An Illustrative Trends Analysis on Women’s Political Development in the Commonwealth 2004-2013

In 1996, the Fifth Commonwealth Women’s Affairs Ministers Meeting (5WAMM) in Trinidad and Tobago recommended that member countries be `encouraged to achieve a target of no less than 30 per cent of women in decision-making in the political, public and private sectors by 2005.` This target is incorporated in the Commonwealth Plan of Action for Gender Equality 2005-2015 (PoA). As a contribution to the End of Term Review (ETR) report (ETR) the Commonwealth Secretariat commissioned a trends analysis on Women’s Political Participation 2004 to 2013 to be considered at the Tenth Commonwealth Women’s Affairs Ministers Meeting (10WAMM) in Bangladesh in June 2013. The trends analysis focuses on the proportion of seats held by women in parliament and local government. The analysis finds that overall, women constitute 20.9 per cent of members of parliament (upper and lower houses) of the Commonwealth, almost identical to the global average of 20.8 per cent. This represents a 4.1 percentage point increase from the 16.8 per cent representation of women in the baseline year (2004), slightly lower than the global increase of 5.1 per cent. Overall, the Commonwealth is still nine percentage points below the thirty percent target set in 1996. However, the number of countries attaining 30 per cent or more is steadily increasing, from the six in the Baseline Assessment Report of 2012 to eight now. The Commonwealth boasts among its membership the only country in the world (Rwanda) to have achieved gender parity in parliament.

Publisher: Commonwealth Secretariat
Year of Publication: 2013