Preventing Violence Against Women in Politics

Across all the regions of the world, women remain underrepresented in politics. There are several barriers that women encounter when aspiring for elective positions of power and decision-making. Though there has been a notable increase in women’s representation in decision-making, especially at the parliamentary level, there has simultaneously been an increase in violence against women in politics.

Violence against women in politics encompasses all forms of aggression, coercion and intimidation that aims to exclude women—whether serving as civic leaders, voters, political party members, candidates, elected representatives, appointed officials or election administrators. This paper presents interventions for political parties on how to prevent and address any form of violence against women in politics in order to strengthen women’s participation and representation in politics and political decision-making.