We know 2024 is set to be the super election year, so expect nothing less but super-packed editions of your favourite newsletter on all things #womeninpolitics. This edition has election updates from Indonesia, Iran, Pakistan, Tuvalu, and other political updates from Hungary, Malaysia, UK and a lot more!

In case you missed last month’s edition, you can read it here. 

Election Watch

Tracking women among candidates and winners

🇹🇻 TUVALU: Not a single woman was elected to Tuvalu’s Parliament in the January election. It’s not that Tuvalu was faring too well on women’s representation before the polls – the outgoing Parliament had only one female MP, and just one woman contested the 2024 polls, data from the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) shows. 

🇵🇰 PAKISTAN: Maryam Nawaz Sharif has become the Chief Minister of the province of Punjab, after winning an election that was boycotted by the main opposition. This is the first time a woman has become a Chief Minister of any province in the country. Maryam is the daughter of the country’s former PM, Nawaz Sharif. 

🇮🇩 INDONESIA: On Feb 14, general elections were held in Indonesia to elect representatives across the political spectrum – the President, VP, MPs and representatives to regional and local bodies. Three pairs contested for the top two roles, and all six were men. The situation is better among candidates running for Parliamentary seats, thanks to a law that mandates that 30 percent of candidates be women. While that helps, political participation for women remains challenging. 

🇮🇷 IRAN: On Mar 01, Iran held legislative elections to elect the next set of 290 members of the Parliament. In the previous polls of 2020, women made up only 9.3 percent of all candidates and 5.9 percent of those elected, IPU data shows. This is the first election after the tragic death of Mahsa Amini in custody after she was arrested by the country’s morality policy for not wearing the hijab properly. Amini’s death sparked widespread outrage and protests led by women and young men. At 12 percent, the share of women who contested the 2024 polls was marginally higher – will that translate to some reduction in the gender gap in Parliament? We’ll find out soon!

Leaders 

Updates about women leading countries, states and movements

• On Feb 10, Katalin Novak stepped down as Hungary’s President. Novak’s decision comes after she pardoned a man who was imprisoned for his role in enabling child abuse at a state-run children’s home. The man in the picture was the deputy director of a children’s home, and was found guilty of forcing children to retract their allegations of sexual abuse against the director of the home. Novak granted clemency to the man along with others as part of Pope Francis' visit to Hungary in April 2023. 

  The decision came to light only recently, leading to criticism, protests and calls for Novak to resign. In wake of these, Novak apologised and announced her decision to quit her position during a live telecast. Judit Varga, the former minister of justice who approved the pardon, has also resigned from her current role. 

“I made a mistake … Today is the last day that I address you as a president,” Novak said in a speech broadcast on state television.

• In Russia, following the shocking death of her husband in prison, Alexei Navalny, Yulia Navalnaya finds herself on the centre of Russia’s political stage. While her husband was alive, Yulia had maintained that she wanted to be a politician’s wife, not a politician herself. Read more about her and her political journey in The Guardian and in the Financial Times. 

On-the-job Updates

Spotlighting women’s experiences in political office 

• An Australian news channel used a doctored image of a female politician in one of its broadcasts. Georgie Purcell, a member of the Victoria state legislature, took to social media to share the ordeal:

“I endured a lot yesterday,” she wrote on X (formerly Twitter). 

“But having my body and outfit photoshopped by a media outlet was not on my bingo card. Can’t imagine this happening to a male MP.”

The outrageous move by the channel rightly angered many in the country, and was criticised by many. The news channel later apologised for the “graphic error”, very conveniently blaming the software Photoshop for the same. However, a spokesperson from Adobe (which owns Photoshop) clarified to the BBC that “any changes to this image would have required human intervention and approval."

• In the United Kingdom, three women members of Parliament have been given bodyguards and chauffeur-driven cars to ensure their safety after a risk assessment was carried out, The Sunday Times reported. The names of the MPs have been kept anonymous to protect their safety. Read more here. 

Policy Watch

Because policy shifts matter

In Malaysia, MP Rozaina Adam, has submitted a proposal to amend the Constitution with the aim to set a 33 percent quota for women in Parliament beginning 2029. Women currently comprise only 13.5 percent of MPs in the country. Separately, another MP, Ali Azim submitted a proposal to ensure a minimum number of women among candidates. Women currently comprise only 13.5 percent of the MPs in the country, and the country is ranked 150th on IPU’s rankings of countries based on women’s parliamentary representation.

Reading List

The more one learns, there’s only more to learn

1. “Mexico is for mujeres: The next Mexican president will be a woman”: Ms. Magazine

2. “Hitting the glass ceiling: Women and politics in China”: Modern Diplomacy

3. “Plurality of Israelis think electing more women will harm politics — survey”: The Times of Israel

4. “The Biden campaign is launching a nationwide effort to win the women’s vote. Jill Biden will lead it”: Associated Press

5. “Burundi’s quota for women in politics has had mixed results, but that’s no reason to scrap it”: The Conversation

Community Watch

A quick round-up from the community working at the intersection of gender x politics

• In the USA, RepresentWomen, an organisation working on improving women’s political representation, released a research brief on breaking barriers for Black women candidates. It is available here. 

• IDEA International will co-host a session at the upcoming CSW68 to discuss women’s political participation and empowerment in post-coup Myanmar. Read/register here. 

That’s a wrap for this month! Liked this edition? Then press the ❤️ button and show us some love! And please, please do share this with a friend or on your social media accounts. There’s frankly nothing quite like reader love and endorsement, so please keep it coming! Thank you!

Disclaimer: #WomenLead is a non-partisan newsletter produced in a personal capacity, and does not reflect any institutional affiliation/opinion. In case of any questions, please drop in a message at womenlead.project@gmail.com

We bring you a quick wrap of all the important and noteworthy updates on women in politics from December 2023 and January 2024. It ain’t an easy task with so much happening, but we’ve been at it. Hope you’ll find the edition worth your time. 

But before we begin, we almost thought this was a spoof, but it looks like it’s not. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has been named “Man of the Year” by a newspaper in the country. 

The fun is in the details. The newspaper, Libero Quotidiano Daily, chose Meloni as she had “won the ‘war of the sexes’ in Italy”. It also said that Meloni had not just broken the glass ceiling, in fact she had “dissolved it”! Find out more here. 

Election Watch

Tracking women among candidates and winners

🇧🇩 BANGLADESH: The big election year has started. Bangladesh went to polls on Jan 07. No surprises. Incumbent PM Sheikh Hasina was voted back to serve her fifth term as PM in an election boycotted by the opposition. As we have noted previously, Bangladesh is a rare country that has had a woman at the helm for the majority of its existence. But that hasn’t translated to equitable representation of women in Parliament. Women made up only 4.9 percent of all candidates, and just 20 women have been elected to the 300-seat Parliament this January, IPU data shows. That’s lower than the number of women in the outgoing legislature – 22.

🇷🇸 SERBIA: In December, Serbs went to polls to elect a fresh Parliament. Ninety-five women were elected as MPs, together comprising 38 percent of all members, marginally lower than in the outgoing House (38.8 percent), IPU data shows. Read more in Euractiv here.

🇨🇩 DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: In the December election in DRC, 61 women were elected to Parliament’s lower house, comprising 12.2 percent of all MPs elected. This was a small improvement from the share of women in the previous legislature (10 percent). Read the perspectives of some female candidates who contested the polls in DW here. 

🇧🇹 BHUTAN: Only two women were elected to Bhutan’s National Assembly, the lower house of Parliament, comprising 4.3 percent of all MPs, representing an all-time low. That was a sharp reduction from their share in the outgoing legislature (14.9 percent). This follows the election of only one woman to the 20-member upper house in 2023.

🇪🇸 SPAIN: Mar Galcerán, who has been elected to the regional assembly in Spain’s Valencia, has become the first person with Down’s Syndrome to get elected as a member of a regional (or national) legislature. Read about her political journey in The Guardian here.

Leaders 

Updates about women leading countries, states, parties and movements

• Hana Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, who became the youngest-ever MP elected to the New Zealand Parliament last year, began her term on a distinct and powerful note. Maipi-Clarke, who is from the indigenous Maori community, used her maiden speech to criticise the policies of the government. She began her speech with haka, a traditional dance of the Maori people, a video of which went viral online around the world.

“I was given some advice before making it into Parliament, to not take anything personally or it'll eat you up. Well, I can't help but take everything personally that has been said in this Chamber. In only a couple of weeks, in only 14 days, this Government has attacked my whole world from every corner. Health, taiao, wai, whenua, natural resources, Māori wards, reo, tamariki, and the right of me and you to be in this country under Te Tiriti. How can I not take anything personally when it feels like these policies were made about me?”

• Tomoko Tamura has been appointed the chair of Japan’s Communist Party, becoming the first woman to reach that position within the party, Nikkei Asia reported.

• In October last year, Maria Corina Machado was chosen as Venezuela’s Opposition presidential candidate in an independently run primary election to challenge long-time incumbent President Nicolas Maduro in polls scheduled for later this year. However, even before she was chosen, the Venezuelan government announced a 15-year ban on her running for office. One of the allegations against her was that she supported the international sanctions against Maduro’s government. The country’s Supreme Justice Tribunal has upheld the ban. 

• Rukchanok Srinork, an MP in Thailand, has been sentenced to six years in prison for insulting the monarchy on social media. The posts included a tweet criticising the decision to give the contract for manufacturing Covid-19 vaccines to a company owned by the King, and another retweet of an old anti-monarchy comment.

On-the-job updates

Spotlighting women’s experiences in political office 

• Bae Hyun-jin, a South Korean MP from the ruling party, was attacked with a rock by a 14-year-old boy. Security camera footage shows the boy meeting Bae inside the hallway of a building, striking conversation with her, and then repeatedly hitting her on the head with a small rock as she tries to protect herself. While the attack left Bae wounded, luckily, she managed to escape a serious injury. Read more here.

• In Taiwan, Yaung Chih-liang, a former health minister, called Rosalia Wu, an MP from the DPP party, “useless” while campaigning for Chang Szu-kan, a fellow member of his party. And what was he alluding to, in case you’re wondering? 

  Yaung accused Rosalia of being useless for not being able to have children at her age (50 years). “She is useless now, at nearly 50 [years old], she cannot bear any children. She will have no kids and no grandchildren”, are the golden words of the man, who managed to make a misogynist, ageist, senseless, illogical, and completely irrelevant statement, all in one go (quite a remarkable feat we’d say). This is not a first for the man, of course, neither did he stop at just that remark during the rally. And of course, no surprises, he also refused to apologise, wondering why Rosalia was being so “fragile”? (!!!) 

Policy Watch

Because policy shifts matter

Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Congress has launched a practical guide on preventing and combating sexism in local politics. The guide provides guidance on recognising, preventing and addressing sexism before, during and after elections. It also includes examples of good practices, such as codes of conduct and regulations that can be adopted by municipalities, and mentions examples of possible sanctions against perpetrators of the violence, as well as remedies for those who have been targeted by it. Read more here. 

Reading List

The more one learns, there’s only more to learn

1. “Campaign costs impeding women’s political representation in Indonesia”: The University of Melbourne

2. “Saving representative democracy from online trolls”: The Strategist 

3. “Life on the campaign trail, with kids”: Politico

4. “What women need to succeed in panchayat elections”: India Development Review

5. “Balochistan’s women politicians struggle for representation: Battling bias, funding barriers, and low turnout”: Tribal News Network

6. “Feminism in pictures: illustrated stories of women’s rights around the world”: The Guardian

Community Watch

A quick round-up from the community working at the intersection of gender x politics

• In the UK, the Jo Cox Civility Commission has identified a range of practical recommendations to tackle the abuse and intimidation of elected representatives. The Commission is run by the Jo Cox foundation, founded in the memory of Helen Joanne Cox, a British MP, who was brutally murdered ahead of the Brexit referendum in 2016. You can read/endorse the recommendations here.

• , an excellent weekly curation of global headlines and events, is inviting op-ed pitches. Know more here.

That’s a wrap for this month! Liked this edition? Then press the ❤️ button and show us some love! And please, please do share this with a friend or on your social media accounts. There’s frankly nothing quite like reader love and endorsement, so please keep it coming! Thank you!

Disclaimer: #WomenLead is a non-partisan newsletter produced in a personal capacity, and does not reflect any institutional affiliation/opinion. In case of any questions, please drop in a message at womenlead.project@gmail.com

It’s that time of the year. Climate is the talk of the town. In the meantime, we stare at this gathering of world leaders, trying hard to #spotthemwomen, wondering what such summits really mean without an equitable representation of women at the highest negotiating tables. But *sigh* that’s just us. 

In this month’s edition, we bring you updates from Australia, France, India, Liberia, Oman, Spain and The Gambia. 

🚨 We also have a new section to bring you some (in corporate speak) “ecosystem updates”. Please feel free to drop in additions for this section going forward by writing to us!

In case you missed last month’s edition, you can read it here.

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Election Watch

Tracking women among candidates and winners

🇴🇲 OMAN: In October, Oman held elections to elect members to the Majlish A'Shura Council for its tenth term. It was a landmark election – the first time polls were held on an app-based platform. However, in a major setback to women’s representation, not a single woman has been elected to the 90-member Council, Asharq Al-Awsat reported. 

🇱🇷 LIBERIA: Nine women have been elected to Liberia’s Parliament in the most recent general election, making up a tenth of all members. This is marginally lower than their share in the outgoing legislature (11 percent). Read more about the missing women in Liberia’s politics in this report from Okay Africa. 

🇮🇳 INDIA: In India, legislative elections were held in five states through the month of November. Even as all parties in the fray went all out to woo women voters, they were united in keeping women on the margins of their own candidate pools. Women comprised just a tenth of candidates across all states, a Business Standard analysis shows. This was despite all parties helping pass a historic legislation recently in India’s Parliament to reserve a third of all seats in the national and state legislatures for women (that bill has been passed, but it isn’t likely to be implemented any time soon).

[🔌 SELF PLUG: Here are two reports on the elections, one from Telangana and the other across all states, where #WomenLead got an opportunity to share our thoughts] 

🇦🇺 AUSTRALIA: And finally, [at least] something to cheer about! In Australia, the state of Victoria reached a historic milestone, when a by-election led to the state Parliament achieve gender parity for the first time! Eden Foster was elected to a seat vacated by Daniel Andrews, and this led to the Victorian Parliament having 64 women and 64 men.

Way to go! Read more here and here.

Leaders 

Updates about women leading countries, states and movements

• There are 12 women among the 22 members of Spain’s new cabinet, Euro News reported. Pedro Sánchez, who has been reelected as the European nation’s PM said:

“The new government is going to have a marked feminist accent with four women deputy prime ministers and more female ministers than male ministers.”

On-the-job updates

Spotlighting women’s experiences in political office 

• In France, senator Joel Guerriau is being investigated for allegedly adding drugs to the drink of a female colleague in what appears to be an attempt to sexually assault her. Sandrine Josso felt unwell after she had a drink with Guerriau at his house in Paris on November 14. She was taken to a hospital where blood tests revealed traces of the drug ecstasy. She later filed a police complaint. Guerriau is currently under investigation – he has been suspended by his party (the Horizons party, an ally of the ruling party). Read more in RFI here. 

Policy Watch

Because policy shifts matter

• A report by The Gambia’s Election Watch Committee has recommended introducing quotas for women at the national and local-level politics in the country. The report noted the low share of women among candidates contesting polls even as they comprise 57 percent of the voters. Read more here. 

• Nagaland, a state in India’s north-eastern region has finally passed a law to reserve a third of seats in urban local bodies. India introduced reservation for women in local governments in 1992. However, the act met resistance in Nagaland where local-level organisations said this provision was against their customary laws. The matter was eventually fought in the courts, and after the Supreme Court of India directed the state to implement the law. 

Reading List

The more one learns, there’s only more to learn

1. “Swiss parliament: who is entitled to be represented?”: SwissInfo

2. “Online vitriol could undo decades of political progress, warns Dutch deputy PM”: The Guardian 

3. “Grit and glamour: how Mahua Moitra shook up the misogyny and hypocrisy of Indian politics”: The Guardian

4. “Rachel Reeves: I was influenced by Margaret Thatcher”: Independent 

5. “‘Speaking as a man’: Gendered insults at Republican debate highlight a risky strategy”: The Washington Post

6. “Harriett Baldwin: the fund manager turned Tory MP fighting sexism in the City”: The Guardian

Community Watch

A quick round-up from the folks working at the intersection of gender x politics

• The International Knowledge Network of Women in Politics is inviting comments as part of its e-discussion gender norms and how they impact women’s political empowerment. Contribute here. 

  

• The ALIGN (Advancing Learning and Innovation on Gender Norms) Platform recently released 7 new research reports examining how gender norms shape women’s engagement with, influence over, and experiences in local governance institutions and decision-making processes in Nepal, Nigeria, Peru and Zimbabwe. Read them here. 

That’s a wrap for November! Liked this edition? Then press the ❤️ button and show us some love! And please, please do share this with a friend or on your social media accounts. There’s frankly nothing quite like reader love and endorsement, so please keep it coming! Thank you!

Disclaimer: #WomenLead is a non-partisan newsletter produced in a personal capacity, and does not reflect any institutional affiliation/opinion. In case of any questions, please drop in a message at womenlead.project@gmail.com

Some of you may already be familiar with Caroline Cardio Perez’s seminal book ‘Invisible Women’ (but in case you are not, we’d highly recommend you read it!). It’s one of those texts we find ourselves going back to every now and then – for insights, for ideas and for inspiration.

Apropos of nothing, we wanted to begin this edition with a brief excerpt from the same:

“[F]emale politicians are not operating on a level playing field…We had to stop wilfully closing our eyes to the positive discrimination that currently works in favour of men. We have to stop acting as if theoretical, legal equality of opportunity is the same as true equality of opportunity. And we have to implement an evidence-based electoral system that is designed to ensure that a diverse group of people is in the room when it comes to deciding on the laws that govern us all.”

A reminder as you begin to read this month’s edition where we bring you updates from Colombia, Guatemala, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Israel, and New Zealand. In case you missed last month’s edition, you can read it here. 

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Election Watch

Tracking women among candidates and winners

🇨🇴 Colombia: In October, regional elections will be held in Colombia with few women in the running for major positions, El Pais has reported. Currently, women occupy only 12 percent of mayoral positions and 18 percent of governorships. There are no women candidates for the mayor of Bogota (the capital city), considered the “second most powerful elective position in the country”. Nor are there any female candidates in Barranquilla, another major city, while a handful of women are contesting the elections in other major centres. 

🇬🇹 Guatemala: The Central American nation held municipal-level elections in June and August 2023. Among the 340 mayoralities for which the results are out, only 12 will be led by female mayors (only two more than were elected previously in 2019), Ocote reported. 

🇳🇿New Zealand: The current Parliament of the Pacific nation is among the handful of those with gender parity. However, this might not remain true for long, if election polls are to be believed. The country is set to hold fresh Parliamentary polls in October, and current opinion polls are predicting an advantage for the centre-right National Party, which does not have any internal quotas to achieve diversity.

🇮🇩 Indonesia: In May, we had written about how after civil society groups raised concerns, Indonesia has reversed a change in its election rules that could have potentially led to a decline in women’s representation in its formal politics. 

However, it seems that political parties are still not very interested in acting a little sensible and inclusive. Nearly every political party in the country has failed to reserve for women candidates at least 30 percent of the contested seats in the 2024 polls, The Straits Times has reported. 

Only one among the 18 political parties has submitted a list of candidates with 30 percent women. We are not surprised, but definitely quite disappointed to read this.

Leaders 

Updates about women leading countries, states and movements

Who is Shikma Bressler? A particle physicist by profession, she has also emerged as the face of ongoing popular protests in Israel against the government’s proposed reforms to curtail the powers of the national Supreme Court. The New York Times profiled her this month, noting:

“For years, the physicist, Shikma Bressler, devoted herself to the lab she runs at a science institute near Tel Aviv, a job she describes as her passion, and to the raising of her five daughters in a small village in northern Israel, staying far away from politics.

“But she has also become the face of the protests that have rocked Israel for months, marching on the streets of Tel Aviv on Saturday nights, exhorting crowds of protesters with speeches echoing with revolutionary ardor, and amplifying her message in a steady stream of social media posts.” 

Read the full profile here. 

On-the-job updates

Spotlighting women’s experiences in political office 

Starry Lee, chair of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress, Hong Kong’s largest political party, is stepping down from her role, The South China Morning Post reported. In 2015, Lee became the first woman to lead the party and has served in the role ever since. She announced that she was now stepping down saying that due to “limited time and limited work capability” continuing to lead might not be conducive for the party. 

Shout-out

A note of gratitude for those tracking gender gaps in politics

Shevika M is the founder of Kuviraa, an initiative working to build political engagement and leadership in young girls in India with the vision to demystify political processes and policy issues. In addition to working with young adults and adolescents Shevika (and Kuviraa) also undertakes research to understand how young Indians think about politics, and how this varies by gender. Earlier this year, she launched a short program aimed at introducing young girls to the landscape of Indian politics and policy-making through an intersectional lens. It ran virtually for ten days with the aim of introducing young women to themes of politics, citizen engagement, storytelling and careers in politics and policy. 

At #WomenLead, we interviewed Shevika to understand this initiative and her vision and goals better. She gave us much food for thought – read what she had to say here:

Reading List

The more one learns, there’s only more to learn

1. “Democracy is feminist”: Time 

2. “Sexism is not a joke: How humour is used to demoralise women in politics”: Harvard Political Review

3. “Slovenia’s 1st female foreign minister highlights challenges women face in diplomacy, politics”: Anadolu Agency

4. “How we measure women’s representation matters”: Forbes

5. “Sudan’s failed democracy is a disaster for women”: Foreign Policy

6. “Does genderwashing taint the struggle for gender equality?”: Brookings

That’s a wrap for August! Liked this edition? Then press the ❤️ button and show us some love! And please, please do share this with a friend or on your social media accounts. There’s frankly nothing quite like reader love and endorsement, so please keep it coming! Thank you!

Disclaimer: #WomenLead is a non-partisan newsletter produced in a personal capacity, and does not reflect any institutional affiliation/opinion. In case of any questions, please drop in a message at womenlead.project@gmail.com

A very warm welcome to all new subscribers who have signed up in recent days to this newsletter. Thank you for signing up!

We are here, fresh after a visit to La-La-BarbieLand, thinking about why President Barbie and all the judge Barbies belong only to the Pink Utopia land, and not the real world. But of course, all it takes is a quick read through any of our editions, and we are back to reality.

In this edition, we bring you updates from India, Mongolia, Netherlands, Pakistan, Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe. In case you missed last month’s edition, you can read it here.

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Election Watch

Tracking women among candidates and winners

🇸🇱 Sierra Leone: Women will make up 30.4 percent of all MPs in Sierra Leone’s newly-elected Parliament. This is up from 14.5 percent earlier. This significant jump is thanks to a new law that mandates a 30 percent quota for members of Parliament.

🇿🇼 Zimbabwe: The African nation will go to polls next month to elect a new President and members of Parliament. There are only 70 women among the 637 candidates who will be contesting these polls, ZimFact reported. The share of women contesting the Parliamentary polls is lower this year, as compared to the previous polls. The same is true for local elections, where women make up 14 percent of candidates this year, as compared to 17 percent previously. There is only one woman among those running to be President, but not before winning a court case to be allowed to contest first. 

Read more: Zimbabwean women are reduced to cheerleaders in the upcoming election, activists say, Associated Press 

Leaders 

Updates about women leading countries

Earlier this month, Sigrid Kaag, the Deputy Prime Minister of Netherlands, announced that she was quitting politics.

Kaag’s decision comes ahead of fresh elections due in November following the incumbent Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s resignation. Kaag said that she was taking this decision due to the death threats she had received, El Pais reported. These threats were taking a toll on her family. "My work has been a heavy burden for my husband and my children…I'm not quitting because my security is an issue for me. But it is for them. I would like it for them if things would quieten down,” Reuters reported citing what Kaag told a Dutch daily Trouw.

2023 has been an exceptional year seeing women leaders at the very top in different parts of the world not just stepping down from their roles, but often quitting politics altogether. Earlier this year, former New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern and Scotland’s former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon also announced their decisions to resign from politics.

Following Kaag’s announcement, two more prominent Dutch women leaders announced their decision to quit politics - first, Liane den Haan, an independent MP, said she wanted to quit politics over the ugly atmosphere. Later, Carola Schouten, also a Deputy Prime Minister and caretaker Minister for Poverty Policy, also announced her decision to step down. 

Read more: Kaag hopes the hatred, harassment she experienced won't deter women from politics: NL Times

On-the-job updates

Spotlighting women’s experiences in political office 

• Death threats, unfortunately, are not uncommon in politics. Recently, women councillors in India’s Tamil Nadu staged a sit-in protest in the mayor’s office alleging that they had received death threats from T.P.M. Mohideen Khan, a former state minister. The women and Khan both belong to the same party, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK). The issue is internal factional politics – the women allege that when they questioned Khan over the choice of candidates for the council committee, he responded by issuing a death threat to them.

• When criticised by members of the Opposition for “bulldozing” bills in the Parliament, Pakistan’s Federal Minister for Defence Khwaja Asif decided to take the road frequently travelled - of misogyny and personal attacks - rather than indulge in a more responsible debate. He claimed that women members of the Opposition were “garbage”. But it wasn’t just that. Mr. Asif claimed that “depraved women should not lecture on chastity” and that the women members were the “remains and ruins” of former PM Imran Khan. He went on to assert that this was “garbage that has to be cleaned.”

  That’s a lot of music to nobody’s ears. He later on defended himself saying these were not gender-specific, and were aimed at the entire Opposition, not just women, but – wait for it – the men just “didn’t see that these remarks were for them as well”. 

Policy Watch

Because policy shifts matter

Mongolia, where Parliamentary elections are due next year, has recently amended its Constitution, paving the way for significant political shifts. For one, the size of its legislative body has been increased from 76 to 126. It will also use a mixed electoral system.

Additionally, it has increased the quota for women among party candidates from 20 percent to 30 percent, and is considering increasing this to 40 percent, The Diplomat has reported. Is it likely to make a dent? Read the report for more. 

Shout-out

A note of gratitude for those tracking gender gaps in politics

In this edition, we would like to acknowledge the work of Fawcett Society, a non-governmental organisation based in the United Kingdom that actively works to campaign for gender equality, with a focus on improving women’s representation in politics at all levels. They track gender gaps in UK politics, and come out with important data and research that helps shed light on critical gaps, such as this recent study on women’s representation in local councils, or this one on women’s experience of selection and election in UK’s Parliament. Read more about their work here. 

Reading List

The more one learns, there’s only more to learn

1. “We must dismantle barriers to women’s political participation. Here’s why”: UNDP

2. “It’s Not Democracy Without Women in Positions of Power”: World Politics Review 

3. “Men vastly outnumber women in studying legislative politics”: Rice University 

4. “What women political candidates think of their local media coverage”: Nieman Lab 

5. “The 2024 Republican presidential field keeps growing. So why aren’t there more women?”: Associated Press

That’s a wrap for July! Liked this edition? Then press the ❤️ button and show us some love! And please, please do share this with a friend or on your social media accounts. There’s frankly nothing quite like reader love and endorsement, so please keep it coming! Thank you!

Disclaimer: #WomenLead is a non-partisan newsletter produced in a personal capacity, and does not reflect any institutional affiliation/opinion. In case of any questions, please drop in a message at womenlead.project@gmail.com

Only 22.1 percent of the global gender gap on political empowerment has been closed as of 2023, hardly an improvement from 22 percent in 2022, data from the World Economic Forum’s annual Global Gender Gap report released earlier this month shows. Does that count as progress? We don’t know! We do know that political empowerment remains the most skewed among the four dimensions measured by the report. Who’s surprised?

On that not-very-exciting note, let’s get started with your monthly round-up on all things #WomenInPolitics!

This month we bring you election updates from Guatemala, Kuwait, Mexico, Sierra Leone and Thailand, news about women’s experience in office from Australia, Italy, Taiwan and the European Parliament, and reading recommendations from so many other parts of the world.

In case you missed last month’s edition, you can read it here.

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Election Watch

Tracking women among candidates and winners

🇬🇹 Guatemala: The Central American nation goes to polls today to elect a new President, Vice President, members of its Congress and local representatives. The presidential race - which has come under international scrutiny - is chock-a-block with more than twenty candidates, with polls suggesting Sandra Torres, a former first lady, to be leading. This year’s election might be a milestone as several indigenous women are in the running, trying to break into the country’s politics, says this report in Open Democracy.

🇸🇱 Sierra Leone: Also going to polls today is Sierra Leone to elect its next President and members of Parliament. This is a historic election in the country - it is the first instance of an election after the country brought in a law that mandated political parties to ensure 30 percent of their candidates are women. On that note, read this report from Foreign Policy on whether gender quotas in politics actually work.

🇰🇼 Kuwait: Earlier this month, Kuwait held a snap election - the third Parliamentary polls since 2020 - that brought the opposition to power. How many women were elected? Just one, among fifty members! But there is little to be surprised here. In December 2020, the country had elected a manel to Parliament. In the subsequent election held in 2022, two women made it to the house, and this year, that’s down to one.

🇹🇭 Thailand: 19.2 percent - that’s the share of women who were elected to Thailand’s Parliament last month, data from the Inter-Parliamentary Union shows. This was up from the previous election when the share of women among those who were elected was 15.8 percent. Read more about some of the women who have made it to Parliament here.

🇲🇽 Mexico: Claudia Sheinbaum, mayor of Mexico City, stepped down from her role earlier this month. She has announced that she will contest the country’s Presidential polls next year. 

On-the-job updates

Spotlighting women’s experiences in political office 

• Australian politics is once again in the spotlight with allegations of sexual assault and harassment, this time by a sitting senator. 

  During a session of the Senate, Senator Lidia Thorpe objected when a male Senator, David Van, was speaking about rape allegations involving another man. Thorpe said that she was “feeling really uncomfortable when a perpetrator is speaking”. When asked to retract her statement, she refused.

  She withdrew the allegations later in the day, but later, revealed, without naming anyone, that she had been sexually harassed by four different parliamentarians - two MPs and two senators. The harassment included inappropriate remarks, touching her without consent, and making unwelcome advances. However, instead of finding support, Thorpe says she was demonised. Later, more allegations of sexual misconduct were made against Van and he had to resign from his party. 

• In Taiwan, the ruling party and the media are under the scanner as they grapple with scores of #MeToo allegations. The movement comes in the wake of a popular Netflix show, “Wave Makers” which has triggered a conversation on sexual harassment in the country. 

  On May 31, a former staff member of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) took to Facebook to share that she had been sexually harassed by a contractor during her time at the party. She referred to the show in her post. Since then, several members of the party have been accused of sexual harassment, and many have stepped down from their posts ever since. Members of the main opposition party, Kuomintang (KMT), have also been accused. More than 90 people had made allegations in the first two weeks after the May 31 post, the BBC reported. 

• Gilda Sportiello, an MP from Italy, became the first person to breastfeed her baby during a session of the country’s Parliament, the Associated Press reported. Sportiello had earlier fought for a rule so that Parliamentarians who were new mothers did not have to skip work if they were breastfeeding their baby.

“From today on, if the highest Italian institutions allow workers to nurse at their workplace, then no woman, in any profession, can be denied this right,” Sportiello said. 

“No mamma must be forced to interrupt nursing to return to work, no women should be denied this possibility,” she added. 

• In the meantime, members of the European Parliament (MEPs) are pushing for a reform that will pave way for parental leave for legislators. Currently, MEPs cannot vote if they are on leave to care for children. They are pushing for official leave that will allow remote voting when a new parent is not able to attend a session in person. 

“If you’re forced to choose between your votes and your child that’s a really bad signal, especially for young women,” Lara Wolters, a Dutch MEP who is expecting her second child, told POLITICO. 

Shout-out

A note of gratitude for those tracking gender gaps in politics

Regular readers of #WomenLead would have chanced upon this name on multiple occasions in the pages of this newsletter. Jennifer Piscopo is an Associate Professor (Department of Politics) at Occidental College in the USA and an Honorary Professor at Royal Holloway, University of London, UK.

She specializes in women’s representation in politics, especially on gender quotas in politics. Professor Piscopo actively writes on these issues beyond the closed walls of academic journals - she frequently writes for media outlets, academic blogs and international/policy organizations. Following her on Twitter is a great way to learn about emerging research and tracking what’s happening in politics globally, but doubly so when it comes to the Latin American region.

Reading List

The more one learns, there’s only more to learn

1. “Parliaments play a crucial role in women’s equal right to participate”: United Nations Human Rights

2. “How protest movements use feminine images and social media to fight sexist ideologies of authoritarian regimes”: The Conversation

3. “What research tells us we can do to help more women get elected outside of election years”: LSE Blogs

4. “In the running: Encouraging women to get into politics”: Irish Examiner

5. “Melinda French Gates: Why I’m focusing on getting more women in public office”: Time

That’s a wrap for June! Liked this edition? Then press the ❤️ button and show us some love! And please, please do share this with a friend or on your social media accounts. There’s frankly nothing quite like reader love and endorsement, so please keep it coming! Thank you!

This packed edition brings you election updates from Bhutan and Türkiye, news about women’s experience in office from India, UK and Uganda, a policy update from Indonesia along with reading recommendations from so many other parts of the world.

In case you missed last month’s edition, you can read it here.

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Election Watch

Tracking women among candidates and winners

🇧🇹 Bhutan: In April, Bhutan elected 20 members to its National Council, the highest legislative and policy-making body in the country, Himal reported. There was only one woman among those who got elected. Only nine women had put up their names for the elections, and five of them had their candidature accepted (as compared to 84 male candidates). Read a deep dive into the path to women’s political participation in the Himalayan Kingdom here.

🇹🇷 Türkiye: Women’s representation is set to be at its highest in Türkiye after the recent Parliamentary polls. Preliminary estimates suggest that 121 women are set to be part of the Turkish Parliament, and will together comprise 20.1 percent of the House, up from 17.1 percent previously.

On-the-job Updates

Spotlighting women’s experiences in political office 

• In India, legislative Assembly elections were held in the state of Karnataka. Only 10 women were elected to the state’s Assembly, making up a paltry 4.5 percent of the total members. Nayana Motamma is one of these 10 women. Close to the polling day and immediately after, Nayana’s personal pictures were being circulated by groups associated with the Bharatiya Janata Party, which was in power before the polls (Motamma is a member of the Congress party), The News Minute reported. The pictures being circulated were those where she was wearing dresses/athleisure clothes - and the intent was to paint her in poor light - that while she wore a traditional dress (the saree) while campaigning, her real self was different and wore non-traditional clothes.

  Nayana responded back by sharing a video compilation bringing together photos/clips where she can be seen running, dancing, having fun, along with photos of her political work. She shared the video with the caption: “Don't let the frustration of defeat haunt you further. Yes...politics, me, myself, my personal life is the answer for those idiots who don't know the difference.”

• “Many feel advocating for equity and equality is an abuse of culture and religious beliefs. For all my posts advocating for gender equity, I receive abuse or insults”: CNN reports on how women politicians in Uganda become easy targets of online abuse and harassment

• In the UK, a female MP of the Labour Party has filed a police complaint against a colleague for sexually harassing her after a party in July 2021, Tortoise Media reported earlier this month. The survivor alerted two of her colleagues soon after the alleged assault, and the party encouraged her to file a formal complaint. However, she felt that the popularity of the male MP - who was a Shadow Minister - could be a roadblock, and therefore decided not to pursue the same. She has recently filed a complaint with the police, and has reached out to the party over concerns about a “wider pattern of behaviour”, the news report said. 

Policy Watch

Because policy shifts matter

After civil society groups raised concern, Indonesia has reversed a change in its election rules that could have potentially led to a decline in women’s representation in its formal politics, The Jakarta Post reported. 

The country has a rule to ensure that a minimum of 30 percent of the total legislative candidates in each electoral district are women. But to calculate the 30 percent mark, it is possible to encounter non-whole numbers (e.g. in a district with nine candidates, 30 percent of nine is 2.7). In such scenarios, the electoral commission had a policy to round the figure upwards in all cases to ensure the minimum 30 percent level (this would make it three women in our example of nine candidates). But recently, it changed the rule to round it to the closest whole number, which would be downwards in certain cases (e.g. for eight candidates, the 30 percent figure is 2.4, which is closer to 2 than to 3, resulting in just 25 percent women).

However, after concerns were raised that this could lower the number of women, it is now sticking to the original policy. Well, all’s well that ends well, but this seems like it should have been a totally avoidable pursuit!

Shout-out

A note of gratitude for those tracking  gender gaps in politics

In this edition, we would like to give a big shout-out to iKnow Politics, for all the work they do!

The International Knowledge Network of Women in Politics (iKNOW Politics) is a collaborative platform bringing together the expertise of four leading organizations in the field of women’s political participation – IPU, IDEA International, UNDP and UN Women. They do the valuable work of tracking updates about women in politics, and also for initiating dialogues and enabling exchange of ideas and expertise across the globe (in multiple languages!). At #WomenLead, we are inspired by and grateful for the work they do. 

Reading List

The more one learns, there’s only more to learn

1. “Ignoring online abuse of women MPs has dire consequences”: LSE Blogs

2. “The patriarchs’ war on women”: Ms. Magazine

3. “Equality versus empowerment: Women in Indian legislature”: Economic and Political Weekly

4. “Women are inspired to run for office when they see how political exclusion threatens their rights”: LSE Blogs

5. “Why women haven’t been successful in Nigerian elections”: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

6. “Where are the women in Pakistan’s politics?”: The Diplomat

That’s a wrap for May! Liked this edition? Then press the ❤️ button and show us some love! And please, please do share this with a friend or on your social media accounts. There’s frankly nothing quite like reader love and endorsement, so please keep it coming! Thank you!

Disclaimer: #WomenLead is a non-partisan newsletter produced in a personal capacity, and does not reflect any institutional affiliation/opinion. In case of any questions, please drop in a message at womenlead.project@gmail.com

A huge and warm welcome to all our new subscribers. We are truly thrilled to have you on board!

At #WomenLead, we track and highlight the world of politics from the perspective of women. Our aim is to amplify the work and voices of women political leaders, and also to sensitise readers to the many obstacles (both glaring and nuanced, the blatant and invisible) that women have to negotiate in routine ways across different layers in politics.

This is the first monthly (and revamped) edition of #WomenLead. You can access all past editions here.

To all those who wrote in saying they were missing our weekly mails, thank you. We are not going to lie - we did shed a tear or two after reading your affectionate messages 🥲. But we’re right here, with all the news and updates you need to get up to speed on all things #womeninpolitics!

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Election Watch

Tracking women among candidates and winners

🇯🇵 Japan: In April, local elections were held in Japan. Women made up an “embarrassingly low” 15.6 percent of the candidates, in the words of The Mainichi newspaper (and we wholeheartedly agree!). But there was something to cheer about. Women made up 14 percent of those elected to prefectural seats and 22 percent of those elected to city assemblies, both record highs, according to The Asahi Shimbun. 

🇬🇧 United Kingdom: Meanwhile, the UK is all set to elect local-level legislators on May 4. Important research by the Fawcett Society in the run-up to the polls has revealed that fewer than 5 percent of local councils in the UK have gender parity - 95 percent remain skewed with more men than women. Overall, women comprised over a third (36 percent) of local councillors. Will that change for the better next week? Let’s hope!

🇹🇷 Türkiye: Türkiye will hold general elections to elect its next set of national legislators and a new President on May 14. The list of those contesting for the top post is an all-male affair.

EŞİK, a platform that works on women’s rights, has raised concern over the lack of women and their poor placement on candidate lists of major political parties. Women comprise 17.4 percent of members in the outgoing parliament, data from the Inter-Parliamentary Union shows. Going by candidate lists and electoral predictions, their representation is likely to touch only 19.5 percent in the upcoming election, EŞİK estimates.

🇹🇭 Thailand: On the same day, Thailand too will hold general elections. Women comprise 18.4 percent of those contesting constituency-level seats, Thai PBS reported. Thailand follows a mixed-electoral system, where some candidates are elected directly through the first-past-the-post system, and others through party lists. Sex-disaggregated data for the latter is not available. There are nine women among the 63 running to be the next PM, but all eyes are on Paetongtarn Shinawatra, who has emerged as a favourite. Both her father and her aunt have served as PMs, and both were ousted by military coups. Read more about her here, and here. 

Leaders 

Updates about women leading countries

🇫🇮 Finland: Sanna Marin was voted out as Finland’s Prime Minister in the election held in March, results for which were announced early April. She is continuing to head a caretaker government until a new one is formed. Overall, 92 women were elected as MPs in the election, taking women’s share up to 46 percent in the Finnish parliament, data from the IPU shows. 

With Marin no longer PM, the small share of women heading countries could shrink further. The Visual Capitalist published an infographic showing heads of state of countries around the globe. Take a look here, and try counting the number of women to know what we mean! 

On-the-job Updates

Spotlighting women’s experiences in political office 

• “How do you get your husband to let you do this?” 

  “Are you in politics to meet a husband?”

  These are statements that two women politicians in very different parts of the world have been asked. The first was asked by a male voter to Holly Richardson as she was contesting an election to be Republican legislative district chair in the USA, and the second was a question directed at Natasha Stott Despoja, who was elected to the Australian federal parliament in 1995 at the age of 26.

• But guess who was really in a rush to become a husband? Mamun Shah Khan, a resident of a village in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, found himself a willing bride and got married within 45 hours after he found out that the council seat from his area would be reserved for women, India Today reported. He did it just in time before the applications closed. This dismal state of affairs where men try to rule by proxy is of course not new. For more context, you can read this.

  So yes, if we really want to ask those husband-wife questions of our politicians, the least we can do is ask them right!

• In a rather tragic irony, 11 women MPs in Uganda were detained by the police as they were on their way to protest police brutality, Reuters reported. The women claim that the police had used excessive force at various events organised by women legislators in their constituencies. The police (showing clear evidence of the claim!) arrested them for unlawful protest.

  Thomas Tayebwa, Deputy Speaker of Uganda’s Parliament tweeted a strong condemnation of the arrests, pointing out that the women MPs were peaceful and unarmed. “Some are bleeding and for some, the clothes were torn,” he tweeted. “It was as if they were arresting terrorists.” 

Change Brewing

Because the times, they are always a-changin’ 

• “Women are significantly under-represented in Pacific politics. But they're pushing for change”, Marian Faa writes for ABC News 

• On Jiang Shengnan, the woman trying to change Chinese politics from the inside: Sixth Tone

• “A small Japanese town sets new precedent for women in politics”: Bloomberg

Shout-out

A note of gratitude for those tracking gender gaps in politics

In this edition, we would like to give a big shout-out to Melanie Brock, founder of Women in Japan, for consistently shedding light on gender gaps in Japan’s politics.

Regular readers of #WomenLead know that Japan’s politics remains stubbornly male. While elections and other big updates do get covered widely in the international English press, Brock consistently uses social media to draw our attention to the wide gaps that persist in the more routine aspects of Japanese political (and public) life, such as political steering committees, the media’s focus on “first ladies”, women on banknotes, or manels on TV discussions. We have learnt a lot about the country through her posts. We hope you will too!

Reading List

The more one learns, there’s only more there is to learn

1. “The stubborn sexism of American politics”: Vox 

2. “Women’s experiences of representation and marginalization in Morocco: Taking stock and outlining future trajectories”: Arab Reform Initiative 

3. “Sexism: the price of being a female politician in Liberia”: Daily Observer 

4. “How do crises affect women leaders?”: LSE Blogs 

5. “92% of MLAs elected in past 25 yrs were men — what data shows about women’s representation in [Indian] politics”: The Print

That’s a wrap for April! Liked this edition? Then press the ❤️ button and show us some love! And please, please do share this with a friend or on your social media accounts. There’s frankly nothing quite like reader love and endorsement, so please keep it coming! Thank you!

Disclaimer: #WomenLead is a non-partisan newsletter produced in a personal capacity, and does not reflect any institutional affiliation/opinion. In case of any questions, please drop in a message at womenlead.project@gmail.com

In this week’s edition, we bring you updates from Kenya, Nigeria, and the USA, and the spotlight is on Belarus. In case you missed last week’s edition, you can read it here. 

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We hope you’ve had a wonderful week. It was THE week after all - that time of the year when we get to read, hear, watch, and think of all things about women. Often in good ways, but also the time when the jokes write themselves (as they did for us, with our favourite being this one). 😂

In this week’s edition, we bring you…

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In a befitting tribute to International Women’s Day, we bring you some heartening updates from India and Spain in this week’s edition. We also use the occasion to take a stock-check of where the world stands on women’s representation at the parliamentary level. 

In case you missed last week’s edition, you can read it here. 

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In this edition, we bring you updates from Germany and Scotland, while the spotlight is on Kenya. In case you missed last week’s edition, you can read it here.

Quick Updates

🚨VIGILANCE AGAINST VIGILANTES: Lisa Paus, Germany’s family minister, has said that the government is considering bringing in a law to stop anti-abortion activists from blocking abortion facilities in the country, DW reported. Anti-abortion activists are gearing up for a 40-day protest in front of medical and counselling centres. 

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Last month, former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s decision to step down from her position had left so many around the world in shock. But who knew we were soon going to be dealt another blow? Last week, Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon made an equally stunning resignation announcement. That's our spotlight in this edition. We also have updates from Nigeria and the USA. 

In case you missed last week’s edition, you can read it here. 

Quick Updates 

😥 AN EXCLUSIONARY LINE-UP: Nigeria will hold Presidential and Parliamentary elections in February and March. According to a report in The Guardian Nigeria, there is only one woman among 18 candidates running to be President and none at all in the line-up to be the next Vice-President. Across the 36 states, women make up just 6 percent of candidates running for the governor’s post.

Among those running for the Senate, only 8.4 percent are women, while among those running for the House of Representatives, the share of women is 9.2 percent. A tenth of those contesting elections for the sub-national legislatures are women. Don’t forget - we are only talking about candidates for now!

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In this week’s edition, we bring you updates from India and Nicaragua, and the spotlight is on Japan. In case you missed last week’s edition, you can read it here. 

Quick Updates

✨A PLEASANT SURPRISE: In a surprising move, Nicaragua freed 222 political prisoners last week, and sent them to the USA. All the freed prisoners have been stripped off their Nicaraguan citizenship, NPR reported.

Among those freed is Cristiana Chamorro, a former journalist and daughter of former President Violeta Barrios de Chamorro. In the run-up to the 2021 Presidential elections in the country, Chamorro was widely seen as the opposition’s best hope to defeat incumbent Daniel Ortega. Ortega’s government opened up money laundering investigations against her days before she announced her candidature in June 2021. Her house was raided, and she was put under house-arrest and barred from contesting polls.

#Throwback: Five brave women being silenced for challenging authoritarian leaders

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Let us begin by sharing a rather gladdening fact with you! Our publication’s analytics tell us that #WomenLead is now read by readers spread across not one, not two, not ten, but 74 countries around the world!

Wow! Those numbers did leave us a little staggered, but we shouldn’t be so surprised. After all, you all have show…

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A very warm welcome to all new subscribers and readers, and a big thank you to the old ones for sharing and supporting our work. If you ever have ideas, feedback, suggestions for us, please write in to us by replying to this email, or you can drop in a hello at womenlead.project@gmail.com. Or just catch us on Twitter, if that’s how you like it! 😄

In this week’s edition, we bring you updates from Cyprus, Japan, New Zealand and Nigeria, and the spotlight is on the USA. In case you missed last week’s edition, you can read it here. 

Quick Updates

🎉 CELEBRATION-WORTHY: In New Zealand, Carmel Sepuloni has become the country’s deputy Prime Minister. She becomes the first Pasifika person to reach these heights of the political hierarchy. Sepuloni was thus far serving as the country’s social development minister, and was chosen for the new position by the country’s new PM Chris Hipkins, who took over the reins from Jacinda Ardern last week. 

Sharing how her father - who came to New Zealand from Samoa in 1964 - felt at her new appointment, Sepuloni shared:

“To think that he could come here to work on the railways and the freezing works [abattoir] and marry a sheep farmer’s daughter and have a daughter who would become the deputy prime minister of New Zealand is very difficult to comprehend.” 

She added: “But as you can imagine, [he’s] very proud.”

😕 DISAPPOINTING LINE-UP: In Cyprus, which will hold Presidential polls next weekend, 14 candidates are running for the top post, the most in the country’s history. How many of them are women? Just 2!

Things are no less skewed in Nigeria where there’s only one woman contesting next month’s Presidential polls. 

❌ GENTLE REMINDER: And here’s a little reminder about why this newsletter exists (we hope you don’t really need one though!). Melanie Brock, founder of Women of Japan, shared this photo from Japan’s politics on her Twitter: 

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Spotlight: USA🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲

“Historically, women legislators have been the champions for paid leave, child care, and other policies that support working families,” Joaquin Castro, member of the US Congress, observed last week. “It's time for Dads to do our part.”

Castro is a member of a new caucus - the ‘Dads Caucus’ - launched last week to advocate for family-friendly policies. 

Castro’s colleague Jimmy Gomez announced the launch of the caucus on Thursday, January 26, saying that the new group would fight for measures including the “national paid family and medical leave programme, affordable high-quality child care”.

Gomez took to Twitter to explain the idea behind the new group:

“The formation of this Caucus is rooted in a simple idea: Dads need to do our part, both at home and in the halls of Congress.”

"(Women legislators) deserve an extraordinary amount of credit, but they should also be able to count on male legislators to be partners in their fight from the beginning," Castro said at the launch of the caucus.

Andy Kim, another member of the newly-launched caucus, shared an update about the caucus on his Twitter with a dash of word play and humour😄:

“When does a joke become a dad joke?” 

Gomez has been in the spotlight earlier this month after he carried around his four-month-old son tied to himself as the US Congress was stalled due to its inability to elect a Speaker. Several other members, including many fathers, had brought their children to the Capitol to witness the initial days of the newly elected Congress. 

The caucus is a refreshing shift in the conversation on parenting and children, a subject that has mostly been highlighted, discussed and advocated for almost solely by women, not just in the USA but around the world (all this in addition to the already disproportionate share of child-care that women do).

And despite the skewed work women put in - or perhaps because of it - they often end up receiving not gratitude or support, but obnoxious barriers and pushbacks. (We wrote about how the political world can be very unkind to women with children). 

Seeing men – and male members of the Congress no less - take the lead in making this conversation more inclusive is frankly, quite heartwarming. We hope more legislators follow suit.

But the Dads Caucus will have to do a lot of groundwork before they can start making an impact. All the founding members of the Caucus are from the Democratic Party for now but having members from across the political spectrum will help, especially given that the Democratic Party does not enjoy a majority in the US House of Representatives.

Gomez said they haven’t yet reached out to the other side, and they are focussing on getting more Democratic members for now and reaching out to select committees.

Photo of the week

India celebrated its 74th Republic Day with much gusto on Thursday, January 26. Our hearts were filled with extra joy as President Droupadi Murmu, who became President in July 2022, presided over the Republic Day parade for the first time. Murmu is the first person from a tribal community, and only the second woman to be head of state in India.

That’s a wrap for this week! Liked this edition? Then press the ❤️ button and show us some love! And please, please do share this with a friend or on your social media accounts. There’s frankly nothing quite like reader love and endorsement, so please keep it coming! We’ll see you next weekend with Issue 131! 

It’s been a BIG week in the world of women in politics. One of the most popular leaders of our times has announced she is stepping down. But our mind has been elsewhere for most of the week – in Afghanistan, where a former MP who chose to stay back in the country was shot dead. If this does not move the world to action, we don’t know what will.

In this week’s edition, we bring you updates from Benin and New Zealand, and the spotlight is on Afghanistan. In case you missed last week’s edition, you can read it here. 

Quick Updates

😟 SHOCK EXIT: In a rather rude shock that caught many of us off guard, New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern announced that she would be stepping down from her position, citing burnout and saying she no longer had “enough in the tank” for another four years. “With holding such a privileged role comes responsibility, including the responsibility to know when you’re the right person to lead, and also when you’re not,” she said, announcing her decision. “For me, it’s time.” 

Ardern has been serving in the position since 2017, and has gained immense popularity not only in her country but around the globe for her leadership. Along with leading with compassion and empathy, Ardern has also been in the news for her striking responses to obnoxious sexism. Not surprisingly, her decision to quit has inspired a massive wave of farewell posts from people all across the globe. 

👍 WELCOME CHANGE: 28 women are set to become members of Benin’s Parliament, a significant jump from 6 in the previous house. In the run-up to the election, Benin had introduced a new electoral code that mandates that at least one woman be elected from each constituency ensuring that at least 24 women would make it as MPs.

🤝 BUILDING TRUST: Female elected representatives can help fight polarization and reduce levels of partisan hostility and distrust, reported Phys.org, citing a new study. A survey by the researchers also showed that both men and women voters react positively to parties that they don’t otherwise support if those parties elected more women MPs. This, the researchers said, showed that increasing women’s parliamentary presence could “mitigate cross-party hostility”. The research (Adams et. al.) used data on women's presence in 125 political parties in 20 Western democracies from 1996 to 2017.

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Spotlight: AFGHANISTAN 🇦🇫🇦🇫🇦🇫

Mursal Nabizada, a former Afghan MP, was shot dead at her home in Kabul last week. 

Nabizada was 26 when she was first elected as an MP in 2018. She represented Kabul and was also a member of the parliamentary defence commission before the Taliban's capture of power in 2021. She was one of the few women politicians who chose to stay behind after the power shift.

On January 15, unknown gunmen attacked and shot dead Nabizada and her security guard at her residence. Nabizada’s brother and a second security guard were injured, while a third security guard reportedly fled from the house with money and jewellery. 

The assassination has sent shockwaves around the globe. The Inter-Parliamentary Union expressed great sadness in its tribute to Nabizada. 

For other former Afghan women MPs, it has also triggered a sense of fear for their own lives. 

“Even at night, I cannot sleep very well, because I am thinking that someone will come and someone will kill me as well," Gulalai Mohammadi told Canadian radio show CBC’s The House.

Mohammadi and Nabizada were friends, and both of them were part of a group of nine ex-lawmakers who were hoping to seek refuge in Canada. Unfortunately, for Nabizada it is already too late for that hope to be realised, but in the wake of her killing, pressure is mounting on Canada to bring the other eight women to the country, CBC reported. 

“She was a young, passionate woman…she was an ambitious girl and wanted to deliver [for] her country. She ran for Parliament when she was very young. She chose to stay despite the fact that she could initially leave Afghanistan as the Taliban took over, but she wanted to deliver. Over time she wanted to leave...the way she was killed was brutal [and] is an indication of how challenging and extremely difficult life is for women in Afghanistan,” Nabizada’s former political colleague Fawzia Koofi told BBC.

"She didn't do anything wrong," said Mohammadi, adding that Nabizada was targeted simply because she was a high-profile woman.

At #WomenLead we are heartbroken and shaken by the news. Afghanistan’s war on its women gets darker and murkier by the day, and it’s terrifying that we all go on watching helplessly. We must, must rage against the dying of the light. 

Reflections & Reads 

• In pictures: New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern via Stuff 

• “Cameroon activists push gender parity for Senate elections” via Voice of America

• “Where are the women? Field notes from the Bharat Jodo Yatra” via The Wire 

That’s a wrap for this week! Liked this edition? Then press the ❤️ button and show us some love! And please, please do share this with a friend or on your social media accounts. There’s frankly nothing quite like reader love and endorsement, so please keep it coming! We’ll see you next weekend with Issue 130!

Here’s wishing you all a very happy new year 🎉! We hope you all have had a joyful and restful start to the year. We are back with all the important updates on women in politics from around the world. In this edition, we bring you updates from Brazil, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Colombia, Ireland, Japan, Senegal, the UK and the USA, and the spotlight is on Venezuela. 

We are afraid a change of calendar year hasn’t necessarily brought too much good news from the world of politics, but here’s hoping that 2023 brings many moments of cheer and feminist wins. Before we ended 2022, we listed down some of our favourite developments about women in politics from the year. Just in case you missed it, you can read it here. 

QUICK UPDATES

⚡ IMPORTANT MILESTONES: In Brazil, Sonia Guajajara has been appointed the country’s first-ever minister of Indigenous peoples in the newly elected government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Guajajara is a popular and influential indigenous activist, and was elected as an MP in the election last year. She becomes the first indigenous person to be appointed as a minister in the country. 

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, Borjana Kristo is all set to become the nation’s Prime Minister. She has been appointed as the PM-designate and will lead a multi-ethnic coalition. Kristo has previously served as the country’s President (between 2007 and 2011) (another glass ceiling she broke for women in the country).

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A very warm welcome to all new readers who have signed up for #WomenLead in recent weeks. We are thrilled to have you with us on this journey of chronicling important updates about women in politics from around the world. 

In today’s edition, we bring you updates from India, Peru and the United States of America, while the spotlight is on new research from the United Kingdom. In case you missed last week’s edition, you can read it here. 

Quick Updates

🔴 UNREPRESENTATIVE: Two Indian states recently held elections and the results were out last week. In Gujarat, 15 women have been elected to the state legislature. The number of men? 167! But wait, it gets worse.

In Himachal Pradesh, the other state that went to the polls, only one woman has been elected to the 68-member house. If you’re wondering what kind of representation shares these are in 2022, we are with you totally. 

😡 VILE AGENDAS: Researchers at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue investigated hashtags recommendations on Instagram and TikTok for women politicians in the run-up to the November 2022 midterm elections in the USA and found that the platforms not only recommended abusive hashtags among the top ten searches for the women politicians studied, they also allowed a broad range of abusive content that violates their own terms of services.

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To all those getting restless as to why this edition didn’t land up on time in your inbox, kindly accept our sincere apologies. We try our best to bring you the weekly edition in time, but on some exceptionally eventful days like this last weekend, we can get late. 

But here we are, and we bring you updates from India, Indonesia, and New Zealand and the spotlight is on Senegal. In case you missed last week’s edition, you can read it here. 

Quick Updates 

✅ WORD: In Indonesia, the Women’s Parliamentary Caucus (comprising all women members of Parliament) signed a declaration condemning any form of gender-based violence that hinders women from fulfilling their equal rights, and urged all groups to allow women to safely participate in politics.

This is the first-ever such official declaration in the country that explicitly addresses gender-based violence in politics, a statement from UN Women observed. 

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