OVERCOMING BARRIERS TO WOMEN’S REPRESENTATION IN PARLIAMENT
WOMEN’S REPRESENTATION REMAINS INADEQUATE ACROSS THE COMMONWEALTH: MORE ACTION IS NEEDED FOR CHANGE A parliamentary expert in the UK Parliament speaks to women MPs to ask what action is needed for positive change on women's representation in Commonwealth Parliaments. gathered by the CPA reveals that eight Parliaments in the CPA’s membership have no women in Parliament.” Only 1 in 4 Commonwealth Parliamentarians is a woman. Rwanda (with women making up 61.3% in the Chamber of Deputies and 37.4% in the Senate) and New Zealand (60 women and 59 men were serving as Parliamentarians up until the recent election in October 2023) are among the six countries worldwide to have achieved gender parity in their Parliaments. Each month, the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), an international organisation of national Parliaments, publishes global and regional averages of the percentage of women in national Legislatures. This month (October 2023) only 26.7% of women serve in elected chambers globally. Action is needed to ensure that more women are elected and participate to meet the Commonwealth Heads of Government target of at least 30% women Members in Parliaments and Legislatures. As a UN Women UK delegate to the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) for the past two years, I have seen for myself the collective will and determination for change. So, what can be done? Parliaments should work to ensure political systems are flexible to meet the needs of all who serve within them. Caring responsibilities, long hours debating and voting into the night, and lack of action to
Natasa Pantelic has worked in politics for nearly 20 years and is a founding member of the Labour Women’s Parliamentary Staff Network in the UK Parliament. She has worked for a number of politicians, most recently as Senior Parliamentary Assistant to Sir Chris Bryant, MP. She served in local government for 15 years as an elected member in England and was a parliamentary candidate in the Chesham and Amersham by-election in 2021. Follow her on X/Twitter: @natasapantelic5.
326 | The Parliamentarian | 2023: Issue Four | 100 years of publishing
Image credits: UK Parliament_Jessica Taylor.
Research shows women leaders make a difference in politics and public life. They encourage more collaborative and inclusive ways of working, leading to better decision making and outcomes for everyone. This approach is particularly important for the challenges that governments across the world must solve together such as climate change, ending violence against women and girls, building resilient economies and effective healthcare systems. Women are disproportionately affected by these issues - according to the United Nations, 4 in 5 people who are displaced by climate change (globally) are women. This is why an intersectional approach to inclusivity for women and more opportunities for women to participate in finding long term solutions to complex problems is vital. There are countless examples of women making a difference when they are included around the decision-making table. Rt Hon. Dame Margaret Beckett, MP, Britain’s first female Foreign Secretary and Chair of the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy in the UK Parliament, was one of the first politicians to put climate change on the political map. She insisted that climate change was seen as a matter of peace and security when chairing the UN Security Council on behalf of the United Kingdom. Consider the world’s position now. At the 66th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference in Ghana this year, the Chairperson of the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians (CWP) network, Hon. Dr Zainab Gimba, MP (Nigeria), said: “It is important to highlight that despite progress made in many areas, women's representation in Parliaments remains inadequate. The international community advocates for gender parity meaning 50/50 representation of women in Parliament. However, data gathered by the CPA on 15 September 2023, shows that only 55 of the 180 CPA Branches have achieved the Commonwealth Heads of Government target of at least 30% women in elected office that was set over 20 years ago. Members are to also note the data
