Women In Politics, the Desire to Reality - Equalities and Inequalities

Promote gender equality and the empowerment of women is one of the millennium development goals. In this sense, this article reflects, analyzes, and interprets the situation of women in politics, trying to identify the factors that promote or inhibit their participation. It also intends to evaluate the equality and inequality in the fields of policy decision and Economic Decision. The progress in the representation of women in the executive branch are even slower. In 2010, only nine of 151 elected heads of state and 11 of 192 heads of government were women and, globally, women hold only 16% of ministerial posts. The article focus on the identification of the factors that influence the political activity of women and propose ways to change this reality.

Why it's a good practice: The Parity Law was, in Portugal, a decisive milestone for increasing the representation of women in politics. For the first time in the history of Portuguese democracy, in the last legislative elections, a representativeness of 33% was reached in the AR, that is, 76 women in the universe of 230 deputies. At the level of local government, the situation has also changed, especially in municipal executives, reaching a representation of 26% of women, that is, 547 women in the universe of 2,086 effective members in municipal executives. In terms of mayoral presidencies, we only have 24 women, that is 8%, in the universe of 308 municipalities – a number that falls far short of what is desirable. Action at the level of political representation is urgent and parliaments are the most important contexts for the implementation of gender equality, Women's Empowerment, and voter awareness of equality and the social benefits of valuing women's contribution to development and progress will have to be a priority.

Read the full analysis: https://repositorio.upt.pt/entities/publication/7ecae072-dd98-4742-ac78-d2f7b1f01d10