By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS 25 September 2024 (IDN) — The first eight months of 2024—described as a “super election year”—have seen limited progress in women’s representation in parliaments worldwide.
A mid-year provisional analysis by the Geneva-based Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), released September 25, points out that with roughly half the world’s population going to the polls in 2024, the year started with high hopes that women’s representation would increase in the lead-up to the 30th anniversary next year of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, a global policy framework for achieving gender equality adopted by 189 countries.
But with parliamentary renewals in 37 chambers across 30 countries by the end of August, the global share of women MPs has inched up to 27%, a mere 0.1 percentage point increase since the start of the year.
At this rate, the annual progress is expected to be lower than in recent years, raising concerns about a potential stagnation or even reversal of the gains made.
Asked for the reasons for this stagnation, Mariana Duarte Mutzenberg, a gender expert at the IPU told IDN the primary reasons for the underrepresentation of women in most parliaments are deeply rooted in political culture, which has traditionally been male-dominated.
“This is compounded by persistent sexism and the alarming increase in violence against women in politics. Additionally, financial obstacles pose a significant barrier, as running for office is expensive and women often have less access to the financial resources required to support a successful campaign,” she said.
“While the underrepresentation of women in parliament remains a global challenge, for many decades there were notable differences between developed and developing countries, she argued.
Historically, developed countries, particularly in Europe, had dominated the IPU global ranking of women in parliament. However, this has shifted in recent years with Latin American countries such as Mexico surging ahead, largely due to the implementation of quotas.
Additionally, Rwanda stands out as a remarkable case, having topped the IPU ranking for many years now, primarily driven by post-conflict nation-building efforts led by both men and women, and the introduction of quotas, declared Mutzenberg.
Over the past decade, according to IPU, the average annual progress rate was +0.6 percentage points, but this slowed to +0.4 percentage points in 2023 and 2022.
Only 11 out of 37 renewed chambers saw an increase in women’s representation by one percentage point or more. In one third of chambers, the proportion of women members of parliament (MPs) stagnated, and in another third, it declined by more than 1.0 point.
Upper chambers fared better than unicameral parliaments and lower chambers, with women now occupying 29.9% of seats in renewed upper chambers, compared to 27.9% in renewed single and lower chambers.
Rwanda and Mexico have been singled out for their high proportions of women MPs, with Rwanda’s lower chamber even seeing an increase, from 61.3% to 63.8%. Both countries have strong legislated gender quotas. Rwanda has topped the IPU ranking of women in parliaments for many years.
The Dominican Republic saw the highest progress among all renewed chambers, with an 8.0 percentage point increase in women MPs in the lower chamber, reaching 36.8%.
The United Kingdom’s House of Commons hit the 40% mark for the first time, due primarily to progress made by the Labour Party, which has a voluntary party gender quota.
Mongolia applied an enhanced gender quota, resulting in progress of 7.3 percentage points. The quota mandated gender parity in proportional lists for the first time and increased the candidate quota in majority seats from 20% to 30%.
Meanwhile, Bhutan’s lower chamber saw the sharpest decrease, with a 13.1 percentage point drop in women MPs while Tuvalu’s parliament has no women MPs now, down from one previously, bringing the total number of chambers with zero women members to three.
Well-designed and ambitious quotas remain a critical success factor in sustaining and increasing the proportion of women MPs, declared IPU.
The IPU is the global organization of national parliaments. It was founded more than 130 years ago as the first multilateral political organization in the world, encouraging cooperation and dialogue between all nations. Today, the IPU comprises 180 national Member Parliaments and 15 regional parliamentary bodies. It promotes democracy and helps parliaments develop into stronger, younger, greener, more gender-balanced and more innovative institutions. It also defends the human rights of parliamentarians through a dedicated committee made up of MPs from around the world. The IPU will publish its full annual analysis of gender equality in parliaments in early 2025 with a special edition to mark the anniversary of the Beijing Declaration. [IDN-InDepthNews]
For more information about the IPU, contact Thomas Fitzsimons at press@ipu.org
Photo source: IPU
