DEMOCRACY AND GENDER

Throughout the world women face obstacles for their participation in politics. These barriers exist in prevailing social and economic systems, as well as in existing political structures. In 2007, the rate of female representation at national level stands at merely 18 per cent globally. Although this figure has increased in recent years, minimal progress has been made, meaning that the ideal of parity between men and women in national legislatures still remains distant.

International IDEA is committed to providing comparative information and research on how to overcome these obstacles and to advance gender and democracy issues in general, and to promote the participation and representation of women in political life in particular.

"IDEA celebrates International Women's Day 2009"

Knowledge resources

Publications

• Designing for Equality - Provides an overview of how electoral systems function in combination with different kinds of quotas for women. It assesses how women’s representation can be increased under different combinations of electoral systems and quotas.
• Women in Parliament: Beyond Numbers – Looks into the obstacles women confront when entering Parliament – be they political, socio-economic or ideological and psychological and presents solutions to overcome these obstacles, such as changing electoral systems and introducing quotas.
• International IDEA has conducted workshops on regional experiences with quota implementation and their findings have been gathered in a series of reports on the implementation and use of quotas in Africa, the Arab world, Asia, Europe and Latin America.

To view all International IDEA's publications related to gender, click here.

Websites and databases

• International Knowledge Network of Women in Politics (iKNOW Politics) – iKNOW Politics is an on-line workspace designed to serve the needs of politicians, practitioners and researchers in the field of women in politics. It provides access to critical resources and expertise, opportunities to share experiences and knowledge to learn about the latest developments and events related to women’s political participation. The Network is a joint project of International IDEA, UNDP, UNIFEM, NDI and IPU.
• Global Database of Quotas for Women - International IDEA is engaged in a global research project on the implementation and application of electoral quotas for women in cooperation with Stockholm University's Department of Political Science. The database provides information on the various types of quotas in existence today, detailing the percentages and targets in countries where they are applicable. It is constantly being updated.
• Voter Turnout - Through its network of Electoral Management Bodies, International IDEA is seeking to collect statistics on female voter turnout rates. As this information is not readily available, IDEA invites electoral authorities to help it compile voter turnout data broken down according to gender.

Policy development

International IDEA provides policy support and guidance on the best fit of electoral systems and quotas, and ways to empower women at the political party level in response to specific requests for assistance.

Assistance to democratic reform

South Asia – International IDEA is contributing to the sharing of knowledge and expertise on obstacles to women’s political representation and is jointly organizing an event in the second half of 2007 in Nepal on violence against women in politics.

Arab World - During the second half of 2007 International IDEA, together with the Swedish Institute in Alexandria, will conduct a workshop with representatives from eight Arab countries on the inclusion of women in the political process.

Sudan - Since July 2006, International IDEA and partners have been engaged in a programme in Sudan that seeks to assist in transforming, developing and strengthening political parties and support them in increasing the level of women’s participation in politics.

Andean Region - In June 2007 International IDEA organized an international conference with women parliamentarians from the Andean countries where they were given the opportunity to share experiences and create an inter-parliamentary network of women.