German Institute for Global and Area Studies | Leibniz-Institut für Globale und Regionale Studien

GIGA Forum

Women in Parliaments Worldwide: Strategies to the Top?

Date

26/04/2023

Start

03:30 p.m. (CEST)

End

05:00 p.m. (CEST)

Video GIGA Forum "Women in Parliaments"

Across the world, women’s representation in parliaments varies widely. While in Rwanda and New Zealand women make up more than half of their respective country’s legislatures, in Nigeria and Japan, women comprise a small minority in parliament. In some countries, the number of women in legislatures is stagnating, whereas in South Africa and Senegal women have quickly attained high levels of parliamentary representation. What can we learn from different developments across the globe about how to increase the number of women in parliaments?

In this GIGA Forum, experts discuss global differences regarding women’s representation in parliaments and its causes. Drawing on their expertise from different contexts in sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East, they identify reasons for women’s political presence or exclusion, and assess strategies to increase the number of women in politics.

Speakers: Prof. Dr. Gretchen Bauer is Professor at the University of Delaware, currently based at the Maria Sibylla Merian Institute for Advanced Studies in Africa (MIASA).

Tara Krishnaswamy is the co-founder of Political Shakti, an organisation working to increase the number of women in Indian politics.

Dr. Daniela Osorio Michel is a Research Fellow at the GIGA Institute for Latin American Studies.

Prof. Dr. Marwa Shalaby is a Researcher in the departments of Gender and Women’s Studies and Political Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Cécile Weidhofer is the Director of the Helene Weber Kolleg, a network strengthening women in local politics in Germany.

Moderator: Juliana Tappe Ortiz is a Research Fellow at the GIGA Institute for Latin American Studies.

Organisers

Julia Köbrich

Doctoral Researcher

Dr. David Kuehn

Senior Research Fellow / Coordinator GIGA Forum

Dr. Juliana Tappe Ortiz

Research Fellow

Address

Online Event

We offer our events digitally or in hybrid setting. We monitor the current pandemic situation and act accordingly. We look forward to your participation.

Research Project | 01/05/2021 - 30/04/2026

Democratic Institutions in the Global South (DEMINGS)

This project contributes new knowledge on the functioning of democratic institutions in the Global South, their (in)efficacy to constrain powerful executives, and the effects of particular institutions on both democratic quality and regime stability. The focus is on countries with presidential constitutions, i.e., those with directly elected presidents, an institutional choice that extended worldwide in the last decades.
Leibniz Competition, 2021-2026

Prof. Dr. Mariana Llanos

Alina Ripplinger

Eduardo Tamaki

Dr. Daniela Osorio Michel

Democratic Institutions under Stress

Democracy builds on common principles such as elections, a division of power, and the rule of law. In practice, democratic institutions often underperform due to executives overstepping the mark, conflicts and power struggles causing a stalemate in the policy process, as well as governance instability.

Accountability and Participation

The Accountability and Participation Research Programme undertakes comparative analyses of ongoing political processes that may foster or undermine the quality of democratic institutions and spread authoritarian politics and practices in the Global South and across the globe.