentorship programme for women parliamentarians in Uganda.

Women in Congress feel besieged and singled-out amid surging threats against lawmakers at all levels, with some frustrated more hasn't been done to halt the trend.

Why it matters: As record numbers of American women are being elected to public office, their growing political power is being met with death and rape threats, sexist and racist abuse and online disinformation. Collectively, it's discouraged women from running for office.

Just over ten years ago, IPU Member Parliaments adopted a landmark resolution on youth participation to encourage the rejuvenation of parliaments. Since then, parliaments from around the world have made some limited progress in its implementation. However, the level of youth representation in parliament, as measured regularly by the IPU, remains low. Half the world’s population is under 30 and yet only 2.6% of MPs globally represent this age group.