Launched at UN， Latest \"Women in Politics\" Map Reflects Sluggish Progress in Gender Equality

Women in Politics’ 2015 Map launched at United Nations headquarters today reveals the “snail’s pace of progress” on gender equality and women’s participation in public and political life， prompting representatives of the UN and the Inter-parliamentary Union （IPU） to warn that such slow advancement will severely check the new global development agenda due to be adopted later this year.

“If today’s leaders front-load gender equality， if they start now to make good on those 20-year-old promises， we can look forward to gender equality by 2030 at the latest，” said Executive Director of UN Women Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka as she called for renewed commitments and investments to meet the Beijing Platform for Action’s target of gender balance set back in 1995.

UN Women， created in 2010 under the leadership of the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon， together with the Inter Parliamentary Union （IPU） today jointly launched this year’s Women in Politics： 2015 Map at United Nations headquarters in both Geneva and in New York.

The Map’s findings presented a mixed picture gleaned from data and global rankings for women in politics showed more countries than ever before （48） have 30 per cent or more women members in at least one parliamentary chamber， up from 46 in 2014 and 42 in 2013.

“The global average for women MPs also reached its highest ever level to above 22 percent，” UN Women and IPU said in a joint press release. “However， that growth was a disappointing 0.3 percentage points and followed the record level of increase （1.5 points） during 2013， suggesting that the impact of quotas was wearing off.”

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