title: Murrayfield Stadium

text: In October 2012, SRU chief executive Mark Dodson told the BBC that it was actively seeking a name sponsor for Murrayfield:The single biggest piece of our inventory is our national stadium. We would like to see if we can monetise that. It would be crazy for us not to look at using our single biggest piece of inventory to drive revenue. We want to get the right price for it. In addition, Dodson indicated that the SRU was actively seeking a site for a completely new stadium with a capacity of 10,000 to 15,000 as a future home for Edinburgh Rugby. The pitch was damaged by nematodes in the lead up to the 2013 autumn internationals. This led the SRU to replace the grass with a Desso surface from the start of the 2014 season. A naming rights deal with BT was agreed in May 2014, resulting in the stadium being officially named as the BT Murrayfield Stadium.


title: Murrayfield Stadium

text: Murrayfield is located next to Murrayfield Ice Rink, Murrayfield Curling Rink, and is close to Edinburgh Zoo. It is named after the area of Edinburgh it is located in, Murrayfield. There are two cricket pitches in the immediate vicinity at Roseburn Park used by "Murrayfield DAFS CC" (formed from mergers between several local teams) and also four rugby pitches owned by the SRU which were used by teams including the amateur club Murrayfield Wanderers RFC - they and their predecessors had played there since 1902 but were asked to vacate in 2018 as the governing body had plans to develop the land. Wanderers moved their training base to Roseburn but continued to hire the Murrayfield pitches for some matches.


title: Murrayfield Stadium

text: The stadium is served by Lothian Bus services 12, 22, 26, 31 and the Airlink(100) along Corstorphine Road. Post-match traffic congestion is common along this route.


title: Murrayfield Stadium

text: Despite the line running adjacent to the stadium, the closest railway station to the stadium is , which lies a mile to the East.


title: Murrayfield Stadium

text: Interchange with the Edinburgh Trams is available at Haymarket, and stations. is a short walk from the St Andrew Square tram stop.


title: Murrayfield Stadium

text: Murrayfield Stadium tram stop is located adjacent to the stadium entrance turnstiles on Roseburn Street. Access to the platform is by a flight of stairs or lift. As part of crowd-management measures, ticketing machines are situated at the bottom of the staircase and not the platform.


title: Murrayfield Stadium

text: Murrayfield is used for most Scottish international rugby union matches, with all Scotland's Six Nations home games being played in the stadium. The stadium also hosted all of Edinburgh's matches between 1996 and January 2017. (For Pro14 matches, only the lower tier of the East Stand is typically used.)


title: Murrayfield Stadium

text: Since February 2018 all Edinburgh matches are once again held at Murrayfield; with work now finished on the construction of a new 7,800 capacity stadium on the back pitches to host Edinburgh Rugby from the start of the 2021/22 season.


title: Murrayfield Stadium

text: From 2007 to 2011, Murrayfield hosted the Edinburgh 7s, then the final event in the annual IRB Sevens World Series in rugby sevens, but that tournament was moved to Glasgow starting in 2012 due to low attendance. Murrayfield hosted select matches from the 2007 Rugby World Cup. The stadium also hosted the Heineken Cup Final in 2005, when Toulouse beat Stade Français 18–12, and again in 2009, with Leinster defeating Leicester 19–16.


title: Murrayfield Stadium

text: Although primarily a rugby union stadium, Murrayfield hosted the Rugby League Challenge Cup Finals of 2000 and 2002. The stadium hosted rugby league's Super League Magic Weekend in 2009. The record for a rugby league attendance at the stadium is 67,247 for the 2000 Challenge Cup Final.


title: Murrayfield Stadium

text: Murrayfield has also hosted association football matches. In December 2003, the SRU board agreed to let local Scottish Premier League side Heart of Midlothian F.C. (Hearts) lease the stadium for match days. Later that month, UEFA confirmed that Hearts' own ground, Tynecastle did not meet the minimum criteria for European matches from the 2004–05 season. Hearts used Murrayfield as their home venue for European matches for three years until Hearts made adjustments to Tynecastle that made it compliant with UEFA regulations. Additionally, both Hearts and Edinburgh neighbours Hibernian have played preseason friendlies against FC Barcelona at Murrayfield. Almost 58,000 people attended to watch Hearts play Barcelona in July 2007, recording the largest crowd at a football match in Edinburgh for 51 years.


title: Murrayfield Stadium

text: In 2014, Glasgow club Celtic played two qualifying matches at the stadium due to Celtic Park being unavailable because of Glasgow's hosting of the 2014 Commonwealth Games. Hearts again used the stadium for home games during the 2017–18 Scottish Premiership, due to the delays in construction of a new main stand at Tynecastle. Murrayfield hosted one of the 2018–19 Scottish League Cup semi-finals, played between Hearts and Celtic, in October 2018. That match attracted an attendance of 61,161, the second-largest ever recorded for a football match in Edinburgh. In July 2019, Murrayfield hosted a pre-season friendly between Liverpool and Napoli, that attracted a crowd of 65,442 which was the highest attendance of fans at a football match in Scotland since the 1989 Scottish Cup Final.


title: Murrayfield Stadium

text: Murrayfield has played host to American football and was one of two home venues for the now defunct Scottish Claymores in the NFL Europa between 1995 and 2004, the other being Hampden Park in Glasgow. Additionally, it hosted World Bowl '96 on 23 June 1996. It has been mentioned as a potential future host site for the NFL International Series, should the National Football League add future games outside the series' current permanent home, Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London. (From 2007 to 2018 the permanent home of the NFL International Series was Wembley Stadium also in London.)


title: Murrayfield Stadium

text: David Bowie played to a capacity crowd of 47,000 people on 28 June 1983. Simple Minds were scheduled to play at the stadium in 1989, but pulled out because of Jim Kerr's objections to the venue's administrators allowing Scottish rugby players to attend the sport's centenary celebrations in South Africa, which was then still under apartheid. On 30 June 1996, Tina Turner played at Murrayfield as part of her Wildest Dreams Tour. In September 1997 U2 played at Murrayfield as part of their Popmart Tour. On 3 June 1999, The Rolling Stones played to 51,000 on their No Security Tour. On 8 July 1999 Celine Dion performed her Let's Talk About Love World Tour as she sold out the full venue of 67,000, on her first ever show in Scotland. In July 2005, Murrayfield hosted the final Live 8 concert, Edinburgh 50,000 – The Final Push, with performances including James Brown, Texas and The Proclaimers. Oasis played a sold-out show on 17 June 2009, as part of their world tour. Some antisocial behaviour at this event affected the stadium's licensing arrangements when they were reviewed a few months later. This was the last time Oasis would play a concert in Scotland and the second time they had played the stadium, the first being on their Standing on the Shoulder of Giants Tour in 2000.


title: Murrayfield Stadium

text: Bon Jovi performed at the stadium on 22 June 2011 as part of their tour. Madonna performed to a sell-out crowd of 52,160 on 21 July 2012 as part of her MDNA Tour. On 3 June 2014, One Direction performed to over 64,000 fans at Murrayfield as part of their Where We Are Stadium Tour. Foo Fighters performed at Murrayfield Stadium as part of their Sonic Highways World Tour on 8 September 2015. The band were originally supposed to play Murrayfield on 23 June 2015 but this was cancelled and rescheduled after Dave Grohl broke his foot at European Festival that same month. The Spice Girls performed to over 55,000 fans on 8 June 2019 as part of their Spice World tour, it was their first Scottish concert in 21 years.


title: Caroline Henderson (singer)

text: Caroline Henderson (born 28 February 1962) is a Danish–Swedish pop and jazz singer. She moved to Copenhagen from Sweden in 1983 and spent her youth singing in various jazz bands. Her breakthrough was in 1989 as part of pop group Ray Dee Ohh. After the group disbanded, Henderson launched a solo career with multi award-winning album "Cinemataztic" (1995) featuring smash hits "Kiss Me Kiss Me" and "Made in Europe".


title: Caroline Henderson (singer)

text: Follow-up "Metamorphing" (1998), disco cover album "Dolores J - The Butterfly" (2000) and the more experimental "Naos" (2002) didn't have the same commercial impact. A new turn saw Henderson develop into a full-fledged jazz singer on albums "Don't Explain" (2003), "Made in Europe" (2004), "Love Or Nothin’" (2006) and "No. 8" (2008).


title: Caroline Henderson (singer)

text: Henderson was born in Sweden to an African-American father and a Swedish mother. She moved to Denmark in 1983, and has spent most of her life there with two children.


title: Pretty Bitch Music

text: Pretty Bitch Music is the forthcoming debut studio album by American rapper Saweetie, which is expected to be released by Artistry and Warner Records. The album was originally due to be released on June 25, 2021, but Saweetie delayed the album in order to "reconstruct" some songs. It is expected to be supported by the singles "Tap In", "Back to the Streets" featuring Jhené Aiko, "Best Friend" featuring Doja Cat, "Fast (Motion)", and "Closer" featuring H.E.R.


title: Pretty Bitch Music

text: In April 2020, shortly after her breakthrough single "My Type" was certified 2× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, Saweetie began teasing the phrase "Pretty B*tch Music" via social media. She released the lead single "Tap In" and its corresponding music video on June 17, 2020. Saweetie released the song "Pretty Bitch Freestyle" as a promotional single in July 2020 alongside a low-budget, homemade music video. Following a viral TikTok dance trend, "Tap In" became a top 40 hit in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Ireland and New Zealand. The song received a remix featuring rappers Post Malone, DaBaby and Jack Harlow in August 2020. "Tap In" would also go on to be certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America at the time of the release of the album's second single, "Back to the Streets" featuring Jhené Aiko, on October 23, 2020. This song would later receive an accompanying music video in late November 2020. "Best Friend", the third single and first collaboration between Saweetie and rapper Doja Cat, was prematurely released on December 4, 2020 by Warner Records on various streaming services, a month before the scheduled release. Saweetie took to social to express her frustration and disappointment and called out her label. The song was officially released on January 7, 2021 alongside a music video directed by Dave Meyers.


title: Pretty Bitch Music

text: "Tap In" was released on June 17, 2020 as the album's lead single, and was serviced to contemporary hit radio on August 11, 2020.


title: Pretty Bitch Music

text: The song reached number 20 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Saweetie's first top 20 single while also marking Saweetie's second appearance on the chart. A remix of the song featuring Post Malone, DaBaby, and Jack Harlow was released on August 28, 2020. In 2021, the song was certified Platinum by the RIAA.


title: Pretty Bitch Music

text: The second single "Back to the Streets" featuring Jhené Aiko was released on October 23, 2020. The song debuted at number 73 on the Billboard Hot 100, later peaking at number 58 on the chart. The single also reached number 1 on the US Rhythmic chart, and received a Gold certification in the United States.


title: Pretty Bitch Music

text: "Best Friend" featuring Doja Cat was prematurely released on December 4, 2020 by Saweetie's label Warner Records and Saweetie stated that she felt disrespected by the label for leaking the song before release. The song was then officially released a month later and debuted at number 39 on the Billboard Hot 100, later reaching number 14 on the chart, becoming Saweetie's second top-20 single and her highest-charting song on the chart. The song achieved a multi-platinum certification in the United States and a Gold certification in Canada. The song also earned Saweetie and Doja Cat a nomination at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards for "Best Rap Song".


title: Pretty Bitch Music

text: The fourth single "Fast (Motion)" was released on May 7, 2021. It peaked at number 24 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart, and number 11 on the US Rhythmic chart.


title: Pretty Bitch Music

text: The fifth single "Closer" featuring H.E.R. was released on February 11, 2022. The song debuted at number 89 on the Billboard Hot 100, and number 7 on the US Rhythmic chart.


title: Pretty Bitch Music

text: Saweetie told "gal-dem" that "Pretty Bitch Music" focuses on "exponential growth and producing artistry" and that it was made with the intent of wanting people to have fun and feel sexy and confident, while also presenting the importance of showing an example of women "being about your business".


title: Pretty Bitch Music

text: Before its official release, Saweetie performed a solo version of "Best Friend" for the first time as a 2020/21 New Years Eve performance for Bud Light Seltzer, where she also performed the album's singles "Back to the Streets" and "Tap In". She also performed "Best Friend" and "Tap In" at the Triller Fight Club.


title: Women in government

text: In many countries, women have been underrepresented in the government and different institutions. This historical tendency still persists, although women are increasingly being elected to be heads of state and government.


title: Women in government

text: As of October 2019, the global participation rate of women in national-level parliaments is 24.5%. In 2013, women accounted for 8% of all national leaders and 2% of all presidential posts. Furthermore, 75% of all female prime ministers and presidents have taken office in the past two decades.


title: Women in government

text: Women may face a number of challenges that affect their ability to participate in political life and become political leaders. Several countries are exploring measures that may increase women's participation in government at all levels, from the local to the national and international. However, more women are pursuing leadership positions in the present day.


title: Women in government

text: The number of women leaders around the world has grown, but they still represent a small group. At the executive levels of government, women become prime ministers more often than they become presidents. Part of the differences in these roads to power is that prime ministers are elected by political party members themselves while presidents are elected by the public. In 2013, women accounted for 8 percent of all national leaders and 2 percent of all presidential posts. Furthermore, 75 percent of all female prime ministers and presidents have taken office in the past two decades. Since 1960 to 2015, 108 women have become national leaders in 70 countries, with more being prime ministers than presidents.


title: Women in government

text: Individual female executives usually have high levels of education and may have close relationships with politically prominent or upper-class families. The general status of women in a country does not predict if a woman will reach an executive position since, paradoxically, female executives have routinely ascended to power in countries where women's social standing lags behind men's.


title: Women in government

text: Women have long struggled in more developed countries to become president or prime minister. Israel elected its first female prime minister in 1969 but has never done so again. The United States, on the other hand, has had no female presidents.


title: Women in government

text: Sri Lanka was the first nation to possess a female president, Chandrika Kumaratunga (1994–2000), and a female prime minister (Sirimavo Bandaranaike) simultaneously. This also marked the first time that a female prime minister (Sirimavo Bandaranaike) directly succeeded another female prime minister (Chandrika Kumaratunga). Mary McAleese's election as president of Ireland (1997–2011) was the first time that a female president directly succeeded another female president, Mary Robinson. Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir, prime minister of Iceland (2009–2013), was the world's first openly lesbian world leader, first female world leader to wed a same-sex partner while in office.


title: Women in government

text: The longest serving female non-royal head of government and longest serving female leader of a country is Sheikh Hasina. She is the longest serving prime minister in the history of Bangladesh, having served for a combined total of over 18 years. As of , she is the world's longest serving elected female head of government.


title: Women in government

text: In 2021 Estonia became the first country to have both a female elected head of state and elected head of government.


title: Women in government

text: (If you only consider countries where the head of state is directly elected, then the first country to have both an elected female head of state and an elected female head of government is Moldova, also in 2021).


title: Women in government

text: The proportion of women in national parliaments around the world is growing, but they are still underrepresented. As of April 1, 2019, the global average of women in national assemblies is 24.3 percent. At the same time, large differences exist between countries, e.g. Sri Lanka has quite low female participation rates in parliament compared with Rwanda, Cuba, and Bolivia, where female representation rates are the highest. Three of the top ten countries in 2019 were in Latin America (Bolivia, Cuba, and Mexico), and the Americans have seen the greatest aggregate change over the past 20 years.


title: Women in government

text: Out of 192 countries listed in descending order by the percentage of women in the lower or single house, the top 20 countries with the greatest representation of women in national parliaments are (figures reflect information as of January 1, 2020; a – represents a unicameral legislature with no upper house):


title: Women in government

text: New figures are available for up to February 2014 from International IDEA, Stockholm University and Inter-Parliamentary Union.


title: Women in government

text: Although 86% of countries have reached at least 10% women in their national legislature, far fewer have crossed the 20% and 30% barriers. As of July 2019, only 23% of sovereign nations had more than 30% women in parliament. The major English-speaking democracies are placed mostly in the top 40% of the ranked countries. New Zealand ranks at number 5 with women comprising 48.3% of its parliament. The United Kingdom (32.0% in the lower house, 26.4% in the upper house) ranks at number 39, while Australia (30.5% in the lower house, 48.7% in the upper house) ranks at number 47 out of 189 countries. Canada is ranked at 60 (29.6% lower house, 46.7% upper house), while the United States ranks 78 (23.6% in the lower house, 25.0% in the upper house). Not all of these lower and/or upper houses in national parliaments are directly elected; for example, in Canada, members of the upper house (the Senate) are appointed.


title: Women in government

text: , Cuba has the highest percentage for countries without a quota. In South Asia, Nepal is highest in the rank of women participation in politics with (33%). Among East Asian countries, Taiwan has the highest percentage of women in Parliament (38.0%).


title: Women in government

text: Pamela Paxton describes three factors that are reasons why national-level representation has become much larger over the past several decades. The first is the changing structural and economic conditions of nations, which says that educational advancements along with an increase in women's participation in the labor force encourages representation. The second is the political factor; representation of women in office being based on a proportionality system. Some voting systems are built so that a party that gains 25% of the votes gains 25% of the seats. In these processes, a political party feels obligated to balance the representation within their votes between genders, increasing women's activity in political standing. A plurality-majority system, such as used in the United States, United Kingdom, and India, has only allows single candidate elections, and thus allows political parties to entirely dictate regions' representatives even if they only control a small majority of the vote. Last, there is the ideological disposition of a country; the concept that the cultural aspects of women's roles or positions in the places they live dictate where they stand in that society, ultimately either helping or handicapping those women from entering political positions.


title: Women in government

text: In 1995, the United Nations set a goal of 30% female representation. The current annual growth rate of women in national parliaments is about 0.5% worldwide. At this rate, gender parity in national legislatures will not be achieved until 2068.


title: Women in government

text: In Brazil, the Secretariat of Policies for Women, was until recently the main Brazilian state-feminism agency at the federal level. Under Workers' Party governments (2003-2016), Brazil carried out women-focused policies in three dimensions of its foreign policy: diplomacy, development cooperation, and security.


title: Women in government

text: In Ireland, Ann Marie O'Brien has studied the women in the Irish Department of External Affairs associated with the League of Nations and United Nations, 1923–1976. She finds that women had greater opportunities at the UN.


title: Women in government

text: In the United States, Frances E. Willis joined the Foreign Service in 1927, becoming only the third American woman to do so. She served in Chile, Sweden, Belgium, Spain, Britain, and Finland as well as the State Department. In 1953, she became the first female US ambassador to Switzerland and later served as ambassador to Norway and Ceylon. Willis's rise in the Foreign Service was due to her competence, hard work, and self-confidence. Also helpful in her career was the support of influential mentors. While not a militant feminist, Willis blazed a trail for other female diplomats to follow.


title: Women in government

text: A 2003 survey conducted by United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), a global network supporting inclusive local governments, found that the average proportion of women in local council was 15%. In leadership positions, the proportion of women was lower: for instance, 5% of mayors of Latin American municipalities are women.


title: Women in government

text: There has been an increasing focus on women's representation at a local level. Most of this research is focused on developing countries. Governmental decentralization often results in local government structures that are more open to the participation of women, both as elected local councilors and as the clients of local government services.


title: Women in government

text: According to a comparative study of women in local governments in East Asia and the Pacific, women have been more successful in reaching decision-making position in local governments than at the national level. Local governments tend to be more accessible and have more available positions. Also, women's role in local governments may be more accepted because they are seen as an extension of their involvement in the community.


title: Women in government

text: Political scientists separate the causes behind the underrepresentation of women in governmental positions into two categories: supply and demand. Supply refers to women's general ambition to run for office and access to resources like education and time, while demand refers to elite support, voter bias and institutional sexism. Women face numerous obstacles in achieving representation in governance. The biggest challenges a woman in government can face occur during the pursuit of her position in government office, as opposed to when she is upholding said position. Studies show that one of the big challenges is financing a campaign. Studies also show that women running for political office raise a similar amount of money in comparison to their male counterparts, however they feel they need to work harder to do so.


title: Women in government

text: According to a survey conducted on a sample of 3,640 elected municipal officeholders, women face adversities with things such as financing a campaign because they are not as heavily recruited as men by party leaders. There are two factors that contribute to this trend. Firstly, party leaders tend to recruit candidates who are similar to them. Since most party leaders are men, they usually see men as prime candidates because they share more similarities than most woman do. The same concept applies when discussing the second factor. Recruitment works through networks such as lower level office holders or affiliated businesses. Since women are underrepresented in these networks, according to statistics, they are less likely to be recruited than men. Due to these challenges, women have to spend time and conscious effort building a financial support system, unlike men.


title: Women in government

text: Some have argued that politics is a "matrix of domination" designed by race, class, gender and sexuality. Intersectionality plays a large role in treatment women face when running for political office and their time serving in a political position. One study in Brazil found racial disparities that fall even heavier on women candidates during candidate recruitment and selection processes. Afro-descendant Brazilian women were the most disadvantaged when running for political office.


title: Women in government

text: Gender inequality within families, inequitable division of labor within households, and cultural attitudes about gender roles further subjugate women and serve to limit their representation in public life. Societies that are highly patriarchal often have local power structures that make it difficult for women to combat. Thus, their interests are often not represented or under-represented.


title: Women in government

text: One major challenge female candidates must overcome to obtain political positions is voter bias. According to one study, women were more likely to state that it was easier for men to get elected into higher office. The study found that 58% of men and 73% of women claimed it was easier for men to get elected into higher office. In the US, according to one survey, 15% of Americans still believe men make better political candidates than women. Another survey found that 13% of American women either strongly agree or agree that men tend to make better political candidates than women do.


title: Women in government

text: In the US, many voters assume men and women possess traits that reflect the stereotypes they believe. Many assume women candidates are too emotional, more willing to give-in or compromise, under-qualified, and more gentle. These notions often affect women negatively, as people often believe that many women should not be running for office because of these candidate stereotypes.


title: Women in government

text: There have been many arguments saying the plurality-majority voting system is a disadvantage to the chance that women get into office. Andrew Reynolds brings forth one of these arguments by stating: "Plurality-majority single-member-district systems, whether of the Anglo-American first-past-the-post (FPTP) variety, the Australian preference ballot alternative vote (AV), or the French two-round system (TRS), are deemed to be particularly unfavorable to women's chances of being elected to office". Andrew believes that the best systems are list-proportional systems. "In these systems of high proportionality between seats won and votes cast, small parties are able to gain representation and parties have an incentive to broaden their overall electoral appeal by making their candidate lists as diverse as possible".


title: Women in government

text: Even once elected, women tend to hold lesser valued cabinet ministries or similar positions. These are sometimes described as "soft industries" and include health, education, and welfare. Far less often do women hold executive decision-making authority in more powerful domains or those that are associated with traditional notions of masculinity (such as finance and the military). Typically, the more powerful the institution, the less likely it is that women's interests will be represented. Additionally, in more autocratic nations, women are less likely to have their interests represented. Many women attain political standing due to kinship ties, as they have male family members who are involved in politics. These women tend to be from higher income, higher status families and thus may not be as focused on the issues faced by lower income families. In The United States, the lower end of the professional ladder contains a higher proportion of women while the upper level contains a higher proportion of men. Research shows that women are underrepresented in head positions in state agencies making up only 18% of Congress and 15% of corporate board positions. When women do gain any level of representation it is in the fields of health, welfare, and labor. They are seen to be addressing issues labeled as feminine.


title: Women in government

text: Additionally, women running for public office typically gain additional, unnecessary scrutiny on their private lives. For instance, fashion choices of politically active women are often picked apart by the media. In these "analyses" women rarely gain approval from those in the media, who usually say they either they show too much skin or too little, or perhaps that they either look too feminine or too masculine. Sylvia Bashevkin also notes that their romantic lives are often subject of much interest to the general population, perhaps more so than their political agenda or stances on issues. She points out that those who "appear to be sexually active outside a monogamous heterosexual marriage run into particular difficulties, since they tend to be portrayed as vexatious vixens" who are more interested in their private romantic lives than in their public responsibilities. If they are in a monogamous, married relationship but have children, then their fitness for office becomes a question of how they manage being a politician while taking care of their children, something that a male politician would rarely, if ever, be asked about.


title: Women in government

text: A 2017 study found that female Republican candidates fare worse in elections than Republican men and Democratic women.


title: Women in government

text: A 2020 study found that being promoted to the position of mayor or parliamentarian doubles the probability of divorce for women, but not for men.


title: Women in government

text: In Canada, there is evidence that female politicians face gender stigma from male members of the political parties to which they belong which can undermine the ability of women to reach or maintain leadership roles. Pauline Marois, leader of the Parti Québécois (PQ) and the official opposition of the National Assembly of Quebec, was the subject of a claim by Claude Pinard, a PQ "backbencher", that many Quebecers do not support a female politician: "I believe that one of her serious handicaps is the fact she's a woman [...] I sincerely believe that a good segment of the population won't support her because she's a woman". A 2000 study that analyzed 1993 election results in Canada found that among "similarly situated women and men candidates", women actually had a small vote advantage. The study showed that neither voter turnout nor urban/rural constituencies were factors that help or hurt a female candidate, but "office-holding experience in non-political organizations made a modest contribution to women's electoral advantage".


title: Women in government

text: Bruce M. Hicks, an electoral studies researcher at Université de Montréal, states that evidence shows that female candidates begin with a head start in voters' eyes of as much as 10 per cent, and that female candidates are often more favorably associated by voters with issues like health care and education. The electorate's perception that female candidates have more proficiency with traditional women's spheres such as education and health care presents a possibility that gender stereotypes can work in a female candidate's favor, at least among the electorate. In politics, however, Hicks points out that sexism is nothing new:


title: Women in government

text: Within Quebec itself, Don McPherson pointed out that Pinard himself has enjoyed greater electoral success with Pauline Marois as party leader than under a previous male party leader, when Pinard failed to be elected in his riding. Demographically, Pinard's electoral riding is rural, with "relatively older, less-well educated voters".


title: Women in government

text: In one study that looked at campaign funding in Chile, researchers found a significant gender bias against women in campaign funding. In Chile, parties are given money directly from the government to allocate to their various candidates, and candidates are limited to a certain amount of money they can spend on their campaign. The Chilean government instituted multiple policies to try and increase gender representation. They placed a 40% quota on political seats and reimbursed political parties when they chose female political candidates in an effort to incentivize them. Even in this "least-likely" case, researchers found that in candidates with no prior experience running for office, men would out fundraise women.


title: Women in government

text: Many of the challenged women face that leads to their underrepresentation in political office is amplified through other institutional factors. Race, specifically, plays an increasingly large role in the challenges faced by women when deciding to run for office, actively running for office, and actively holding office. In one study which focused on the treatment of Afro-Brazilian women, researchers found that institutionalizing parties increases the chance that parties will elect women, however the effect is more muted for Afro-Brazilians. In Brazil, African-Americans already face a significant resource gap like lower average income, lower levels or legislation and higher illiteracy rates. In conjunction with these barriers, Afro-Brazilian women also face barriers to access to power. Researchers found that Afro-descendant women consistently raised less money and won fewer voters even when they possesses traditional characteristics of an adequate political candidate.


title: Women in government

text: One study found that intersectionality plays a significant role in the ambition of women and their decision to run for political office. They found that when women were told the different reasons for underrepresentation of women in political office, women of different races responded very differently. Researchers stated that "Attributing women’s lack of parity to demand factors allows white and Asian women to “discount” the possibility that failure rests on their own abilities, thus increasing women's political ambition. Alternatively, framing women's underrepresentation as due to supply factors depresses white and Asian women's political ambition possibly because of stereotype threat. Black women respond in an opposite manner, with depressed political ambition in demand scenarios, while Latinas are unaffected by these narratives."


title: Women in government

text: Women's participation in formal politics is lower than men's throughout the world. The argument put forth by scholars Jacquetta Newman and Linda White is that women's participation in the realm of high politics is crucial if the goal is to affect the quality of public policy. As such, the concept of "mirror representation" aims to achieve gender parity in public office. In other words, mirror representation says that the proportion of women in leadership should match the proportion of women in the population that they govern. Mirror representation is premised on the assumption that elected officials of a particular gender would likely support policies that seek to benefit constituents of the same gender.


title: Women in government

text: A key critique is that mirror representation assumes that all members of a particular sex operate under the rubric of a shared identity, without taking into consideration other factors such as age, education, culture, or socioeconomic status. However, proponents of mirror representation argue that women have a different relationship with government institutions and public policy than that of men, and therefore merit equal representation on this facet alone. This feature is based on the historical reality that women, regardless of background, have largely been excluded from influential legislative and leadership positions. As Sylvia Bashevkin notes, "representative democracy seems impaired, partial, and unjust when women, as a majority of citizens, fail to see themselves reflected in the leadership of their polity." In fact, the issue of participation of women in politics is of such importance that the United Nations has identified gender equality in representation (i.e. mirror representation) as a goal in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the Beijing Platform for Action. Besides seeking equality, the goal of mirror representation is also to recognize the significance of women's involvement in politics, which subsequently legitimizes said involvement.


title: Women in government

text: There have been differing results between studies that looked at the significance of women's representation on actual policy outcomes. Though women in the United States are more likely to identify as feminists, a 2014 study looking at the United States finds "no effect of gender of the mayor on policy outcomes." A 2012 study finds mixed evidence that the share of female councilors in Sweden affected conditions for women citizens, such as women's income, unemployment, health, and parental leave. A 2015 study in Sweden said that: "The findings show that female legislators defend feminist interests more than their male colleagues but that they only marginally respond to women's electoral preferences." A 2016 study looking at African politicians finds "gender differences in policy priorities [to be] quite small on average, vary across policy domains and countries". According to the OECD, the increased presence of women cabinet ministers is associated with a rise in public health spending across many countries.


title: Women in government

text: Mirror representation stems from the barriers female political candidates often face. These include sex stereotyping, political socialization, lack of preparation for political activity, and balancing work and family. In the media, women are often asked how they would balance the responsibilities of elected office with those to their families, something men are never asked.


title: Women in government

text: Sex stereotyping: Sex stereotyping assumes that masculine and feminine traits are intertwined with leadership. Hence, the bias leveled against women stems from the perception that femininity inherently produces weak leadership. Due to the aggressive and competitive nature of politics, many insist that participation in elected office requires masculine traits. Sex stereotyping is far from being a historical narrative. The pressure is on female candidates (and not male ones) to enhance their masculine traits in order to garner support from voters who identify with socially constructed gender roles. Apart from this, studies by American University in 2011 reveal that women are 60% less likely than men to believe that they are not qualified to take politics responsibility. So, the patriarchy in politics is responsible for less participation of women.


title: Women in government

text: Sexual and physical violence: In Kenya, a woman's rights activist named Asha Ali was threatened and beaten by three men for standing as a candidate in front of her kids and elderly mother. A 2010 survey of eight hundred likely U.S voters found that even very mild sexist language had an impact on their likelihood of voting for a woman (Krook, 2017). Even in early 2016, a 14-year-old girl was kidnapped from her bed late at night and raped as revenge for her mother's victory in local elections in India, which is an example of sexual violence. All of this evidence suggests that women face many challenges in a political environment where men try to suppress women whenever they try to raise their voices in politics for making positive change for women's empowerment.


title: Women in government

text: Lack of media support: The qualitative and quantitative study reveals that media reflects and strengthens a male-overwhelmed society. Women in the news is usually for bad news and just for all the vulgar or wrong reasons such as about their looks, personal life and their clothes and characters. Media likes to give more updates about all these above examples instead of their actual politics role and achievements


title: Women in government

text: Political socialization: Political socialization is the idea that, during childhood, people are indoctrinated into socially constructed norms of politics. In the case of women's representation in government, it says that sex stereotyping begins at an early age and affects the public's disposition on which genders are fit for public office. Socialization agents can include family, school, higher education, mass media, and religion. Each of these agents plays a pivotal role in either fostering a desire to enter politics, or dissuading one to do so.


title: Women in government

text: Generally, girls tend to see politics as a "male domain". Newman and White suggest that women who run for political office have been "socialized toward an interest in and life in politics" and that "many female politicians report being born into political families with weak gender-role norms."


title: Women in government

text: Women running for U.S senate are often underrepresented in news coverage. The way male and female candidates are depicted in media has an effect on how female candidates gets elected in to public office. Female candidates get treated differently in the media than their male counterparts in the U.S senate elections. Women receive less news coverage and the coverage they do receive concentrates more on their viability and less on their issue positions, which causes female candidates to be overlooked and underrated during elections, which is an obstacle for women running for U.S senate.


title: Women in government

text: Lack of preparation for political activity: An aftereffect of political socialization is that it determines how inclined women are to pursue careers that may be compatible with formal politics. Careers in law, business, education, and government, professions in which women happen to be minorities, are common occupations for those that later decide to enter public office.


title: Women in government

text: Balancing work and family: The work life balance is invariably more difficult for women, because they are generally expected by society to act as the primary caregivers for children and maintainers of the home. Due to these demands, it is assumed that women would choose to delay political aspirations until their children are older. Also, a woman's desire for a career in politics along with the extent that the respondent feels her family duties might inhibit her ability to be an elected official. Research has shown that new female politicians in Canada and the U.S. are older than their male counterparts. Conversely, a woman may be pushed to remain childless in order to seek political office.


title: Women in government

text: Institutional barriers may also pose as a hindrance for balancing a political career and family. For instance, in Canada, Members of Parliament do not contribute to Employment Insurance; therefore, they are not entitled to paternity benefits. Such lack of parental leave would undoubtedly be a reason for women to delay seeking electoral office. Furthermore, mobility plays a crucial role in the work-family dynamic. Elected officials are usually required to commute long distances to and from their respective capital cities, which can be a deterrent for women seeking political office.


title: Women in government

text: The political recruitment model is a term coined by political scientists who studied why women do not hold political positions at the same rates men do. The political recruitment model categorizes the steps between a citizen and politician, and many political scientists use this to study where women are losing the opportunity and chances to hold elected office. The political recruitment model has four parts; eligible, aspirants, candidates, and elected. When studying pathways to political involvement, political scientists focus on where in this pipeline women tend to "leak out of".


title: Women in government

text: The United Nations has identified six avenues by which female participation in politics and government may be strengthened. These avenues are: equalization of educational opportunities, quotas for female participation in governing bodies, legislative reform to increase focus on issues concerning women and children, financing gender-responsive budgets to equally take into account the needs of men and women, increasing the presence of sex-disaggregated statistics in national research/data, and furthering the presence and agency of grassroots women's empowerment movements.


title: Women in government

text: The first government organization formed with the goal of women's equality was the Zhenotdel, in Soviet Russia in the 1920s.


title: Women in government

text: Women with formal education (at any level) are more likely to delay marriage and subsequent childbirth, be better informed about infant and child nutrition, and ensure childhood immunization. Children of mothers with formal education are better nourished and have higher survival rates. Education is a vital tool for any person in society to better themselves in their career path, and equalization of educational opportunities for boys and girls may take the form of several initiatives:


title: Women in government

text: Mark P. Jones, in reference to Norris's "Legislative Recruitment", states that: "Unlike other factors that have been identified as influencing the level of women's legislative representation, such as a country's political culture and level of economic development, institutional rules are relatively easy to change".


title: Women in government

text: In an article about the exclusion of Women from politics in southern Africa, Amanda Gouws said "The biggest hurdles to overcome for women are still on the local level where both men and women are often recruited from the communities and have limited political skills". The level of education in these local governments or, for that matter, the people in those positions of power, are substandard.


title: Women in government

text: One example of the hurdles women face in receiving good education comes from Beijing. "Most women who attended the NGO Forums accompanying the UN conferences, which are for government delegations (though increasingly many governments include activists and NGO members among their official delegates), were middle-class educated women from INGOS, donors, academics, and activists". Lydia Kompe, a well-known South African activist, was one of these rural women. She noted that she felt overwhelmed and completely disempowered. In the beginning, she did not think she could finish her term of office because of her lack of education. Manisha Desai explains that: "There is an inequality simply around the fact that the UN system and its locations say a lot about the current focus of those systems, such positions being in the US and Western Europe allow easier access to those women in the area. It is also important to note that institutions affect the cultural propensity to elect women candidates in different ways in different parts of the world."


title: Women in government

text: The study of the history of women's representation has been a major contribution in helping scholars view such concepts. Andrew Reynolds states: "historical experience often leads to gender advancement, and political liberalization enables women to mobilize within the public sphere". He argues that we will see a larger number of women in higher office positions in established democracy than in democracies that are developing, and "the more illiberal a state is, the fewer women will be in positions of power". As countries open education systems to women, and more women participate in historically male dominated fields, it is possible to see a shift in political views regarding women in government.


title: Women in government

text: Quotas are explicit requirements on the number of women in political positions. "Gender quotas for the election of legislators have been used since the late 1970s by a few political parties (via the party charter) in a small number of advanced industrial democracies; such examples would be like Germany and Norway". Andrew Reynolds says there is "an increasing practice in legislatures for the state, or the parties themselves, to utilize formal or informal quota mechanisms to promote women as candidates and MPs". The statistics surrounding quota systems have been examined thoroughly by academia. The European Court of Human Rights decided its first female quota case in 2019, and , one male quota case is pending with the court. In Zevnik and Others v Slovenia, the court expressed its strong support for gender quotas as a tool to increase women participation in politics. Gender quotas are popular form of state feminism.


title: Women in government

text: Quotas may be utilized during different stages of the political nomination/selection process to address different junctures at which women may be inherently disadvantaged:


title: Women in government

text: Quota usage can have marked effects on female representation in governance. Stronger quotas are estimated to increase the number of women elected to parliament by about three times as compared to weaker quotas. In 1995, Rwanda ranked 24th in terms of female representation, and jumped to 1st in 2003 after quotas were introduced. Similar effects can be seen in Argentina, Iraq, Burundi, Mozambique, and South Africa, for example. Of the top-ranked 20 countries in terms of female representation in government, 17 of these countries utilize some sort of quota system to ensure female inclusion. Though such inclusion is mainly instituted at the national level, there have been efforts in India to addresses female inclusion at the subnational level, through quotas for parliamentary positions.


title: Women in government

text: With quotas drastically changing the number of female representatives in political power, a bigger picture unravels. Though countries are entitled to regulate their own laws, the quota system helps explain social and cultural institutions and their understandings and overall view of women in general. "At first glance, these shifts seem to coincide with the adoption of candidate gender quotas around the globe as quotas have appeared in countries in all major world regions with a broad range of institutional, social, economic and cultural characteristics".


title: Women in government

text: Quotas have been quite useful in allowing women to gain support and opportunities when attempting to achieve seats of power, but many see this as a wrongdoing. Drude Dahlerup and Lenita Freidenvall argue this in their article "Quotas as a 'Fast Track' to Equal Representation for Women" by stating: "From a liberal perspective, quotas as a specific group right conflict with the principle of equal opportunity for all. Explicitly favoring certain groups of citizens, i.e. women, means that not all citizens (men) are given an equal chance to attain a political career". Dahlerup and Freidenvall claim that even though quotas create theoretical imbalance in opportunity for men and that they necessarily break the concept of "classical liberal notion of equality", quotas are almost required to bring the relation of women in politics to a higher state, whether that is through equal opportunity or just equal results. "According to this understanding of women's under-representation, mandated quotas for the recruitment and election of female candidates, possibly also including time-limit provisions, are needed".


title: Women in government

text: The introduction of gender quotas in the electoral process has spurred controversy from politicians, resulting in resistance to the acceptance of quotas in the political realm. The mobilization of women in politics has been hindered by means of preserving male political survival, and to avoid political interference with male power and domination. Moreover, the implementation of gender quotas has caused the male candidate population to decrease in order for their female counterparts to participate, and this is commonly referred to as the "negative sum," and this can result in a more qualified male being rejected to allow a female politician to participate. Nevertheless, this notion of "more qualified" remains unclear and is too often used as an oppressive tool to maintain the status quo, namely, excluding women. Indeed, we can only use proxies to predict future performances. For example, research has since long proven that the use of SAT scores in the U.S. for university admission favours privileged classes which can receive extra training before the test, while less favoured classes could have succeeded as much or even more once in college. The problem of proxies is even worse in the case of women, as this is added to the cognitive bias of Homophily, which lead men already in power to favour other males to work with them. Furthermore, in the case of Argentina, which is currently mandated for a 30% female party at each level of government, saw the introduction of the 'quota women'; females that were less experienced, and only elected due to the legal requirement of quotas. The introduction of the 'quota women' has triggered what political scientists refer to as a 'mandate effect,' where quota women feel obligated to represent solely the interests of the female public. Moreover, in order to preserve male political survival, "domination techniques" have been utilized to both exclude and delegitimize female representation in politics, and this can be depicted in the case of Argentina, where it took several elections to gain 35% of female representatives. With the increase of female representation in Argentina, issues that were rarely discussed before became paramount in debates, such as "penal laws, sexual assault laws, and laws on maternity leave and pregnancy... sexual education, [and] emergency contraceptive."


title: Women in government

text: Substantive representation contains two distinct parts: both the process and outcome of having female politicians. Substantive representation based on the process is concerned with the gendered perspective, themes that female representatives discuss in political debates, and the impact they have on the creation of bills. Likewise, this process also includes the networking between women in government and female organizations. Substantive representation by outcome relates to the success of passing legislation that enables gender equality to both public and private issues. Moreover, substantive representation as process does not always result in substantive representation by outcome; the implementation of gender quotas and female representation does not directly instigate an influx in legislation.


title: Women in government

text: Critical mass theory has correlations with both substantive representation as process and substantive representation as outcome. Critical mass theory suggests that once a certain percentage of women representatives has been reached, that female legislators will be able to create and enable transformative policies, and this has the potential to place pressure on quota women to act on behalf of all women. Reaching a critical mass eliminates the pressure of maintaining the status quo, to which minorities are forced to conform to avoid being labeled as outsiders by the majority. One paramount criticism of critical mass theory is its attention to numbers, and the understanding that quota women are to represent women collectively. Furthermore, the representation of women as a collective group remains controversial, as "[if] she is a white straight, middle-class mother, she cannot speak for African-American women, or poor women, or lesbian women on the basis of her own experience anymore than men can speak for women merely on the basis of theirs."


title: Women in government

text: One cross-national study found that the implementation of electoral gender quotas, which substantially increased women's representation in parliament, led to increased government expenditures toward public health and relative decreases in military spending, consistent with a presumption that women favor the former while men favor the latter in the countries included in the study. However, while a numerical boost in women legislators may nudge policy in the direction of women's interests, women legislators can be pigeon-holed into specializing in legislation on women's issues, as a study finds for legislators in Argentina, Colombia, and Costa Rica. In Argentina, another study finds that the introduction of gender quotas increased the total frequency of bills introduced regarding women's issues, while lowering the frequency men introduced bills in this legislative area - this evidence leads the authors to conclude that the introduction of female legislators may decrease the incentive of men legislators to introduce policies in line with women's interests.


title: Women in government

text: There have been numerous occasions where equal legislation has benefited the overall progression of women equality on a global scale. Though women have entered legislation, the overall representation within higher ranks of government is not being established. "Looking at ministerial positions broken down by portfolio allocation, one sees a worldwide tendency to place women in the softer sociocultural ministerial positions rather than in the harder and politically more prestigious positions of economic planning, national security, and foreign affairs, which are often seen as stepping-stones to national leadership".


title: Women in government

text: Legislative agendas, some pushed by female political figures, may focus on several key issues to address ongoing gender disparities:


title: Women in government

text: Sex-responsive budgets address the needs and interests of different individuals and social groups, maintaining awareness of sexual equality issues within the formation of policies and budgets. Such budgets are not necessarily a 50–50 male-female split, but accurately reflect the needs of each sex (such as increased allocation for women's reproductive health). Benefits of gender-responsive budgets include:


title: Women in government

text: In the last decades several countries have tied state funding of political parties to compliance with gender quotas, known as gender-targeted public funding. The idea is to use state funding to incentivize political parties to increase gender diversity on their ballot by either giving a fine or give extra resources to parties depending on whether they satisfy a fixed gender balance goal. A 2021 study published in "American Political Science Review" found that this type of state-driven gendered electoral financing is likely to lead to success when combined with either proportional representation of a 15% minimum of women MPs.


title: Women in government

text: Current research which uses sex-aggregated statistics may underplay or minimize the quantitative presentation of issues such as maternal mortality, violence against women, and girls' school attendance. Sex-disaggregated statistics are lacking in the assessment of maternal mortality rates, for example. Prior to UNICEF and UNIFEM efforts to gather more accurate and comprehensive data, 62 countries had no recent national data available regarding maternal mortality rates. Only 38 countries have sex-disaggregated statistics available to report frequency of violence against women. 41 countries collect sex-disaggregated data on school attendance, while 52 countries assess sex-disaggregated wage statistics.


title: Women in government

text: Though the representation has become a much larger picture, it is important to notice the inclination of political activity emphasizing women over the years in different countries. "Although women's representation in Latin America, Africa, and the West progressed slowly until 1995, in the most recent decade, these regions show substantial growth, doubling their previous percentage".


title: Women in government

text: Researching politics on a global scale does not just reinvent ideas of politics, especially towards women, but brings about numerous concepts. Sheri Kunovich and Pamela Paxton's research method, for example, took a different path by studying "cross-national" implications to politics, taking numerous countries into consideration. This approach helps identify research beforehand that could be helpful in figuring out commodities within countries and bringing about those important factors when considering the overall representation of women. "At the same time, we include information about the inclusion of women in the political parties of each country". Research within gender and politics has taken a major step towards a better understanding of what needs to be better studied. Mona Lena Krook states: "These kinds of studies help establish that generalizing countries together is far too limiting to the overall case that we see across countries and that we can take the information we gain from these studies that look at countries separately and pose new theories as to why countries have the concepts they do; this helps open new reasons and thus confirms that studies need to be performed over a much larger group of factors." Authors and researchers such as Mala Htun and Laurel Weldon also state that single comparisons of established and developed countries is simply not enough but is also surprisingly hurtful to the progress of this research, they argue that focusing on a specific country "tends to duplicate rather than interrogate" the overall accusations and concepts we understand when comparing political fields. They continue by explaining that comparative politics has not established sex equality as a major topic of discussion among countries. This research challenges the current standings as to what needs to be the major focus in order to understand gender in politics.


title: Women in government

text: A 2018 study in the "American Economic Journal: Economic Policy" found that for German local elections "female council candidates advance more from their initial list rank when the mayor is female. This effect spreads to neighboring municipalities and leads to a rising share of female council members."


title: Women in government

text: Women's informal collectives are crucial to improving the standard of living for women worldwide. Collectives can address such issues as nutrition, education, shelter, food distribution, and generally improved standard of living. Empowering such collectives can increase their reach to the women most in need of support and empowerment. Though women's movements have a very successful outcome with the emphasis on gaining equality towards women, other movements are taking different approaches to the issue. Women in certain countries, instead of approaching the demands as representation of women as "a particular interest group", have approached the issue on the basis of the "universality of sex differences and the relation to the nation". Htun and Weldon also bring up the point of democracy and its effects on the level of equality it brings. In their article, they explain that a democratic country is more likely to listen to "autonomous organizing" within the government. Women's movements would benefit from this the most or has had great influence and impact because of democracy, though it can become a very complex system. When it comes to local government issues, political standings for women are not necessarily looked upon as a major issue. "Even civil society organizations left women's issues off the agenda. At this level, traditional leaders also have a vested interest that generally opposes women's interests". Theorists believe that having a setback in government policies would be seen as catastrophic to the overall progress of women in government. Amanda Gouws says that "The instability of democratic or nominally democratic regimes makes women's political gains very vulnerable because these gains can be easily rolled back when regimes change. The failure to make the private sphere part of political contestation diminishes the power of formal democratic rights and limits solutions to gender inequality".


title: Women in government

text: Women being increasingly represented in legislatures and having more political power in general creates various different effects. Women often bring different experiences, attitudes and resources that greatly affect legislation, party agendas, and constituency service.


title: Women in government

text: Affirmative action both corrects existing unfair treatment and gives women equal opportunity in the future. Moreover, the impact that gender representation can have on politics cannot be emphasized enough. In their noteworthy paper on examining the effects of female leadership in the times of crisis, Bruce et al. show that women as mayors in Brazilian municipalities had a negative, sizable and significant impact on the number of COVID-19 deaths and hospitalizations per one hundred thousand inhabitants. It is interesting to note that the effect of women in power in Brazil was stronger in pro-Bolsonaro strongholds, who became infamous for his beliefs of not wearing a mask and being skeptical of vaccines.


title: Women in government

text: In addition to the points raised above, Supriya Garikipati and Uma Kambhampati conduct an analysis to determine if there is any significant difference between COVID-19 pandemic being handled by women as compared to men. Their findings show that COVID-death related outcomes are better in countries which are led by women across all the 194 nations. They even find that testing rates per hundred thousand people are significantly higher in countries led by women, and still report fewer cases than countries led by men. They also reacted quicker by imposing a lockdown faster. While it can be said that women handled the COVID-19 better, that may not mean that they are better leaders than men. However, the pandemic is an extremely effective indicator of handling a crisis situation that any leader must know how to handle; which is an arena women have outperformed men in, especially during the COVID Crisis.


title: Women in government

text: The evidence that women in power have a positive influence is also highlighted by Iyer at al. through their paper on how political representation of women led to higher rates of crime reporting. They also find that women are willing to report crime in villages with female representation in the council. Moreover, the police force is more responsive to crimes against women in areas which have gender-based affirmative action policies.


title: Women in government

text: One study found that about 9% more federal spending is brought to districts who are represented by a woman as opposed to a man. The study found that the type of women who tend to get elected are often "better" politicians because of the way they have to outperform men to be elected into office.


title: Women in government

text: One study found that in Argentina, bills involving women's rights regarding violence against women, sexual harassment, reproduction, and gender quotas were more introduced more when more women were in chambers.


title: Women in government

text: A study also finds that the percentage of women in global legislatures promotes the substantive representation of women as it pertains to the provision of public goods and infrastructure development that women perceive to be important.


title: Women in government

text: Since the election of 2008, Rwanda is the first country to have a majority of women in legislature. Rwanda is an example of a developing country that radically increased its female leadership because of national conflict. After the Rwandan genocide that killed 800,000 Tutsis in 100 days, the percentage of women in the legislature went from 18% before the conflict to 56% in 2008. Two pieces of legislature enabled and supported women into leadership positions: the Security Council Resolution of 1325 urged women to take part in the post-conflict reconstruction and the 2003 Rwandan Constitution included a mandated quota of 30% reserved seats for all women in the legislature. Of the 24 women who gained seats directly after the quota implementation in 2003, many joined political parties and chose to run again. Though it took almost 10 years, after implementing the gender quotas, Rwanda reached levels of female representation which are amongst the highest in the world. Once again we can see the quota working as an "incubator" for driving women's participation in leadership.


title: Women in government

text: It is argued that the increase in female leadership in Rwanda also led to an increase in gender equality. World Focus (2009) writes, "Rwandan voters have elected women in numbers well beyond the mandates dictated by the post-genocide constitution. And though women in Rwanda still face discrimination, female legislators have influenced major reforms in banking and property laws." A parliamentary women's caucus in Rwanda, the Rwanda Women Parliamentary Forum (FFRP) has also "led a successful effort to pass ground-breaking legislation on gender-based violence in part by involving and garnering support from their male colleagues".


title: Women in government

text: While some researchers see reform, others see dominant party tactics. Shireen Hassim (2009) writes, "It could be argued that in both countries [Uganda and Rwanda] women's representation provided a kind of alibi for the progressive, 'democratic' nature of new governments that at their core nevertheless remained authoritarian, and increasingly so". Rwanda shows that increased participation by women in democracy is conducive to progress in gender equal legislature and reform, but research must be careful not to immediately relate increased gender equality in politics to increased gender equality in policies.


title: Women in government

text: After the Taliban were toppled in 2001 by the United States invasion of Afghanistan, Afghan women's political participation significantly improved. Before the fall of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to the Taliban, Afghan women worked in various layers of decision-making positions in the Government of Afghanistan. The proportion of seats held by women in the Parliament of Afghanistan has increased from 4 percent in 1995 to 28 percent in 2018. There were four female cabinet ministers, and there are many Afghan women who were ambassadors, such as Roya Rahmani, Suraya Dalil, and Shukria Barekzai. There were hundreds of women working running private companies, non-profit organizations, and civil society organizations in Afghanistan. There were several women running as vice-presidential candidates in the presidential elections of Afghanistan in 2014. Since the 2021 Taliban offensive, which overthrew the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and re-established Taliban rule of Afghanistan, women's rights to political participation have contracted sharply.


title: Women in government

text: In 1918, universal suffrage was introduced by the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, thus making Azerbaijan the first Muslim-majority country and Turk-majority country ever to enfranchise women. Now, 28 women are members of the Azerbaijan Parliament (Milli Məclis). As of 2015, there were 21 women in the 125-seat parliament. The percentage of female members of parliament increased from 11 to 17 percent between 2005 and 2015. Traditional social norms and lagging economic development in the country's rural regions continued to restrict the role of women in the economy, and there were reports that women had difficulty exercising their legal rights due to gender discrimination. As of May 2009, women held the positions of Deputy Chairman of the Constitutional Court, Deputy Chairman of the Nakhchivan AR Cabinet of Ministers, four Deputy Ministers, an Ambassador, and Ombudsmen of Azerbaijan and Nakhchivan AR. Women constituted 4 of the 16 members of the Central Election Commission and chaired 3 of the 125 district election commissions. Some notable female politicians in Azerbaijan include:


title: Women in government

text: In the 1954 Constitution, the Chinese Communist Party stated that men and women enjoy equal rights in the aspects of political, economic, cultural, social, and family dimensions, especially highlighting a legitimate voting right and the right to be elected. In the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Rights and Interests of Woman, the Chinese Communist Party also outlined an official requirement of "appropriate number of women deputies", combined with the State's obligations to "gradually increase the proportion of the women deputies" and "actively train[s] and select[s] female cadres" in fundamental national institutions and political organizations. In the following decades, the Chinese Communist Party has revised its constitutional laws and State announcements to give recognition to women's role in the domain of governance. For example, the proclamation issued on the 5th meeting session of the 10th National People's Congress (NPC) stated that "the proportion of women delegates to be elected to the 11th People's Congress should be no less than 20%".


title: Women in government

text: In spite of these declarations, the political system in China remains overwhelmingly male-dominated which, in turn, drives the low engagement rate of female delegates. Despite the new 13th NPC lineup including 742 women out of 2,980 representatives, about 24.9% of the total with a 1.5% increase from the prior term, there is little presence of women in the central power structure of major government organs and their political influence is vastly diminished as they climb up the political ladder. Only 33 women (9%) are recorded to have a seat at the table of the Central Committee for the election of members into the Politburo, a key cornerstone for the approval of all national affairs. In fact, except for the two consecutive offices in 1973 and 1977, the Central Committee has never witnessed over 10% of women engagement in the organization. Additionally, there was a decline in the number of women in the 25-member CCP Politburo from two down to one. In addition, the recent reappointment of Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, has sparked controversy on the unbroken record of no-women Politburo Standing Committee and the absence of female top leaders in any legislature in China's political history, apart from the exceptions of Vice Premier Liu Yandong and Vice Foreign Minister Fu Ying. This contrasts with Hong Kong and Taiwan where female presidents – Carrie Lam and Tsai Ing-wen – took office in 2018 and 2016 respectively.


title: Women in government

text: Men's domination of politics in China despite written protections for women's rights can be explained by the following underlying causes:


title: Women in government

text: While the implied prerequisite of national appointment is years of experience serving at middle-to-top management, women in the PRC government often struggle to obtain promotion to high-ranked positions, such as party secretary or principal governor. The reason contributing to the captioned phenomenon is gender division of labor across all levels of political structures. Contrary to Chairman Mao Zedong's saying that 'Women hold up half of the sky', Confucians principles' deeply ingrained advocacy "nan zhu wai, nu zhu nei" (men working on the outside, women's place remains on the inside) has shaped gender division of labor. Being assigned highly gender-biased responsibilities within the spectrum of 'women affairs', such as family planning that are reproduction-oriented or with connection to social construction, women's public role and scope of duty are framed under constraints. Women are, at the same time, missing the opportunities to keep a foothold in strategic national affairs, including but not limited to economic development, military planning and diplomatic involvement. The mentioned dilemma is reflected by an actual example in Ning Xiang County, Hunan Province. Women commonly maintain highest authority as Head in women-related bodies, administering concerns on women's unfair treatments and suggesting for children's health development. By the same token, the gendered portfolio gives rise to empowerment of men in the political hierarchy. Consequently, with the lack of exposure to the exemplary official posts and the exclusive offering of key national assignments for men, women's upward mobility is aggravated, resulting in the substantially dwindling likelihood of taking residence in key leading positions.


title: Women in government

text: In China, there is an apparent discrepancy in the mandatory retirement age between men and women, in which men are entitled to enjoy 10 more years of work. This policy was established on the ground that women are primary and central support for domestic subjects and their early retirement (at the age of 50–55) would be beneficial to their overall family functioning. This discriminatory policy mirrors the cause in the previous part, in which the working capacity of women is restricted by the society's stereotype on their gender role and corresponding gender responsibilities. In addition, the average age of Chinese chief in Central Committee is 56.1 years old; Top leaders in Politburo were appointed at an average age of 61.1 years old; Whereas Standing Committee of Politburo has the highest average age of 63.4 for its office. All figures being examined, the aggregated average age of appointed leaders exceeds the legal retirement age of women in the nation, meaning that women are least likely to become the center of power before their career comes to an end.


title: Women in government

text: While in foreign countries, women's socio-economic status is uplifted and gender division of labor is largely wiped out by feminist movements to open up the availability and variety of work for women, the conservative and politically sensitive Chinese government's censorship on feminism within the country has spread fear among feminism advocates. An illustrative case of which is the backlash of 'Feminist Five' in China. The activists suffered from interrogation, detention and month-long imprisonment due to the distribution of stickers on Beijing subways for drawing the wider community's awareness to sexual harassment against women. Followed by the forced suspension of the Weibo account 'Feminist Voices' due to the government's tightened censorship, feminists encountered escalated obstacles in promoting gender equality. Feminist movements are yet to achieve their goals.


title: Women in government

text: In an effort to increase women's participation in politics in India, a 1993 constitutional amendment mandated a randomly selected third of leadership positions at every level of local government to be reserved for women. These political reservation quotas randomly choose one third of cities to implement a women-only election. In these cities, parties are forced to either give a ticket to a woman candidate or choose to not run in those locations. Due to the randomized selection of cities who must enforce the reservation for women each election year, some cities have implemented the quota multiple times, once or never. This addresses the political discrimination of women at various levels: parties are forced to give women the opportunity to run, the women candidates are not disadvantaged by a male incumbent or general biases for male over female leadership, and the pool of women candidates is increased because of the guaranteed opportunity for female participation. The effects of the quota system in India have been studied by various researchers. In Mumbai, it was found that the probability of a woman winning office conditional on the constituency being reserved for women in the previous election is approximately five times the probability of a woman winning office if the constituency had not been reserved for women". Furthermore, even when the mandates are withdrawn, women were still able to keep their positions of leadership. Given the opportunity to get a party ticket, create a platform and obtain the experience to run for a political position, women are much more likely to be able to overcome these hurdles in the future, even without the quota system in place. The quota system has also affected policy choices. Research in West Bengal and Rajasthan has indicated that reservation affected policy choices in ways that seem to better reflect women's preferences. In terms of voter's perception of female leaders, reservation did not improve the implicit or explicit distaste for female leaders—in fact, the relative explicit preference for male leaders was actually strengthened in villages that had experienced a quota. However, while reservation did not make male villagers more sympathetic to the idea of female leaders, it caused them to recognize that women could lead. Moreover, the reservation policy significantly improved women's prospects in elections open to both sexes, but only after two rounds of reservation within the same village. Political reservation for women has also impacted the aspirations and educational attainment for teenage girls in India.


title: Women in government

text: Indira Gandhi is the first female prime minister of India. She is the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of India. She served as Prime Minister from January 1966 to March 1977 and again from January 1980 until her assassination in October 1984, making her the second longest-serving Indian Prime Minister, after her father. Pratibha Patil is the first female president of India. She served as the 12th President of India from 2007 to 2012. Sixteen women have served as the chief minister of an Indian state. Currently, one is in office — Mamata Banerjee of West Bengal.


title: Women in government

text: Following the 2019 elections, the 17th Lok Sabha has the highest ever representation of women at 14.3%, which includes 78 women MPs out of 543, higher than 62 in 2014. But only 6 women became cabinet ministers, lower than 10 in 2014.


title: Women in government

text: The local panchayat system in India provides an example of women's representation at the local governmental level. The 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments in 1992 mandated panchayat elections throughout the country. The reforms reserved 33% of the seats for women and for castes and tribes proportional to their population. Over 700,000 women were elected after the reforms were implemented in April 1993.


title: Women in government

text: Since the founding of the State of Israel, relatively few women have served in the Israeli government, and fewer still have served in the leading ministerial offices. While Israel is one of a small number of countries where a woman—Golda Meir—has served as prime minister, it is behind most Western countries in the representation of women in both the parliament and government.


title: Women in government

text: Japan ranks 127 in the world for the number of women in national parliamentary worldwide as of March 2014, which is lower than their ranking of 122 in 2013. As of February 28, 2013, there are a total of 39 women in the House of Representatives out of 479 incumbents.


title: Women in government

text: Since the enactment of the modern Japanese Constitution in 1947, Japanese women have been given the right to vote, and the new version of the constitution also allows for a more democratic form of government that guarantees women equality under the law.


title: Women in government

text: The first female cabinet member, Masa Nakayama, was appointed as the Minister of Health and Welfare in Japan in 1960. Until 1996, the electoral system for the House of Representatives was based on a single non-transferable vote in multi-member districts. That system was not conducive to women's advancement in public office because it promoted contestation between competing parties and rival candidates within the same party, but overall, the new electoral system was introduced to reduce the excessive role of money and corruption in elections, which ultimately helped women who were running for public office. In Japanese politics, the kōenkai is a major factor for a successful outcome of an election. The kōenkai, or "local support groups", serve as pipelines through which funds and other support are conveyed to legislators and through which the legislators can distribute favors to constituents in return. Because gaining support from these groups is usually based on personal connections, women's historically disadvantaged position in networking circles hurts their ability to run for public office.


title: Women in government

text: By 1996, Japan adopted another new electoral system for the House of Representatives that combines single-seat districts with proportional representation. Out of 480 seats, 300 are contested in single seat constituencies. The other 180 members are elected through allocations to an electoral list submitted by each party. Candidates who lack a strong support system are listed on a party's proportional representation section. In the 2009 election, only two of eight female Liberal Democratic Party members were elected from a single-seat district, which indicates that few female candidates have enough political support to win a single-seat election. While changes in the electoral process have made positions of public office more accessible to women, the actual participation of women in the Diet remains relatively low.


title: Women in government

text: As for the future of women in politics in Japan, Prime Minister Shinzō Abe announced in his speech at the Japan National Press Club on April 19, 2013, that a major goal of his national growth strategy is "having no less than 30 per cent of leadership positions in all areas of society filled by women by 2020."


title: Women in government

text: Lebanese women are considered to have more rights and freedom compared to other women in the Gulf and Middle East. Lebanese women enjoy almost equal civil rights as men. However, due to the large number of officially recognized religions in Lebanon, Lebanese family matters are governed by at least 15 personal statute codes. Lebanese women have legal protection that varies depending on their religion.


title: Women in government

text: Local and regional NGOs have helped to increase awareness of violence against women in Lebanon. Government policies regarding this are poor however, and attempts to improve this area have been met with resistance. Lebanon's laws do not recognize the concept of spousal rape, and attempts to add this to law have been attacked by Lebanese clerics.


title: Women in government

text: Aung Sang Suu Kyi is a Burmese politician, diplomat, author, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate (1991). She is the "de facto" head of the government of Myanmar since 2016. She remained under house arrest for almost 15 years from 1989 to 2010, becoming one of the world's most prominent political prisoners.


title: Women in government

text: Although she was prohibited from becoming the president due to a clause in the constitution – her late husband and children are foreign citizens – she assumed the newly created role of State Counsellor, a role akin to a Prime Minister or a head of government. Incumbent president Win Myint is seen as an important ally and placeholder for Aung San Suu Kyi.


title: Women in government

text: On 1 February 2021, Aung San Suu Kyi was arrested by the military during the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état after it declared the November 2020 Myanmar general election results fraudulent.


title: Women in government

text: The 2020 Singapore general election saw a record number of women become lawmakers in Singapore's Parliament. 27 out of 93 seats (29%) for elected Members of Parliament went to women, compared to 21 out of 89 (24%) seats in the 2015 general election. One of the two Non-constituency MP seats has also been taken up by a woman.


title: Women in government

text: While women have served in every Sri Lankan parliament to date, proportions have been low. Adeline Molamure became the first female parliamentarian when she was elected in 1931. Molamure went onto serve as the Deputy President of the Ceylonese Senate. The first woman minister in Sri Lankan history was Vimala Wijewardene when she served as Minister of Health, first appointed in 1956.


title: Women in government

text: Additionally, Sri Lanka saw the world's first elected national leader when the Sirimavo Bandaranaike led Sri Lanka Freedom Party won the July 1960 Ceylonese parliamentary election in an era where the Sri Lankan government was headed by the Prime Minister. Sworn in as Prime Minister, Bandaranaike went on to hold two of the most prominent ministries, Defence and Foreign Affairs. Bandaranaike's election drew international media coverage to Ceylon, with newspapers speculating that they would have to create a new word, stateswoman, to describe her. Bandaranaike served three separate terms as Prime Minister and was the longest-serving Prime Minister in Sri Lankan history, serving a total of 18 years in office. Bandaranaike also played a formative role in the modern state of Sri Lanka, it was under her tenure that Sri Lanka became a republic, removing the British monarch as its head of state.


title: Women in government

text: Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga held the post of Prime Minister, as deputy head of government for two months, before successfully contesting the 1994 Sri Lankan presidential election, becoming the nation's first female head of state. Kumaratunga also appointed Sirima Bandaranaike as Prime Minister, marking the first time a woman succeeded a woman as prime minister, and the first time any nation in the world had a female President and Prime Minister.


title: Women in government

text: Sri Lanka has seen a multitude of female Cabinet ministers. The current health minister, Pavithra Devi Wanniarachchi has received accolades for her handling of the COVID-19 situation in Sri Lanka.


title: Women in government

text: Sri Lanka has also seen glass ceilings shattered in local government. The 10th Governor of the Central Province, Niluka Ekanayake was the first LGBT person and transgender woman to hold the office of Governor in Sri Lanka. She is widely considered to be the first openly transgender head of a government in the world. The first woman mayor of the capital, Rosy Senanayake was elected in 2018. While Sri Lanka has a long and varied history of woman leaders, female representation in Parliament is still lower than hoped for. In 2016, the government passed legislation mandating that 25% of Parliamentary seats be reserved for women.


title: Women in government

text: The constitution, adopted in 1947, protected female candidates in elections during the Mainland Period. Article 134 states: ""In the various kinds of elections, quotas of successful candidates shall be assigned to women; methods of implementation shall be prescribed by law"". The female representation rate in the Legislative Yuan and local councils has steadily increased above 30%.


title: Women in government

text: Thailand's first female Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, who was elected as 28th Prime minister of Thailand in 2011, was the youngest prime minister in over 60 years. She was removed from office on May 7, 2014, by a constitutional court decision. Sudarat Keyuraphan is the chairwoman of Pheu Thai Party's strategic committee and previously held various positions in the cabinet and served multiple terms as a Member of National Assembly of Thailand.


title: Women in government

text: The gender quotas implemented across parties in Germany in the 1990s serve as a natural experiment for the effect of sub-national party political gender quotas on women participation. Davidson-Schmich (2006) notes, "the German case provides the variance needed to explain the successful (or failed) implementation of these political party quotas". Germany's sixteen state legislatures, the Länder, feature a variety of party systems and varied numbers of potential female candidates. Germany is rated highly in its gender gap, but is an example of a developed country with a low percentage of female leadership in politics.


title: Women in government

text: In 1990, Mary Robinson was elected as the first female President of Ireland. The second female head of state, Mary McAleese, was president between 1997 and 2011.


title: Women in government

text: The first woman elected to the Dáil was Constance Markievicz in 1918. (Directly prior to this, in the general election of 1918, she became the first woman elected to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. In line with Sinn Féin abstentionist policy she did not take her seat there).She was appointed Minister for Labour in 1919, the first woman Cabinet minister in Western Europe.


title: Women in government

text: Six decades with all-male Cabinets would elapse before the appointment of the next woman minister in 1979, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn.


title: Women in government

text: Between 1919 and 2019, 19 women served as Cabinet ministers in Ireland, comprising 10% of those who have held senior ministerial positions.


title: Women in government

text: As yet, the highest office attained by women is Tánaiste, that is, deputy prime minister. Four women have served as Tánaiste—Mary Harney (1997-2006), Mary Coughlan (2008-2011), Joan Burton (2014-2016) and Frances Fitzgerald (2016-2017).


title: Women in government

text: Following the 2011 Irish general election and a re-shuffle in 2014, four women were appointed cabinet ministers (the highest number of women in senior ministerial positions ever in Ireland): Joan Burton, Frances Fitzgerald, Jan O'Sullivan and Heather Humphries.


title: Women in government

text: Women remain a small minority of political office-holders in Ireland. The main factors are the role of traditional Catholicism in Irish political culture and the role of localism in party politics. Ann Marie O'Brien has studied the women in the Irish Department of External Affairs associated with the League of Nations and United Nations, 1923–1976. She finds that women had greater opportunities at the UN.


title: Women in government

text: Following Micheál Martin's appointment as Taoiseach in June 2020, after the formation of a Fianna Fáil, Green Party and Fine Gael coalition, Sinn Féin's president Mary Lou McDonald became Leader of the Opposition. She is the first woman to occupy that position and the first to come from a party other than Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael since the Labour Party's Thomas Johnson in 1927.


title: Women in government

text: Since the institution of the Italian Republic in 1946, women's right to vote and participate in public institutions has been recognized. According to article 51 of the Italian Constitution, "Citizens of one or the other sex are eligible for public offices and for elective positions under equal conditions, according to the rules established by law. To this end, the Republic adopts specific measures in order to promote equal chances for men and women." Nevertheless, only 21 women were elected, among the 556 members of the Constituent Assembly. In the years that followed, the percentage of women inside both chambers of the Parliament remained quite low.


title: Women in government

text: The first woman to be appointed as Secretary of State was Christian Democrat Angela Maria Guidi Cingolani in 1951. She served as Secretary of State to the Minister of Industry and Commerce until 1953. In 1976, Christian Democrat Tina Anselmi was appointed by Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti as the Minister for Labour and Social Security. This made her the first woman to hold a ministerial position in the Italian government.


title: Women in government

text: In 2014 Renzi cabinet was the first Italian government in which the number of female ministers was equal to the number of male ministers, excluding the prime minister. After 2018 Italian general election 35% of lawmakers of both chambers of the parliament were women, reaching the highest level in Italian history. In 2018, Maria Elisabetta Alberti Casellati, member of Forza Italia party, was elected Senate president, becoming the first women to serve in the second highest office of the state. In 2019, Marta Cartabia became the first woman to serve as Constitutional Court president.


title: Women in government

text: After the 2022 Italian general election and the victory of the centre-right coalition, President Sergio Matterella appointed Brothers of Italy leader Giorgia Meloni as Prime Minister of Italy. Giorgia Meloni was sworn in on October 22, 2022, becoming the first-ever female head of government in Italy.


title: Women in government

text: In 2016, the Dutch government achieved their goal for women in top jobs within the government. A 30% female share was achieved two years earlier than anticipated.