Women’s Representation In Parliament Sluggish

Women held 27.5 per cent of parliamentary seats worldwide as the year began, a 0.3 per cent increase from 2025, a new report from the UN-backed Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) shows.

The report titled Women in parliament 2025 released ahead of International Women’s Day on 8 March, said the 0.3 per cent marked the slowest growth in nearly a decade.

The report also found that women’s leadership in parliament dipped with women holding 12 out of 75 newly appointed speakerships.

Meanwhile, quotas were identified as playing a “critical role” in boosting women’s representation in the 49 countries that held elections in 2025.

Chambers with some form of legislation in place saw an average of 31 per cent of women’s appointments compared to 23 per cent in chambers without quotas.

Amid stagnating representation of women in parliament, women MPs are also more impacted by a surge in public intimidation.

A recent IPU report on the increase in political violence against parliamentarians found that women MPs are more affected than men by intimidation from the public, both online and offline.

In the IPU report, 76 per cent of women surveyed experienced violence versus 68 per cent of male legislators.

“This growing phenomenon may discourage some women from running for office, an additional obstacle to progress in women’s political representation” the IPU said in a statement.

However, the report notes that some countries have taken steps to address the violence, such as the Colombian Parliament, which passed a law to prevent and punish violence against women in politics.

The IPU is the global organisation of national parliaments founded in 1889 as the first multilateral political organisation in the world, encouraging cooperation and dialogue between all nations.

Today, the IPU comprises 183 national member parliaments and 15 regional parliamentary bodies, promoting peace, democracy and sustainable development.

It helps parliaments become stronger, younger, greener and more gender-balanced. IPU also defends the human rights of parliamentarians through a dedicated committee made up of MPs from around the world. (NAN)