Civil society activists have demanded political parties to award tickets to women aspirants for the local government elections to bring them into the national mainstream.

“If women are not given a leadership role, we cannot expect economic change in our lives and status,” Yasmin Bibi, a former tehsil councillor, told a women-only gathering organised by the Saibaan Development Organisation in Balakot on Friday.

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.

Female candidates are overrepresented for marginal seats at the next federal election, while safe seats for both major parties remain dominated by males, an analysis by Guardian Australia shows.

While the major parties are yet to finalise all candidates for the forthcoming federal election, an analysis of those preselected so far for parliament’s 35 marginal seats shows that about 60% of the candidates across both major parties are female.

Beirut, (UN Women, The European Union and The World Bank) - Lebanon is facing a convergence of political, economic and social crises, all exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. These crises are causing extraordinary human suffering across Lebanon and deepening gender inequalities and divides.