Women account for quarter of world's MPs, but progress slowing: study

A quarter of all lawmakers serving in national parliaments worldwide are women, the International Parliamentary Union said Friday, warning though that progress towards gender parity was slowing amid significant "pushback".

In 2019, women accounted for 24.9 per cent of parliamentarians worldwide, the IPU, which was founded in 1889 and is one of the world's oldest international organisations, said in a fresh report.

"There has been considerable progress" in recent years, IPU Secretary-General Martin Chungong told reporters in Geneva, pointing out that the percentage back in 1995 stood at just 11.3 per cent.

"There has been a shift in the way people think," he said, pointing out that a quarter century ago the ambition was to get women to the 30-per cent mark, while today "the idea of having 50-50 in parliament is the norm."
That movement, he said, "has the potential to help boost women's political representation, given the fact that one of the inhibiting factors for women political participation is sexism, sexual harassment, gender-based violence."