Press release of the Inter-Parliamentary Union
Geneva and New York, 8 June 2000
N° 98

The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and the United Nations Department of Public Information presented jointly today, at a press conference at the UN Headquarters (New York) at 11 a.m., a world map of women in politics.

The poster-size map provides a snapshot of women in the two branches of the State - the Executive and the Legislature - as of March 2000. Its presentation was timed to coincide with the "Beijing + 5" special session of the United Nations General Assembly to help provide a visual assessment of women’s progress in achieving fair representation in key political posts. As far as the Executive branch is concerned, data is available for 151 States that responded to requests for information. With regard to the Legislative branch, data is available on 174 of the 177 existing national Parliaments and for the two regional parliamentary assemblies elected by direct suffrage; in addition to a number of regional statistics, the world poster uses percepercentages and colour-coding by country to depict the presence of women in the various national parliaments.

The statistics compiled by the IPU reveal that the representation of women in the two branches of the State - Parliament and the Executive - has changed very little since 1995, the year of the Fourth World Women's Conference in Beijing, and has even diminished in some cases.

Two fundamental principles inspire the map and are quoted on it. The first is that "the achievement of democracy presupposes a genuine partnership between men and women in the conduct of the affairs of society in which they work in equality and complementarity, drawing mutual enrichment from their differences" (Universal Declaration on Democracy, 1997); the second is that "without the active participation of women and the incorporation of women's perspective at all levels of decision-making, the goals of equality, development and peace cannot be achieved" (Beijing Platform for Action, 1995).

As vividly illustrated in the map, Finland is the only country in the world which has a woman Head of State, a woman Presiding Officer of Parliament and a sizeable share of women ministers and women MPs (44% and 36.5%, respectively). Another high performer is Sweden, the only country where women account for over half of the Executive (55%) and where the percentage of women in Parliament (42.7%) is the highest globally. More generally, the map reveals that:

• Heads of State or Government: only 8 countries had a woman in that position: Bangladesh, Finland, Ireland, Latvia, New Zealand, Panama, San Marino (rotating six-month presidency) and Sri Lanka (where women held both positions). Twenty-one countries also had a woman Deputy Head of State or of Government: Albania, Austria, Belgium, Costa Rica, Croatia, Denmark, Fiji, Honduras, Indonesia, Ireland, Netherlands, Philippines, Republic of Moldova, Russian Federation, Sweden, Tajikistan, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Uganda, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Yugoslavia.

• Presiding Officers of Parliament: of 177 States with a Parliament, including 65 with bicameral ones (totalling 242 Chambers of Parliament), only 22 have a woman Presiding Officer of Parliament. Only in four cases -- Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Jamaica and South Africa -- do women preside over both houses.

  The total number of MPs throughout the world is 40,256. For those whom statistics are available, 34,078 are men and only 5,260 are women (13.4% when both houses of parliament are combined). There are 4,511 women (13.5%) of 34,240 members in the lower Chambers and 749 women (12.6%) out of 6,016 members in the Senates. The Nordic countries, where women accounted for 38.8% of all MPs, were closest to achieving parity. The European States (when the Nordic countries are accounted) come in second, with 15.8% of women in the lower Chamber and 13% of women in the Senate (15.2% for both houses combined). Next are the Americas, with 15.3% of women in the lower Chamber and 14.8% in the Senate (15.2% for both houses combined); Asia, with 14.3% of women in the lower Chamber and 12.9% in the Senate (total: 14.2%); the European OSCE countries (excluding the Nordic countries), with 13.6% of women in the lower Chamber and 13% in the Senate (total: 13.4%); the Pacific region, with 11.6% of women in the lower Chamber and 25.4% in the Senate (total: 13.5%); sub-Saharan Africa, with 11.5% of women in the lower Chamber and 12.9% in the Senate (total: 11.7%). Last in line are the Arab States with 3.7% of women in the lower Chamber and 2.5% in the Senate (total: 3.5%).

• At the cabinet level, the poster also notes that the portfolios most often entrusted to women remain those of Social Affairs, Women's Affairs, Health, Employment, Family, Culture, Environment, or even Justice. Only two women head Ministries of Defence. On the plus side, most States have at least one woman in government.

Established in 1889, the IPU, the world organisation of parliaments based in Geneva, currently has 138 affiliated national parliaments and 5 associated regional parliamentary assemblies. It also has a Liaison Office with the United Nations in New York. Constantly updated statistics on women in parliament are available on the IPU's Web site.

The map is available upon request from the IPU Secretariat by e-mail, in format *.PDF.