UN Geneva - Multimedia Newsroom : IPU - Press Conference: Women in Parliament

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Sorry for the for the delay.

It's a busy morning, so we appreciate that you have made time to participate in this press conference.

We know it's a busy news cycle, so welcome to the Inter Parliamentary Union press conference where we're looking at our latest data on women in Parliament.

You should have received a press release in your inbox this morning in 4 languages.

And Please note that there is an embargo of Thursday, the 6th of March at 9:00 Geneva time.

This is to give you time, we hope, if you want to prepare some articles in time for International Women's Day on the 8th of March and also to allow us just to finish the the final version of the report.

You've also received a draught of the report this morning.

So all the information is there.

And this morning I'm very pleased to be joined by the IPU Secretary General, Martin Chung Gong, who will give us a summary of the main findings of, of women's representation in Parliament and some of the headlines.

And we're also, we also have Mariana Mutzenberg, who is one of our gender experts and who is very close to the report as well, if you have any questions.

So we'll start with the Secretary General and then we'll open it out to the floor.

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Thank you very much, Thomas.

Ladies and gentlemen of the media gives me great pleasure.

Sir Thomas has just been saying it gives me great pleasure to present other findings of our report on women's representation.

And I do this in the context of the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration on Platform for Action, which as you know, was the landmark road map that was established in the context of the United Nations to promote women's or gender equality around the world.

So this year we are celebrating 30 years of Beijing, which that declaration was adopted in 1995 and we have a report this year that captures trends since 1995.

And I am going to give you just a few highlights.

The details of the report can be consulted by you when you you do have one moment.

And first of all, I would like to say that in 1995 women accounted for just 11.3% of parliamentary representation.

And today they account, and I'm pleased to announce this for the first time, they account for 27.2%.

So as we stand today, women account for 27.2% of parliamentary membership worldwide.

You will notice that this, the percentage of women's representation has doubled over the past 30 years, more than doubled.

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We have not yet reached a target of 30% that was established in Beijing in 1995.

There was no parliament that had parity, gender parity, that is women accounting for at least 50% of parliamentary membership.

But today we can announce that there are 6 parliaments that have gender parity or more men than more women than men in parliament.

And again, I want to point out here that three out of those parliaments are from the Americas.

The Americans that have progressed most notably and most substantially than any other part of the world when it comes to gender parity, those countries that have parity or more women in parliament today are Rwanda, Cuba, Nicaragua, Mexico and Andorra and the United Arab Emirates.

You will notice that no European country is in that list.

In fact, we when we looked at the statistics, we saw that in terms of the 10 top countries in gender equality in Parliament in 1995, there were seven or eight European countries.

Today, there is just one Iceland that is in the top 10 when it comes to parliamentary representation of women.

When it comes to global regional trends, as I mentioned earlier, we have the Americans that are progressing very well, and today they actually account for 22%.

They have progressed by 22.7% since 1995.

The region that has fared the least well is the Asian region, where a parliamentary representation of women grew by only 8.9%.

So generally we see the reports mentions this that there was steady progress in women's representation in parliament up until 2015, where we witnessed a plateauing of parliamentary representation for women since 2015.

That the rate of progress has slowed down a lot, especially since 2017.

And when we go back to what happened last year in 2024, as you know, it has been touted as the Super election year.

We had some 79 or 73, sorry, 73 parliamentary chambers that were renewed in 2024 in 59 countries, and the outcome of those elections was, to say the least, disappointing because women's political representation of parliamentary representation grew by just 0.3%.

This is, I believe, among the slowest rates of progress since 2015 or since 1995.

We can go back to that and we look at again, when we come to the factors that lead to **** women's representation in Parliament, we can again mention that there are two main factors.

One is the electoral system that is used.

We have seen evidence year in, year out that countries that apply the proportional representation or mixed representation system usually come up with **** scores in terms of women's parliamentary representation in.

And also we have quotas, well designed quotas, especially when they are legislated, they tend to drive women's parliamentary representation upwards.

And there's evidence to back this.

We see that in elections where quotas are applied, parliamentary representation for women double S in those countries that are holding elections.

And one thing, one warring trend that I want to mention during this press briefing is the increasing trend in violence in political sphere, especially against women.

We saw in Mexico, for instance, that at least 130 incidents were reported, involving at least 30 women.

Even in the more entrenched democracies, such as the UK, we see that there was an alarming rise in ***** of parliamentary candidates, as reported by the Electoral Commission.

We also want to mention the worrying trend of the misuse of artificial intelligence to impact on women's parliamentary representation.

Women candidates tended to be victims of deep fake images that distorted the the picture of the electoral campaign.

And this is something that we have decried year in year out.

And then of course, there's the general gender based violence which occurs against women parliamentarians or politicians.

And the IP US pleased that many countries have been more robust, many parliaments have been very robust in putting in place mechanisms and processes for addressing this scourge that has a strong potential to discourage women's political representation.

And let me just conclude this presentation by saying that the glass ceiling when it comes to women's representation in parliament has cracked.

There's evidence that it has cracked since 1995, but it has not been shattered, which means that we are far from achieving the even the 30% that was set in Beijing.

So there is much work that needs to needs to be done in the various countries.

We have to step up our efforts, both men and women, to ensure that women are occupying the space that they are entitled to in the political sphere.

I also want to point out the general trend of the backlash or push back on women's rights, which requires more robust action on our part.

We cannot allow resistance to gender equality, which is part of human rights.

We cannot allow resistance to this human right to prevail.

And so again, I am appealing for strong and robust action by us all to protect the rights of women.

So I think that we have our work cut out for us.

We need to step up to the plate.

We need to be more active and proactive in promoting the rights of women worldwide in order not to let those who are pushing back on gender equality carry the day.

So I, I will stop at this moment, Thomas, and maybe we'll take questions from interested, interested members of the audience which on your mic.

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And start again with the mic on.

I see that we have Antonio from FA Agency and then we have Catherine Jenkin Bonga.

So, Antonio, the floor is yours.

Thank you very much.

I would like to ask if you fear that the the wave of conservatism in many Western countries that is happening now in countries like the United States, do you think this will bring a set back in the presence of women in politics?

Thank you very much.

Your conservative conservatism.

Yes, yes, it has a strong potential to set back progress in terms of women's parliamentary representation, political representation in general.

And that's why we are calling for more robust action to push back on this, push back that we are witnessing in many countries, not only in the United States.

There are many other countries, especially or rather including the the entrenched democracies that are pushing back on women's rights.

And this cannot be allowed to prevail.

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And a question from Catherine.

Catherine, Bonjour.

Hello Catherine, are you online?

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Good morning, Thomas.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you for the briefing.

I have a couple of questions.

The first, Mr Shungong just mentioned that the glass ceiling had cracked a bit.

So could you tell us where it did crack the most?

That's number one.

And where it's, it is still continuing to crack.

My, my second question is regarding the fact that you require more robust action to defend the, the rights of women, rights of women and to continue to, to, to work in order to get to that 30% fixed by Beijing.

So what kind of actions would you recommend in order to get there?

And if I understood well, can we say that in fact European region is the one that is for the couple last year's not, I would say evaluating on a good way, on a good track that we we had that that European countries have tendency to to stay at the same level and even to go backward regarding the rights of women.

Thank you so much to the three of you.

Thank you very much, Catherine.

Three questions there, Secretary General.

Where has the the glass ceiling cracked?

What robust action is required?

And is Europe evolving?

[Other language spoken]

Thank you, Catherine.

I think that it's very clear from my report that where there has been greatest progress has been in the Americas.

The Americas have come up strongly since 1995 and today the rate of progress in that in those countries is 22.3% if 27 percentage points.

And when you look at the countries that have achieved parity or more women in parliament and more women than men in parliament, 3 out of the six countries in of the world today that in that category come from the Americas, more particularly in the in Latin America.

We're talking of Cuba, we're talking of Nicaragua and we're talking of Mexico.

So it is the region, the Americas is the region that has made the greatest progress.

The region that has made the least progress has been Asia, with I think 6% or 8.9% of progress since 1995.

You mentioned the issue of Europe.

Yes, Europe has stalled, I would say.

And today when we look at 1995, where we had about 6-7 European countries being among the 10 top top ten countries in terms of parliamentary representation of women.

Today there's just one Iceland, which was there before.

And then you have countries like Rwanda that have leapfrogged and of course I mentioned the Latin American countries that are coming in strongly.

We also have a country like the United Arab Emirates that did not even figure anywhere in the world in 1995 that now has achieved A parity.

So we we, we think that there has been some progress.

But let me also mention that there are at least six countries in the world that have actually regressed when it comes to gender equality in, in, in parliament.

And if I, I can check my notes, I, I think we know we don't have any European countries there, but you would have a country such as Botswana that is well known for its democracy credentials that is also in this list has recorded a market decrease in parliamentary representation by for women.

And the other countries are Yemen, the we also have the Maldives.

The Maldives is the country that has recorded the least increase or even has the most reduction in the number of women in in parliaments.

And with other, we have other countries such as Guinea Bissau, Vanuatu that fall in this category.

So yes, Europe, there is a problem in Europe.

And if I can go back to the question that Antonio asked, I think that the plateauing of women's representation in Parliament can be put down to that backlash that we have mentioned, the pushback that we have mentioned.

And it is important that we are more robust.

And I think Katherine raised that issue.

We have the solutions that have worked.

First of all, this education, educating the people that gender equality is not in the interests of society as a whole.

Secondly, we have to institute and promote those mechanisms that have proven their worth.

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So gender quarters when they're well legislated and implemented, including system of incentives and and penalties for those who fail to comply with these requirements and also the design of the electoral system.

I did mention that the proportional representation or mixed representation system tends to yield better results, much better results than those that do not have such systems.

I mean the majoritarian systems that are prevalent in many parts of the world.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you, Secretary General.

So robust action, proportional representation, electoral systems, quotas, We have the solutions for stronger women's representation in Parliament.

I don't see any other questions online, so I think we will be able to close.

I'm sorry.

Yes, I'm sorry.

Yes, again, Martin, would you be nice enough to say a few words in French for French speaking radio and TV?

[Other language spoken]

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Thank you, Secretary General Merci Katrine.

I'd have more questions on the question of Francais or more questions in English.

I don't see any online.

So I think we will wrap up now and we'll be very popular with our colleagues because we're finishing in time.

Just a quick note for me to say you have the report in your inbox.

This is the draught report, the findings that the Secretary General has been presenting this morning.

And just a heads up that next week we'll be publishing our by BNL Women in Politics map.

So this looks at women in Parliament, but also women in government.

And this is a map which we publish with UN Women.

Thank you very much.

That concludes this morning's Inter Parliamentary Union press conference on Women in Parliament 2025.

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