Women underrepresented in many parliaments worldwide
Published: Tuesday, Mar 5th 2024, 10:01
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Women are still generally underrepresented in national parliaments. As of February 1, 2024, the global average of 26.8% of all members of parliament were female.
This was announced by the Federal Statistical Office in Wiesbaden on Tuesday, citing data from the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU). Ten years earlier, the proportion of women had been 22.1 percent, another ten years earlier, on January 30, 2004, it had been 15.2 percent.
The German Bundestag, the parliament in Germany, was ranked 47th out of a total of 184 parliaments worldwide with 35.3 percent women, as announced by the Federal Office on the occasion of International Women's Day on Friday. The East African country of Rwanda had the highest proportion of women in its parliament with 61.3 percent. It was followed by Cuba with 55.7 percent, Nicaragua with 53.9 percent and Mexico with 50.4 percent.
The parliaments of Andorra and the United Arab Emirates achieved gender parity with 50.0% each. According to the figures, there were no female representatives in the parliaments of Oman, Yemen and the Pacific island state of Tuvalu.
The IPU is a global organization of parliamentary representatives based in Geneva. According to the Federal Statistical Office, the ranking is based on the number of members of parliament by gender. In bicameral systems, the data refers to the lower house or the chamber directly elected by the people, which is generally the more powerful.
©Keystone/SDA
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