German elections, a first in Liechtenstein, and more: All the important updates about women in politics from February
#WomenLead (Issue 159): Your monthly round-up on women in politics
Hello, and welcome to the February 2025 edition of #WomenLead!
In this month’s edition, we bring you updates from Germany, India, Liechtenstein, Samoa, the United States of America and more. In case you missed any of our previous editions, you will find them all here.
Election Watch
Tracking women among candidates and winners
🇩🇪 GERMANY: A total of 204 women were elected to Germany’s Parliament, the Bundestag, earlier this month. Together they comprise 32.4 percent of all MPs. This is lower as compared to their share in the previous election of 2021 (34.9 percent). To those observing the elections closely, this dip was not unanticipated – writing in an LSE Blog, Corinna Kroeber and Lena Stephan had predicted this, given a change in the country’s electoral law in the run-up to the elections. The decline became more evident when Markus Söder, a prominent politician, shared a photo on his social media with the caption “Ready for a change in politics in Germany”. The photo only featured a group of men. The Guardian has more on that.
🇮🇳 INDIA: India’s national capital territory of Delhi has a new chief minister, Rekha Gupta. She has become the fourth woman to lead the state, a rare trend among Indian states and union territories. What’s more noteworthy is that both the Chief Minister and the Leader of the Opposition (Atishi) are women, a phenomenon even rarer in the country’s politics. However, despite the two high-profile positions being occupied by women, the state’s legislature will have only five women, together comprising 7 percent, lower than their previous share of 11 percent.
🔎 WATCH OUT FOR: With women comprising just a little over 15 percent of MPs in the lower house of parliament, Belize is a little bit of an outlier in the American region, where women’s representation is much higher on average. As it gets ready for polls in March, we’ll look out for how much of that changes. Also going to polls would be the Federated States of Micronesia in the Pacific region, and Tajikistan in Asia.
And of course, we’ll be celebrating International Women’s Day, 2025 soon. Greetings in advance, and keep an eye out for important reports, datasets, reports, marches and celebrations around you, and everywhere! 🎊
Leaders
Updates about women leading countries, states and movements
The microstate of Liechtenstein has a woman heading its government for the first time – Brigitte Haas was elected as the country’s prime minister after her party, the Fatherland Union, won the parliamentary polls in February. A total of eight women were elected to the 25-member Parliament, one more than the previous polls, and consequently, the share of women MPs increased from 28 percent to 32 percent, as per IPU data.
The entire world is watching what’s happening in the United States of America (USA) with a steady mix of bafflement, shock and amusement. One particular initiative, the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, has its own share of fans and detractors. The new department is supposed to cut costs in the federal workforce, and has been run by Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, since inception. Or so we thought.
Facing repeated queries over how an unelected businessman could head a government department (Musk was hired as a ‘special government employee’, which technically means there should still be a government official in charge), the White House recently confirmed that it was Amy Gleason, a healthcare technology executive, who is the ‘acting administrator’ of DOGE, not Elon Musk. More on that here.
On-the-job Updates
Spotlighting women’s experiences in political office
🥀In a tragic development, Himani Narwal, a worker of India’s Congress party, was found dead on Feb 28, just days before her home state of Haryana was to hold municipal polls. The body of 23-year-old Narwal was found in a suitcase near a bus stand. Her mother has claimed that elections and politics have claimed her life, indicating that she had likely made enemies within the party owing to her proximity to senior leaders. Read more in these reports in Hindustan Times (here and here).
Policy Watch
Because policy shifts matter
India’s local politics, despite enabling high participation of women, has often been notorious for one troubling phenomenon: rule by proxy. When seats are reserved for women, men put forth names of their female relatives for elections, but continue to wield power in public life when the women win. In an attempt to check this malpractice, a panel constituted by India’s Ministry of Panchayati Raj (which oversees the functioning of rural local governments) has proposed exemplary penalties when such incidents come to light, The Indian Express reported.
The panel also recommended a host of other measures such as appointing women’s ombudspersons, public swearing-in of women pradhans (elected leaders) in Gram Sabhas (village level assemblies), creating a federation of women leaders at the local level and setting up of gender resource centres that serve as hubs for leadership training and legal advice. More details here.
Those of you who’ve been reading #WomenLead for a while now will remember how the gender quota created some confusion in Samoa’s election of 2021 (see here for a quick refresher). Essentially, Samoa has a 10 percent quota for women in place. However, the quota rule allows for a flexible rule, where if the 10 percent quota is not met i.e. if at least five women don’t get elected, then the women who won the largest share of votes are elected as additional members (and therefore the total number of seats can vary, based on whether or not this quota is needed). The Samoan parliament is currently debating the “mathematics” of this quota: Would 51 representatives divided by 10 equal six? In the meantime, the Samoa Observer argues that perhaps it’s time to think of a 25 percent quota, rightly arguing that there was a need to go beyond this than “just set a quota of five seats or we will become stuck with the mindset that five is the ceiling for women members”.
Reading List
The more one learns, there’s only more to learn
“Power moves: The women changing Africa's leadership”, DW
“'Someone asked if I would like a bullet through my head'”: BBC
“Watch: Moment US congresswoman brings baby to budget vote”, BBC
“My reluctant feminist hero [Angela Merkel]”, The Persistent
“AI deepfakes of politicians 'obviously concerning', says [Irish] minister”, RTÉ
“How political polarization informed Mexico’s protests against femicide”, The Conversation
Community Watch
A quick round-up from the community working at the intersection of gender x politics
Sign up for: “Towards gender parity and transformative gender equality policy: the role of parliamentary bodies”, organised by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly (OSCE PA)
Mar 06 / 14:00-15:00 CET
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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.