women's political representation

When they did venture beyond their four walls, they wafted through crowded markets covered from head to toe in the all-encompassing burqa. While most women in conservative Afghanistan may still wear the burqa, today's Afghan woman has choices she didn't have during the Taliban rule that lasted from the mid-1990s to 2001 — like running for parliament.

In the last elections in 2010, 69 women won seats in Afghanistan's 249-seat parliament. The next parliamentary vote will be held in 2015, but first are the April 5 presidential and provincial council elections.

One of the big headlines for the 2012 elections was the historic number of women elected to state and national offices. New Hampshire became the first state to elect an all women congressional delegation and a woman governor. The U.S.

As the May 23 local and European elections draw nearer, the National Woman's Council of Ireland (NWCI) has formulated six key questions to tease out the ways in which potential candidates are committed to promoting gender equality in political arenas and across all aspects of Irish life.

Louise Glennon of NWCI said that “for far too long Ireland has been known for the lack of gender equality in its political decision making...there is no time for lengthy solutions. We need change now.”

When Michelle Bachelet takes office as president of Chile for the second time on Tuesday, the person who places the blue, white and red striped presidential sash round her neck will be  Isabel Allende - the first woman in Chilean history to be leader of the senate.

 One in four lawmakers in Latin America are women, a proportion second only to Europe, and a continent better known as the home of machismo is now leading the way in drawing more women into politics – enabling them gradually to push women’s, social and educational issues to the fore.

International IDEA in collaboration with Demo Finland, UN Women and the Embassy of Finland organized a seminar on the Electoral System and Women’s Representation in Nepal: Need for Reform? on 4 March 2014 in Kathmandu.

270 people participated, including Constituent Assembly (CA) members, representatives from political parties, civil society, media and academics.

Today’s Cape Cod Times noted the imminent retirement of Senate President Therese Murray and listed two of the leading candidates for her seat, Plymouth state representative Vinnie deMacedo and former Falmouth state representative Matt Patrick.

deMacedo, a Republican, said that “I would like to think that the district wants balance, and I think this is an opportunity to bring some balance to the Senate.”

A group of Pacific women politicians and leaders have met in Fiji to find ways to boost the number of Pacific women in elected positions.

The Pacific has the lowest number of women in government in the world at just 4-point-7 percent.

Twenty women from seven Pacific Islands states came together for a workshop in Fiji last week, which was organised by the Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development and the Fiji Women's Rights Movement

Efforts to boost the participation of women in Afghan politics are in serious jeopardy, an IWPR debate has heard.

Noor Mohammad Noor, a spokesman for the Independent Elections Commission (IEC), said that attitudes towards female members of parliament and provincial councillors remained "backward" and that it was proving difficult to change public perceptions.

Addressing more than 20 students from universities in Kabul and Nangarhar, he claimed legislation passed in July last year to reduce the number of provincial council seats reserved for women was a mistake.

The National Democratic Institute (NDI) has been working to strengthen political parties, civil society, media and other key democratic institutions in Algeria since 1997.