Women rights

Women's political representation is vital to securing greater gender equality, feminists and others argue. Africa has made great strides in electing more women to its parliaments.

Four African countries are among the top ten countries with the highest numbers of women in parliament. But even in these countries, gender inequality persists. Many of Africa's women are still constrained by sexist laws and cultural beliefs that infringe their rights.

Women politicians are making history in New Jersey this year. Because of a quirk in the state’s politics, five women — two Republicans and three Democrats — are running for statewide office.

The Women's Political Caucus of New Jersey (WPCNJ) congratulates New Jersey's Democratic candidate for governor in 2013, State Senator Barbara Buono, in her choice on SEIU 1199 Vice-President Milly Silva as her running mate. According to Center for Women and Politics(CAWP), New Jersey is only the third state ever to field a two-woman major party ticket in the general election for a state's top elective posts, following examples set by Democrats in Illinois in 1994 and Republicans in Kentucky in 1999.

Constituents around the state have been receiving mail declaring that the state Senate has passed historic women's legislation. The Assembly passed the 10-point Women's Equality Act in its entirety, but the state Senate failed to do so. The state Senate passed nine separate bills and refused to even discuss the 10th: the critical reproductive health component supported by 850 organizations and businesses from around the state. 

The All Women Action Society (Awam) welcomes the state of Selangor's initiative to make it compulsory to have 30 percent of members of the local council be women, from the Jan 1, 2014.

This is a necessary step to even out an uneven playing field as women's representation in politics has consistently been poor.

However, Awam would also like to highlight that there still exists systemic obstacles to women's political participation.

Since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, the rights of Afghan have progressed: Women are in school, the workplace and government.
 
But those advances could well be jeopardized in coming months, according to a new report by the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).
 

India may boast a woman President, Prime Minister and Speaker, but when it comes to selecting candidates, key political parties still have a long way to go.

In the past 10 years, only 7 per cent or 4,148 candidates out of the 62,847 candidates were women, says an analysis. Of these, 675 won to become MPs or MLAs.

Women contestants in the fray for sarpanch elections scheduled for July 31, who are financially not too sound to woo voters with valuables, have taken up a unique stand of highlighting what other candidates failed to promise.

All-round development of their panchayat is their mantra and their promise to the voters. Women candidates in Kruthuvennu, Machilipatnam rural and Bantumilli have intensified their campaign by raising their voice against poor access to health care, basic amenities and largely better management of natural resources.

Bangladesh has started a process to set up a ‘parliamentary caucus’ to better coordinate parliament’s actions on reproductive, maternal and child health, Foreign Minister Dipu Moni has said.

Speaking at the end of the Inter-Parliamentary Union’s (IPU) two-day meet in Dhaka, Dipu Moni on Wednesday said Speaker would be in the helm of the Caucus.