Women’s representation in the political decision-making process grows annually but slowly, as evidenced by the “Women in Politics: 2020” map created by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and UN Women. The authors of the report note that still, 25 years after the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, which set the international target for reaching gender balance in political decision-making, women are underrepresented across all levels of power.
There are only 20 countries with women at the helm.
According to the report, as of 01 January 2020, only ten percent of countries across the globe are led by women. Today only twenty countries have female heads of state and heads of governments. Moreover, only 6.6% of heads of state (10 out of 152) and 6.2% of heads of government (12 out of 193) are women, including in two countries (Bolivia and Switzerland), where the head of state and government is the same person.
The authors of the report point out that there is at least a positive trend as there were only eight female leaders in 2005 when the IPU first published the Women in Politics map.
There are female leaders mostly in European countries, which include the Nordic countries: Denmark, Iceland, Norway, and Finland.
There are only 3 such countries in the Western Hemisphere: Barbados, Bolivia, and Trinidad and Tobago. Countries led by women in Asia are also three: Bangladesh, Nepal, and Singapore. In Africa, only Ethiopia has a female leader, and New Zealand is the only such country in Oceania.
Women account for 50% and more in governments of 14 countries…
The authors of the report believe the increasing number of women holding ministerial positions is a hopeful trend.
- In 16 countries, women hold 40-50% of ministerial portfolios
- Women account for 50% and more in the governments of 14 countries
- In 2 countries in the world – in Finland and Spain – women ministers account for more than 60% of the government. Women are dominant also in the governments of Nicaragua (58.8%), Colombia (57.9%), Austria (57.1%), Peru (55%), Sweden (54.5%), Ruanda (53.6%), Albania (53.3%), and France (52.9%)
- The global average is not that high at a mere 21.3% (851 out of 4003 ministerial positions), which is a 7.1% increase from 2005 when women accounted for only 14.2% of governments.
- In governments women usually occupy positions related to family, children, senior citizens and people with disabilities, sectors of social policy, gender equality, professional education, nature protection, and energy.
- Out of the 190 countries, regarding which relevant statistics are available, in only 25 there are women heading ministries of finance and only 22 are heads of defense ministries.
- There are only nine countries in the world that have no female ministers whatsoever. These are Brunei, Vanuatu, Vietnam, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, Saudi Arabia, Saint Vincent and Grenadines, Thailand, and Tuvalu.
- It’s worth noting that in Armenia women have never occupied the posts of president or prime minister. Furthermore, in the six presidential elections held in independent Armenia, there has never been a female candidate. Although there were women who had the intention to run for president but none of them eventually did.
- Today, of the 12 ministers in government, only 1 is a woman (8.3%). The previous government led by Karen Karapetyan had 18 ministers, of which, again, only one was a woman (5.6%). Hovik Abrahamyan’s government before that had 18 ministers as well, of which 3 were women (16.7%). In general, since independence, the number of women in all Armenian governments has not exceeded 3.
- 20% of parliaments have female speakers
- Women chair parliaments in almost all regions of the world now with the exception of the countries in Oceania.
- In 2020, 20.5% of global parliaments had female speakers (57 of 278 parliaments of 192 countries have female leaders). 25 years ago, when the Beijing Conference was held, the number of female speakers of parliament was half of what we have today.
- In 2019, seven countries elected female speakers of parliament for the first time (Andorra, Belarus, Democratic Republic of Congo, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Malawi, and Togo).
- Compared to 2019, the number of deputy speakers has declined by 3 points down to 25.3%.
- According to IPU, the number of women in unicameral parliaments today is at 25%. This number is 30% for European countries which is the goal that was set by the Beijing Platform for Action 25 years ago. Nordic countries have long gone past this threshold and have on average 40% female representation in their parliaments.
- It’s noteworthy that the parliaments of most countries that are in the top ten with rates of female representation have got there through the help of quotas. The Armenian National Assembly today has 31 female MPs, which is only 23.5%. Since the first National Assembly of 1995, the parliamentary representation of women in Armenia has increased from 6% to 23.5%. This improvement has only been possible due to the quotas defined in the Electoral Code, which first had a requirement for a minimum of 5% to 25% of female representation in party lists.
- With 23.5% of female representation in parliament, Armenia is 82 out of 182 countries in IPU’s ranking table.
