WHEN WOMEN RULE

Data from the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), the international organisation of parliaments, shows women held 23.6 percent of seats in 193 parliaments on Sept. 1 this year, up from 17.7 percent a decade ago and 11.8 percent in 1997.

There are no global figures on the number of women in local governments which is seen as a significant gap in knowledge.

But the IPU acknowledges it is disappointing to see women's participation in parliaments increasing by less than one percentage point a year - more than 120 years since New Zealand became the first country to give women the vote.

"It is moving ahead but too slowly," said Kareen Jabre, director of the division of programmes at the IPU.

"For women's presence will often bring to the table issues that were not considered a priority. The first one that comes up is violence against women and particularly domestic violence. The mere fact that women have a voice changes the agenda."

There is no global study to show the link between women's political presence and policy changes but some national and thematic studies have indicated positive impact.

For example, research showed when peace processes included women as witnesses, mediators, or negotiators, there was a 20 percent increase in the probability of a peace agreement lasting at least two years.

Individual examples also abound.

Chile's President Michelle Bachelet was key this year in getting a new law to legalise abortions when the mother is at risk, the foetus is unviable or the pregnancy results from rape. Previously Chile banned abortions in all instances.

While the women's caucus of Malawi's parliament played a major role in a constitutional amendment this year to outlaw child marriage. Previously children as young as 15 could marry with parental consent but marriage is now illegal under age 18.

Jordanian parliamentarian Wafa Bani Mustafa, one of 20 women in the 130 seat lower house, said her greatest achievements in her three terms had been fighting for issues that impacted women, such protecting women in divorces and ensuring sexual harassment is made a crime in the penal code.

Even when women are voted into parliament, it can be hard to keep them in office.

"We see women leaving their seats or not standing again because in the political system there are so many obstacles," said Julie Ballington, policy advisor on political participation at UN Women.

"The increasing incidence of violence against women in political life also keeps a lot of women from wanting to put themselves forward," she added.

"But having women in power does change aspirations and shows that women can be leaders."

Female lawmakers said rising numbers of attacks on social media, as well as physical attacks while campaigning, were a deterrent for many women - as was the constant focus on the appearance of female politicians.

A British tabloid newspaper was accused of sexism this year when it splashed a photo of Prime Minister Theresa May and Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon's legs across the front page with the headline "Never mind Brexit, who won Legs-it!"

While an IPU study last year found nearly 45 percent of women parliamentarians had received threats of death, rape, beatings or abduction during their term - and more than 80 percent faced psychological abuse, largely on social media.

In Nigeria, member of parliament (MP) Nnenna Elendu-Ukeje said she has experienced discrimination, sexual innuendoes, physical threats and insubordination, mainly from male colleagues.

She fears the treatment of women in politics in Nigeria, and the threats they face, is scaring women away despite a need to have them fighting for policies that affect women.

During the last election, people started firing guns as Elendu-Ukeje was campaigning and she was whisked away, unscathed, but some of her security personnel were injured. No one was arrested over the incident.

"If there's no disincentives for the perpetrators of violence, my fear is that the political space for women is going to continue to shrink," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

"We must have people who actually understand, who are the beneficiaries of these policies, being part of the policy formulation," said the 48-year-old single mother.

Still five countries from the IPU's list of 193 nations have no women MPs at all, including Qatar and Yemen in the Middle East and the Pacific island countries of Vanuatu, Federated States of Micronesia, and Papua New Guinea.

Micronesia has never had a women in politics while an election this year in Papua New Guinea - which has some of the world's highest rates of violence against women - ended with no women among the 111 MPs for the first time in 25 years.

Since independence from Australia in 1975, only seven women have been elected to PNG's parliament and efforts in 2011 to introduce a system to reserve 22 seats for women failed.

"This means 50 percent of the population have no representation in the highest decision-making institution of the country," said Julie Bukikun, assistant representative for UNDP, the United Nations Development Programme.

"It's vital we have female leadership in PNG ... women need to be represented to address the major challenges they face including unacceptably high rates of violence, fewer job opportunities and poor health outcomes."

Kenyan MP Peris Tobiko said education has always been her priority, with the budget in her constituency of Kajiado East focused on building and upgrading schools and paying bursaries to keep girls in secondary school.

Tobiko made national headlines when she was elected to parliament in 2013 - the first woman from her conservative Maasai community to win a seat despite elders performing a death curse on anyone who dared vote for her.

Kenya is now ranked 86th in the IPU's list with nearly 22 percent of lower house seats held by women.

"I think (education) is the one single factor that can change society," she said. "It's the long-term solution to all those harmful traditions."

Kyrgyzstan's youngest female member of parliament, Aida Kasymalieva, knew domestic violence, child marriage and bride kidnappings weren't a priority when she joined the parliament of the majority Muslim country in central Asia.

But she was shocked by the total disregard with which her male colleagues viewed these issues, walking out of the chamber when sessions on women's issues started.

"Men will never think about domestic violence, kidnapping," she said referring to the often brutal abduction of young women across Kyrgyzstan who are then forced into marriage.
With this disinterest in women's issues, Kasymalieva said she was relieved that the Kyrgyz parliament, which was all men in 2005, now had a gender quota adopted after various campaigns that required women make up a third of party candidate lists.

Currently Kyrgyzstan has 23 women among its 120 MPs, all of whom are members of a cross-party group founded in 2011 credited with putting women and girls on the legislative agenda.

She said women working together was critical.

"I hope that in the future ... we won't need an artificial quota to support women but for now I don't see any solution other than the quota," 33-year-old Kasymalieva said.

Ballington from UN Women said strong political will was needed to boost women's representation in politics.

"Where you have political will by the main leader, you can have significant results overnight," she said, pointing to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's decision in 2015 to make sure his cabinet had equal numbers of men and women.
Jabre from the IPU said women themselves also need to speak out to change the way politics work.

"There has always been a reluctance or fear of politics by women because they have seen it as a violent, confrontational world and they aren't interested in that," she said.

"But an increasing number of women are trying to change the way politics are being done and make it a bit more civilised.

"The more we have role models and the more visible they are then the greater chance there is to get more women involved ... Maybe a younger generation will be less reluctant to see women play a public role and this will open the door for more women."