“We can see that over time, the overall proportions of women in politics are changing for the better, although certainly not fast enough. When it comes to women’s participation in parliament globallyThree years after the start of the #MeToo movement, Iceland recently hosted the first major international conference on the impact of gender-based violence, harassment and discrimination with the objective of “relegating sexual harassment to history”. They are not the expression of any opinion concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area, or concerning the delimitation of frontiers or boundaries.Office of the Permanent Observer of the IPU to the United Nations We support parliaments in implementing the SDGs with a particular focus on health and climate change. Women’s political empowerment and equal access to leadership positions at all levels are fundamental to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and a fairer world. >>> VERSION FRANÇAISE : Women in national parliaments: Situation as of 1st February 2019 : The data in the table below has been compiled by the Inter-Parliamentary Union on the basis of information provided by National Parliaments by 1st February 2019. With limited growth in women’s representation, advancement of gender equality and the success of the SDGs are jeopardized.The 2017 edition of the Map shows a slight drop in the number of countries with a woman “These developments show that progress in gender equality remains slow in all structures of power and types of decision-making. Discover the world's nationalWe help strengthen parliaments to make them more representative and effective..The Fifth World Conference of Speakers of Parliament is being organized in close cooperation with the Parliament of Austria and the United Nations.Throughout the year, the IPU and its Members organize many events for parliamentarians to exchange good practices, acquire the latest information and identify avenues for action.The IPU has been collecting data on parliaments since its inception in 1889, including information on women’s participation in politics since 1945. 193 countries are classified by descending order of the percentage of women in the lower or single House. However, there is evidence of some change: for the second time since 2005, the Family/ Children/ Youth/ Elderly/ Disabled portfolio is not among the two most common women-headed Ministries. We help parliaments fight terrorism, cyber warfare and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. The women in politics 2017 map, created by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and UN Women, depicts global rankings for women in the executive and parliamentary branches of government as of 1 January 2017. Women are 51% of the population in the United States but make up only 20% of the U.S. Senate, 19% of the U.S. House of Representatives, 24% of statewide offices, 24% of state legislative seats, and 18% of mayors. Discover the world's nationalWe help strengthen parliaments to make them more representative and effective..The Fifth World Conference of Speakers of Parliament is being organized in close cooperation with the Parliament of Austria and the United Nations.Throughout the year, the IPU and its Members organize many events for parliamentarians to exchange good practices, acquire the latest information and identify avenues for action.The IPU has been collecting data on parliaments since its inception in 1889, including information on women’s participation in politics since 1945. The Map, which presents global rankings for women in the executive and parliamentary branches of government … We defend the human rights of parliamentarians and help them uphold the rights of all. We support parliaments in implementing the SDGs with a particular focus on health and climate change. The Inter-Parliamentary Union is a global inter-parliamentary institution established in 1889 by Frédéric Passy and William Randal Cremer. In this section, discover the IPU's knowledge bank for and about parliaments.Your one-stop-shop for data for and about national parliamentsLatest data and reports about women's participation in politicsRecent innovations in the way parliaments do their workOpinion Piece by Helga Fogstad, Executive Director, Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (PMNCH), and Martin Chungong, Board Member, PMNCH, and Secretary General of the IPU. At 8.7 per cent, the Environment/ Natural Resources/ Energy portfolio is for the first time the most commonly held portfolio by women ministers, followed by Social Affairs at 8.2 per cent.Data on women ministers reveals that 30 per cent of environment ministers are women (47 out of 161), a 10 per cent increase from 2015. Power is still firmly in men’s hands, and although we have witnessed some positive trends – for example, the current record number of 53 women Speakers of Parliament out of 273 posts, globally – much remains to be done if women are to play on a level field with men,” said IPU Secretary General Martin Chungong. These results can be largely attributed to a clear political commitment at the highest decision-making level – both France and Canada’s leadership have committed to parity in government – and to a genuinely gender-sensitive political culture. Finland saw a dramatic decline in women ministers in 2017, dropping from 62.5 to 38.5 per cent. We work to increase women’s representation in parliament and empower women MPs. We bring a parliamentary dimension to United Nations processes to ensure international commitments become national realities. On this World Health Day, occurring in the midst of the greatest pandemicIPU Secretary General Martin Chungong has become the Chair of the Global Board of the International Gender Champions (IGC), a leadership network that works to break down gender barriers in international organizations, governments, civil society and the private sector. The map of Women in Politics not only provides a country ranking for both ministerial and parliamentary representation, but also statistics on women in political leadership positions—Heads of State or government, women Speakers of Parliament, as well as ministerial portfolios held by women throughout the world. This map is a unique visual tool that captures women’s participation in executive government and in parliament on a given date—1st January 2019.