A Himalayan delight, women lead in Trinidad and Tobago, Fiji debates quotas, and more: All the important updates about women in politics from April
#WomenLead (Issue 161): Your monthly round-up on women in politics
Hello, and welcome to the April 2025 edition of #WomenLead!
🏔️ Lahaul & Spiti, a district in the hill state of Himachal Pradesh in India, usually comes up in discussions on all things mountains and wanderlust. But it has now earned a rarer-than-rare distinction of being possibly one of the only regions where women are heading all the top (not one, two, or three but) seven political and administrative positions.
Yes!
The current MP, Member of the state Legislative Assembly (MLA), deputy commissioner, police chief, sub-divisional magistrate, additional deputy commissioner (ADC) and the zila parishad chairperson (head of district council) are all women. This rare phenomenon became a reality after Kiran Bhadana took over as the Deputy Commissioner (DC) of the district at the end of April.
While some of this celestial alignment might be serendipitous, the rest of it has been engineered by the state government of Himachal Pradesh. The state’s Chief Minister had announced last year that his government intended to create some women-led district administrations. Well done, and here’s to many more!
Do you live in any such region/city? Or know of any other such examples? Do let us know!
In the rest of this edition, we bring you updates from Bangladesh, Canada, Fiji, Switzerland, Trinidad and Tobago, and more. We hope you’ll find the edition worth your time. And in case you missed last month’s edition, you can read it here.
Before we get started….
An important milestone is around the corner
#WomenLead is turning five! Yes, in twenty days from now, this publication will celebrate its fifth birthday. We are very excited. We hope you are too! How should we celebrate? And more importantly, how should #WomenLead grow from here – what can we do better? More of? Less of? Tell us everything! We are all ears. Leave a comment or write to us by replying to this email.
And of course, keep an eye out for our special birthday edition!
Election Watch
Tracking women among candidates and winners
🇨🇦CANADA: Women comprise three in every ten MPs who were elected to Canada’s federal parliament in last week’s election that brought the Liberal Party back to power for a fourth consecutive term, The Globe and Mail reported. Their combined share (30 percent) is a small dip from the share elected in the previous polls of 2021 (30.5 percent). Most major political parties fielded fewer women candidates this election as compared to 2021, the newspaper reported, citing an analysis in the run-up to the polls.
🇹🇹 TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO: Ten women were elected to Trinidad and Tobago’s Parliament in April’s election (one fewer than the previous polls of 2020). Together, they make up a quarter of all MPs.
🇨🇭SWITZERLAND: In 1991, Appenzell Inner Rhodes became the last canton (similar to a state) to give women the right to vote in Switzerland. Yes, it is as recent as that! (In fact, Swiss women won the right to vote only in 1971, but some regions resisted before a court order made it mandatory for them to extend this right). Three decades on, the canton will be led by a woman for the first time. Angela Koller, a lawyer and politician, was elected as the “Landammann”, the canton head in an April election.
🚨 WATCH OUT FOR: In May, we’ll be looking closely at the election results in Australia where women’s representation has been an important political conversation in recent years. We’ll also be keeping an eye out on the results in Albania and Singapore. Also going to polls this month is the Philippines, where the election campaigning has seen some rather nauseating developments with multiple candidates uttering gutter-level misogynist remarks. Leading the trash pack was Christian Sia, a candidate from Metro Manila’s Pasig City, declared that he would sleep with “any lonely, single mother who is still having her period” for one night. The remark has been condemned by many, and there have been demands to disqualify him. We hope strict action is being taken and a clear precedent being set.Leaders
Updates about women leading countries, states and movements
Kamla Persad-Bissessar is Trinidad and Tobago’s new Prime Minister after her party, the United National Congress (UNC), won the April election. This will be her second stint in the role – she had previously served as PM during 2010-2015, when she had become the first woman in the role in the country. With this, Trinidad and Tobago will become one of the handful of countries where both the head of the state and head of government are women (Christine Kangaloo has been the country’s President since Mar 2023). And to add to the #representation goals, Pennelope Beckles-Robinson has been chosen by the opposition coalition to be the Leader of the Opposition.
Policy Watch
Because policy shifts matter
Last year, Fiji’s Deputy Prime Minister Manoa Kamikamica had called for implementing a quota system to increase women’s representation in politics. His comments had generated a discussion on the subject, and on whether or not the quota will work.
In April, women’s rights groups made a submission to the Fiji Electoral Reform Commission to introduce a 30 percent quota for women as a temporary special measure to improve women’s representation in politics. However, elected representatives from across the political spectrum don’t seem to be in support. Who’s surprised? Opposition leader Ketan Lal said that such measures risk being tokenistic and that “we must not confuse equal opportunity with enforced representation”. Paul Morrel, the general secretary of a proposed party, called such measures “unfair and unnecessary”, arguing that one gets voted into Parliament “not because of your gender, but because you’ve earned your place”. (Of course!!!). But our favourite reason came from the country’s Education Minister, Aseri Radrodro, who said that such a measure was not required.
“Women often prioritise their lives well and they decide to enter politics once they know they have established their personal lives adequately.
“Hence the lack of women in Parliament is also a reflection of choices our women take”, he told the publication Fiji Times.
In Fiji, women currently comprise less than tenth of all MPs.
In November 2024, the current interim government of Bangladesh had set up a Women’s Affairs Reform Commission to suggest measures to improve women’s participation at all levels in the society. The commission recently submitted its report (which, by the way, has unsurprisingly upset some in the country).
The recommendations include a suggestion of doubling the total number of parliamentary seats to 600 to ensure gender parity in representation. The commission recommends a system where each constituency will have one general seat and one reserved seat for women, and both will be filled through direct elections. Bangladesh, thus far, had a Parliament comprising 300 seats where members were elected through direct elections, and an additional 50 seats reserved only for women who are elected through a proportional representation system.
Reading List
The more one learns, there’s only more to learn
“Electoral gender quotas and democratic legitimacy”: American Political Science Review
“After leading charge to oust Yoon, young women and LGBTQ+ Koreans flock to unions and politics to make lasting change”: Hankyoreh
“It’s no accident that there are not enough women in Parliament”: Electoral Reform Society
“Growing threats faced by women candidates undermine our democracy”: The Conversation
“'I've been called a witch': Women in politics share stories of harassment”: Times of Malta
“Gendered disinformation: Growing threat to women in local politics in Sri Lanka”: Daily FT
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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.