Map of the Day: Where Women Serve in Parliament

Rwanda has the highest percentage of female parliamentarians (61%) and Micronesia the lowest (0%), according to a new survey of the gender balance of hundreds of parliaments around the world.

The survey is conducted by the Inter-Parliamentary Union, which releases a report on gender in parliaments every two years. It finds that compared to the last report, in 2017, the share of women in national parliaments increased from 23.4% in 2017 to 24.3% last year.

Among the top ranked countries were Rwanda, Cuba and Bolivia.

These countries ranked lowest:

 

From the IPU,which also noted that the number of women in top leadership roles in parliaments has increased

The share of women parliamentary speakers also increased by 0.6 percentage points to 19.7 per cent, and the share of women deputy speakers increased by 1.6 percentage points to 28.2 per cent.

However, women’s representation in top-level leadership has decreased from 7.2 per cent of elected heads of state to 6.6 per cent (10 out of 153), and from 5.7 per cent of heads of government to 5.2 per cent (10 out of 193).

The IPU also surveyed the proportion of women serving as ministers in government, and finds: ” the proportion of women ministers is at an all-time high at 20.7 per cent (812 out of 3922), 2.4 percentage points higher compared to 2017. It also shows that the types of portfolios women ministers hold are diversifying.”

To view the full data set and access a high resolution of the map,  visit the IPU.