Only one woman in the fight alongside 38 men as Somalia finally holds Presidential polls, and other stories
#WomenLead (Issue 98): Your weekly round-up on women in politics
Hello, and welcome to Issue 98!
It is election season in so many parts of the world, with many of these being critical or historic polls. In today’s edition we bring you updates from Australia, Canada, Japan and Lebanon, while the spotlight is on Somalia. In case you missed last week’s edition, you can read it here.
Quick Updates
⚡ CLAIMING THEIR SPACE: It is an important day in Lebanon today as it holds its first Parliamentary election post the 2020 Beirut blast, one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in human history. 118 women are contesting across the 128 seats, making up almost 16 percent of all candidates. While that share is quite dismal, this is the highest number of women contesting elections in the country ever. This is a 37 percent jump from the previous polls when 86 women contested.
Women made up just about 4.7 percent of those elected in 2018 - that tiny share included Paula Yacoubian, an independent candidate who resigned in protest after the Beirut blast. In her short tenure of two years, Yacoubian worked on more draft laws than most male politicians from the country have done in tenures stretching over decades, a report in the CNN observed. She is among the 118 women contesting this time. Here’s to more of her kind winning this time around!
Also read: Meet the women fighting to change the face of Lebanese politics
🥀 CALLING IT QUITS: In 2018, when Canada’s Quebec province held assembly elections, 52 women were elected - a share of 41.6 percent of all seats. This was the highest among all provincial regions in Canada at the time. Three more were elected in by-elections later, taking their share up to 44 percent. But now, four years later, as the region prepares to hold its next election, many of those women will not be contesting again, CBC/Radio-Canada has reported. And by ‘many’ - we mean more than a fourth. Sixteen women have announced that they will not be contesting again - compare that to seven among the 70 men who won’t be contesting this time. The women attribute these to a mix of personal factors - other priorities, domestic responsibilities, and want for more freedom - but the full picture has more to the story: women experiencing greater animosity within the system, to being scrutinized more harshly, and media bias.