Lone woman MP in Vanuatu, Iceland PM’s vision, and more: All the important updates about women in politics from January
#WomenLead (Issue 158): Your monthly round-up on women in politics
Hello, and welcome to the January 2025 edition of #WomenLead!
The very long month of January is behind us, and we are here with all the important updates on women in politics. We visit Chad, Fiji, Iceland, India, the United Kingdom and Vanuatu across these. In case you missed any of our previous editions, you will find them all here.
Election Watch
Tracking women among candidates and winners
🇻🇺 VANUATU: Only one woman - Marie Louis Paulette Milne - was elected as an MP to Vanuatu’s 52-member Parliament in polls held last month. In the previous election of 2022 too, only one woman was elected. Only seven women contested the latest polls, alongside 209 men. Read more about them here.
🇹🇩 CHAD: Thirty-four percent of Chad’s newly elected parliamentarians are women, a slight improvement from 32.2 percent previously, data from the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) shows. A report in Voice of America published ahead of the election looked at women’s representation in the country. Read here.
🚨WATCH OUT FOR: February is set to see Parliamentary elections in Ecuador, Germany, Liechtenstein, Cameroon and Comoros. Ecuador has seen some noteworthy progress in women’s parliamentary polls in recent years. Will it continue the run? In its previous election of 2021, Germany had elected a set of MPs that were more diverse than before. How is that likely to be this time? We’ll know soon! In India, the National Capital Territory of Delhi will hold legislative polls. Women comprised only 11 percent of those elected in the previous election, and their share among candidates this time stands at only 14 percent (ADR data).
Leaders
Updates about women leading countries, states and movements
In December, Kristrún Frostadóttir took office as Iceland’s Prime Minister. All of 36 years old, she is not only Iceland’s youngest-ever PM, but also among the youngest leaders across the world. With Halla Tómasdóttir holding the position of president since August (she is Iceland’s second female president), both top roles are held by women at the same time, a first for Iceland.
In an interview with The Guardian, Kristrún talks about her vision for governance:
“It’s a big priority of mine to show that you can have a socially focused welfare-oriented government that can still run the budget on the right side of zero.”
On-the-job Updates
Spotlighting women’s experiences in political office
In India, we saw some outrageous rubbish spoken about prominent women leaders in the last month. First, Ramesh Bidhuri, a member of India’s ruling party (the BJP) and also a former MP, had some distasteful and uncalled-for remarks about two women leaders from opposing parties. A few days later, Sanjay Gupta, a self-proclaimed spokesperson of the Shiv Sena (UBT) uttered some garbage on an online news channel that clearly lacks any kind of quality control. (The party has claimed Gupta “has nothing to do” with it). The video gained thousands of views nevertheless.
We will spare you what was said and not amplify the nonsense, but it is imperative to call out this hate and misogyny that should have no space in our democracies.
Indian politics has increasingly become mindful of the increasing numbers of women voters, and political parties of all hues are increasingly trying to attract their vote by designing and targeting various initiatives at them. But the most important of them all – basic respect – seems to often get sidelined. It is high time political parties take misogyny and abuse directed at women politicians seriously, implement strict internal codes of conduct, and display zero tolerance for such behaviour beyond partisan lines. We are all tired of such disgraceful politics, and it’s high time, our political parties and leaders stepped up too.
In the United Kingdom, Jess Philipps, an MP and Safeguarding Minister, said she faced a barrage of hate after she was personally targeted by Elon Musk on social media platform X. Musk had called Phillips a “rape genocide apologist” as part of his criticism of the Labour government’s response to child sexual abuse and exploitation in Oldham. Philipps’ security was strengthened in the wake of the online hate with a close protection officer assigned to her and she has been advised not to go out in public alone, The Times reported.
Also read: Female politicians in the United States, Europe urge Facebook to protect women in politics, Reuters
India moved its Parliament to a new building in 2023. However, despite being built in recent years, it seems to have missed the mark on being gender-sensitive. Fauzia Khan, an MP, raised this concern at an all-party meeting recently. Khan drew attention to how the washrooms were designed, and also called for the building to have a creche and breastfeeding room for young mothers.
Policy Watch
Because policy shifts matter
Manoa Kamikamica, Fiji’s Deputy Prime Minister, called for implementing a quota system to increase women’s representation in politics. Mr. Kamikamica made this suggestion while speaking at a workshop last year. His comments generated a discussion on the subject, and on whether or not the quota will work. Read the same in The Fiji Times here.
In the UK, MPs voted narrowly in favour of a private member’s bill that sought to move the country to a proportional representation system (from the current first-past-the-post system). While the bill received MPs’ support, it is unlikely to lead to a change, according to a report in The Guardian. However, its passage should be seen as a symbolic moment, nevertheless.
Representational image via Unsplash/Red Dot For those not familiar with this subject (and confused why we’re talking about this), proportional representation systems are considered to enable more equitable representation of women and minority groups, in comparison to majority systems. In its annual reports, the IPU has found this to hold true nearly every year. Against this background, the Electoral Reform Society in the UK has put together some research to brief MPs on why the proportional representation system would be a better choice. It makes for an informative read, and you can read it here.
Inside the Ranks
Examining the space for women’s participation within political parties
In 2023, the Indian Parliament passed a legislation that paved the way for reserving one-third of seats for women in the lower chambers of the Indian Parliament as well as state legislatures. However, the law is yet to come into force. In principle, political parties can put forth more female candidates even as the law’s implementation is awaited, but thus far, they have not stepped up.
However, in some encouraging news, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), India’s ruling party, is looking to include more women in its cadre and party organisation as it starts preparing for the implementation of the law, according to a report by the Press Trust of India. It is likely to include women as district presidents in a couple of states in order to cultivate women leaders, the report notes. Read more here.
Reading List
The more one learns, there’s only more to learn
“1975 was declared International Women’s Year. 50 years on, the ‘revolution in our heads’ is still being fought”: The Conversation
“Women politicians face 'double burden' of online toxicity”: King’s College London
“Promise and peril: What generative AI means for women’s political participation”: International Republican Institute
“Why have we normalised hate speech against women in politics?”: The Indian Express
“Why the private sector should care about women's political representation”: World Economic Forum
“From Suffrage movements to #MeToo: The enduring global fight for gender equality”: Harvard International Review
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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.
Great job curating all this important content, Akshi! Keep it going.