Women often face barriers to their effective participation in the electoral process as voters, candidates, journalists, electoral administrators or civil society representatives, among other capacities. Their participation rights are frequently undermined by cultural expectations and social norms, exclusion from male-dominated decision-making platforms, lack of financial resources, restricted access to information and knowledge, discrimination and widespread violence. Throughout the electoral cycle, a wide range of stakeholders can commit to promote gender equality and women’s participation in their respective action fields, including political parties, electoral management bodies (EMBs), civil society, election observers, the media, international electoral assistance providers and many others. This topic area analyzes obstacles to women’s political participation, as well as strategies implemented by relevant stakeholders to promote gender equality throughout the electoral process.  

Despite lack of data in many areas, evidence shows that women are under-represented at all levels in politics and decision-making. Women’s participation in national parliaments has increased across the globe in the last years, going from 13.8 percent in 2000 to 24.3 percent in 2019.[1] In spite of this progress, there is still a long way to go to achieve gender equality in political representation and effective participation of all men and women in the electoral process. 

Legal and policy frameworks set the game rules and affect gender equality and women’s participation in elections. The choice of the electoral system has an important impact on this matter. Also, the adoption of Temporary Special Measures (TSM), including quotas, has shown to be a critical factor in increasing women’s representation in elected bodies. 

Although political parties’ traditionally male-dominated structures and power models often create barriers for women, they can also be instrumental in facilitating their political advancement, integrating their voices in the political process and ensuring them a place in decision-making. Political parties can mainstream gender within their internal organization and in their work by developing gender-sensitive legal and policy frameworks, ensuring gender-balanced candidate recruitment and supporting women politicians in their campaigns. 

EMBs can consider a wide range of entry points to enhance women’s participation and promote gender equality within their internal organization. Some of these strategies include collecting sex-disaggregated data, including gender equality provisions in their planning and internal policies, creating gender units or committees, seeking a balanced representation of men and women among electoral staff, and organizing capacity building initiatives, among others. Furthermore, in their external strategy, EMBs and other relevant stakeholders can make efforts to promote gender equality and women’s participation at different stages of the electoral cycle that comprise voter registration, candidate nomination, voter outreach, electoral operations and procedures during Election Day and dispute resolution mechanisms.

Both international and domestic election observation can integrate a gender-sensitive approach, looking into barriers that hinder women’s participation in elections. This gender perspective can be either mainstreamed through comprehensive election observation, or put into practice through specific observation efforts targeting women’s participation. A gender-balanced composition of observation teams is key to promote the principle of equality. Also, integrating the issue of women’s participation in the reporting process, including final reports and recommendations, can contribute to improve their participation in a constructive manner. 

Mass media often present negative and minimizing images of women, contributing to their exclusion from the political sphere. Media monitoring initiatives can help identify bias against women in the media and assess the quality and plurality of the election coverage. Capacity building and training for journalists and media professionals can also improve their skills on gender-sensitive reporting. Moreover, integrating gender equality provisions in codes of conduct for media in elections can contribute to avoiding harmful stereotypes against women and integrate their voices in the public debate. 

Another major obstacle to the realization of women’s political and electoral rights is Violence Against Women in Elections (VAWE). It comprises several types of violence, including harassment, intimidation, psychological abuse, sexual violence and physical attacks, directed to women with different roles in the electoral process, such as voters, candidates, party supporters, observers, electoral administrators or public officials, among others. Electoral stakeholders can use a wide range of strategies to prevent and mitigate VAWE throughout the electoral cycle, including mapping and measuring VAWE, integrating this component into election observation and violence monitoring, fostering legal and policy reform, making specific electoral arrangements, working with political parties and raising public awareness on this issue.

Despite existing threats to the enjoyment of the rights to peaceful assembly and association and the current global trend of shrinking civic space, civil society groups around the world continue to claim for gender equality in politics and more inclusive electoral processes. In many countries, the advocacy efforts of women’s associations have contributed to positive social change, by increasing women’s participation. Efforts to promote gender equality should also involve men and engage male allies in the construction of inclusive democratic systems.

During the post-electoral period, parliamentarians can play an important role in the promotion of gender equality and women’s participation, by adopting relevant legislation, conducting effective oversight of government policies and strengthening parliamentary structures to promote equality and women’s rights.

In addition, this topic area includes documents, strategies and examples from electoral stakeholders who are also addressing gender equality in the electoral process from a non-binary perspective, in order to advance the realization of political rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people. The different sections of the topic area will include an analysis of the barriers affecting the electoral participation of LGBTI as well as strategies put in practice by a wide range of stakeholders, including EMBs, to promote political inclusion.