New report reveals disturbing culture of sexism and violence against women across Parliaments in Africa, and other stories
#WomenLead (Issue 77): Your weekly round-up on women in politics
Hello, and welcome to Issue 77!
First up, we have an exciting update for you all! 🤩
Select stories from #WomenLead will now be available in Spanish! We are collaborating with the “News Translation for Latino Communities” project being led by Professor Lidia Hernández-Tapia at Lehman College of The City University of New York (CUNY), in the United States. Students of Prof. Hernández-Tapia will be translating select editions of the newsletter, and these will be available in a special section on our website. (Check it out now!)
At #WomenLead, we want to take the stories of women in politics far and wide, with the hope to sensitize readers to what it means for a woman to be navigating a space (politics) which is predominantly occupied by men. This collaboration is one of the ways to make that possible. Please take a look if you’d like to read the content in Spanish, share it with someone who may like to do so, and get in touch with us if you would like to collaborate on translations in a different language. We are at womenlead.project@gmail.com
Onto this week’s edition - we bring you updates from Honduras, Sweden, the UK and the spotlight is on the African continent, as we bring you findings of a new study that aims to record the prevalence of violence against women in politics. Trigger warning: there are mentions of physical and sexual violence. In case you missed last week’s edition, you can read it here.
Quick Updates
🔁 SO NEAR, YET SO FAR: It was quite a busy week in Sweden (and for those tracking its politics), as the country finally fixed a representational anomaly. After a Parliamentary vote, Magdalena Anderrson became the country’s first woman Prime Minister. But even before the news reached everyone, she and her government were forced to resign after coalition partner Green Party withdrew its support over the budget. So, it’s back to her predecessor Stefan Lofven as caretaker PM for now, but she is likely to be re-appointed next week, Bloomberg has reported.
🤱NO ROOM FOR MOTHERS? In the UK, opposition MP Stella Creasy was told babies were not allowed in Parliament after she took her three-month-old son, whom she is breastfeeding, to the chambers of the House. Creasy, who advocates for more mothers entering politics, told the BBC she was baffled by the rule.
"My son is 13 weeks old, so I can’t really leave him on his own and I don’t have maternity cover, so I can't win here… I need to go in, I need to be able to speak, but I also can’t leave a baby that small, which I’m feeding at this point of time, on its own.”
Creasy’s case is an important one. We asked what readers thought about the situation, and some of you were kind enough to share your opinion on our Twitter poll:
👸 WILL SHE WIN? General elections are being held in Honduras as we send this out. Voters will elect the President and also local and parliamentary representatives. There are three potential contenders fighting it out for the top post - including one woman, Xiomara Castro, who is being widely seen as the potential winner. If she gets elected, she will become the first woman President in the country’s history.