Women in national parliaments

[Al-khiyal]

The data in the table below has been compiled by the Inter-Parliamentary Union on the basis of information provided by National Parliaments by 27 February 2006. 187 country are classified by descending order of the percentage of women in the lower or single House. Comparative data on the world and regional averages as well as data concerning the two regional parliamentary assemblies elected by direct suffrage can be found on separate pages. You can use the PARLINE database to view detailed results of parliamentary elections by country.

Table here

Algeria ranks 120th.

The U.S.A., that shining beacon of democracy, equality and fairness ranks 69th.

[phylay]

A very interesting table, thanx for sharing Khiyal. Both men and women have a long way work before equality is reached.
A law is being voted today in France to oblige companies to have at least 20% females in their directive boards.

Although I think legislation must drive the ppl towards equality, I am sure that educating ppl is the only way to really reach it. Eveybody must be convinced that women must have the place they deserve.

[Al-khiyal]

na9am, you are right ya phylay, and there is a long way to go, you are right about that too.

The table is interesting for what it reveals about the situation in countries that are fond of lecturing others about women's rights issues. There may be legislation, redress in the courts and other positive arrangements but there is a subtle message in the denial of women to 'parity of esteem' in their political power structures.

[phylay]

Regarding the parliaments figures, I sometimes feel that in many countries the lack of parity is due to the political class itself more than to the ppl who I think would be very happy to vote for women if included in the lists...

And as you already stated, all the countries have patriarchal backgrounds and show a big gap in parity between men and women. So no lessons needed from anybody.

[Al-khiyal]

Une étude comparative dans les pays du Maghreb sur le mode d’accès des femmes aux fonctions électives au sein du gouvernement, du Parlement et des collectivités locales a été réalisée par des chercheurs algériens indépendants avec le soutien du Fonds du développement des Nations unies pour la femme (Unifem) et le Centre d’information et de documentation sur les droits de l’enfant et de la femme (Ciddef).

Les résultats de cette étude entamée en septembre dernier sur une durée de quatre mois ont été présentés hier par le Pr Amine Hartani, chercheur et enseignant à la Faculté de droit d’Alger lors d’une journée d’information organisée à l’Institut national de santé publique (INSP). Le constat est sans appel, la participation directe des femmes maghrébines à la direction politique de leur pays est “extrêmement faible”, a soutenu le Pr Amine Hartani. “Les femmes dans l’ensemble des trois pays du Maghreb sont exclues des organes de direction politique et leur représentation est plus symbolique que réelle”, a-t-il ajouté....

Representation des femmes dans les institutions politiques: L’Algérie à la 120e position

[Al-khiyal]

The majority of respondents in all but one of eight mostly Islamic countries surveyed in a Gallup Poll agree women should have leadership roles.

The majority range was wide, from 54 percent in Egypt to 92 percent in Lebanon. Only Saudi Arabia, with 40-percent approval, fell below the 50-percent mark.....

Poll: Islamic women liked as leaders