Women power

THE proportion of seats held by women in parliament continues to rise slowly.

Averaging 18 percent across all chambers of parliament as of January 2009, women hold 30 percent or more of single or lower chamber seats in 24 countries and 30 percent or more of upper chamber seats in 15 countries.

Worldwide, women are entering a greater variety of political leadership positions. As of January 2009, women reached the highest parliamentary position—presiding officer—in 31 parliamentary chambers.

This figure has remained more or less constant for the past decade.

During 2008, a woman took up the post of speaker for the first time in Pakistan, Romania, Rwanda, Serbia and Uzbekistan. There were 15 women serving as heads of state or government in March 2009, compared to nine in 2000 and 12 in 1995.

At the other end of the spectrum, one quarter of all parliamentary chambers still have less than 10 percent women members.

Nine chambers, mainly in Pacific Island and Arab Gulf states, have no women members of parliament at all.

Following parliamentary elections and renewals in 2008, some impressive gains were registered in Latin America and the Caribbean, where women hold 22 percent of all seats, the highest regional average.

Cuba registered the highest proportion of women members (43 percent) in this region during 2008.

Sub-Saharan Africa continues to make strides, with Rwanda out in front: it made history in September 2008 when its lower chamber elected a majority (56 percent) of women members.

In Western Asia, four women were elected to Kuwait’s parliament for the first time in May 2009, after gaining the right to stand for election only four years previously—a major step forward for women in that country.

Still, women hold less than 10 percent of parliamentary seats in Oceania, Northern Africa and Western Asia.

In Qatar, no women were appointed to the 35-member Qatari Advisory Council in 2008 and, along with the Federated States of Micronesia and Saudi Arabia, has never had a woman member of parliament.

Similarly, in 2008 parliamentary elections in Nauru, Palau (lower chamber) and Tonga, no women won seats. In the Caribbean, no women were elected to the Belize lower chamber in 2008.

Proportional representation electoral systems enable a greater number of women to be elected than majority electoral systems. The use of temporary special measures or quotas has also proven effective in getting more women into politics.

During 2008, women held an average of 24 percent of parliamentary seats in countries that used such measures, versus 18 percent in countries that did not.

In other spheres, the gender gap remains. Women remain more vulnerable on the job front, assuming the largest share of unpaid work.

Close to two-thirds of all employed women have vulnerable jobs, either as contributing family workers or as own-account workers.

As unpaid family workers, women freely give their time to family owned businesses.

The large share of unpaid jobs adds to the already heavy burden of unpaid work carried out by women in households, which is not reflected in official labor force statistics.

The global financial crisis is creating new hurdles to women’s employment. Of the additional 24 million to 52 million people worldwide who may be unemployed because of the crisis, 10 million to 22 million will be women.

The Millennium Development Goals Report 2009