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Credit: UN Women – Photo: 2025
By J Nastranis
NEW YORK | 11 March 2025 (IDN) — New data from the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and UN Women underscores the critical need for immediate action, as progress toward gender equality in political leadership at the start of 2025 has been unacceptably slow.
According to the 2025 edition of the IPU-UN Women Women in Politics map, men outnumber women by more than three times in executive and legislative positions. The map presents the latest rankings of women in executive positions and national parliaments as of 1 January 2025.
While the proportion of women in parliament has increased fractionally by 0.3 percentage points to 27.2% compared to a year ago, it’s concerning that it has declined by 0.4 percentage points in government positions, indicating setbacks in achieving gender equality.
IPU President Tulia Ackson underscored the global disparity in women’s parliamentary representation, stating that it highlights a systemic failure to advance gender equality in politics in some parts of the world. She called for decisive action to shatter these barriers and ensure women’s voices are equally represented in politics worldwide, emphasizing that the health of our democracies depends on it.
Martin Chungong, IPU Secretary General, stressed the need for men’s active participation in achieving gender equality in political leadership. He stated that our collective responsibility is to break down barriers and ensure that women’s voices are equally represented in leadership roles, fostering a more inclusive and robust democracy for all.
Sima Bahous, Executive Director of UN Women, stated: “Thirty years after the Beijing Declaration, the promise of gender equality in political leadership remains unfulfilled. Progress is not just slow—it is backsliding. We cannot accept a world where half the population is systematically excluded from decision-making. We know the solutions: quotas, electoral reforms, and the political will to dismantle systemic barriers. The time for half-measures is over—it is time for governments to act now to ensure women have an equal seat at every table where power is exercised.”
Women hold top State positions in just 25 countries. Europe has the highest number of women-led countries (12).
Although 2024 saw historic firsts — including the first directly elected women Presidents in Mexico, Namibia and North Macedonia — 106 countries have still never had a woman leader.
As of 1 January 2025, the proportion of women heading ministries decreased to 22.9%, down from 23.3% a year ago. This decline is due to 64 countries seeing a decrease in women’s representation at this level, another 63 stagnating and just 62 increasing compared to a year ago.
Only nine countries, predominantly in Europe, have achieved gender-equal cabinets, with 50% or more women holding Cabinet positions as heads of ministries. These are Nicaragua (64.3%), Finland (61.1%), Iceland and Liechtenstein (60%), Estonia (58.3%), Andorra, Chile, Spain and the United Kingdom (all at 50%). This represents a decline in 2024 when 15 countries had gender-equal cabinets.
An additional 20 countries have women’s representation among Cabinet Ministers ranging between 40% and 49.9%, with half of these countries in Europe. Nine countries, mostly in Asia and the Pacific, do not have women serving as Cabinet Ministers, an increase from seven countries in 2024.
Europe, North America (31.4%), and Latin America and the Caribbean (30.4%) have the highest shares of women Cabinet Ministers.
In contrast, women are significantly underrepresented in most other regions, with regional figures as low as 10.2% in the Pacific Islands (excluding Australia and New Zealand) and 9% in Central Asia and Southern Asia.
The allocation of ministerial portfolios highlights a continuing gender bias. Women are still primarily assigned to head policy areas concerning gender equality, human rights and social affairs. Most influential policy areas, such as foreign affairs, financial and fiscal affairs, home affairs and defence, remain primarily controlled by men.
While still underrepresented, new data shows more women at the helm of other important policy portfolios, such as culture (35.4%), education (30.6%) and tourism (30.5%).
The map follows the release of the IPU’s annual Women in Parliament report, which revealed that, despite 2024 being a super-election year, progress towards greater women’s representation was the slowest since 2017.
The data also reveals significant regional disparities:
In a rare bright spot, the number of women Speakers increased to 64 out of 270 positions, reaching 23.7%, up from 22.7% in 2023 (62 out of 273).
And women Deputy Speakers of Parliament now constitute 32.6% of the total, up from 28.9% in 2023.
The new IPU-UN Women Women in Politics map was presented during the 69th session of the Commission on the Status of Women, the largest UN gathering on gender equality. [IDN-InDepthNews]
Image Credit: UN Women
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