Women in Politics: 2008

Only about one in five MPs in the world’s parliaments is a woman, an IPU-backed survey has revealed.
It shows that 17.7 per cent of parliamentarians and 16.1 per cent of government ministers globally are women. Rwanda heads the list with the highest percentage of women MPs - 48.8 per cent - followed by Sweden at 47 per cent, Finland at 41.5 per cent and Argentina at 40 per cent. Britain is in sixtieth position at 19.5 per cent.
Yet despite the low ratio to men in politics in most countries, the global figures are a modest increase of 2 per cent overall over the past three years – a slow but sure upward trend in female participation in governance.
League tables of women MPs and Government ministers in the world’s parliaments are published with the Women in Politics Map opposite which was compiled by the Inter-Parliamentary Union and the United Nations Division for the Advancement of women.


Please click on the map to see the enlarged version.

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The IPU Review publishes informative articles on the activities of the British Group of the IPU. The main front page article is about an IPU investigation into the number of women MPs and Government Ministers there are throughout the world. Other articles include:

Four MPs have a narrow escape during a Palestinian rocket attack on Israel

Parliamentary visit to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories

Algeria’s solar energy plans

Why the world needs many more women MPs

World Map of Women in Politics

Bosnia’s struggle to get lasting stability

Rebuilding Bosnia-Herzegovina

Tunisia at the crossroads

Global Parliamentary meeting on HIV-AIDS

Vienna forum on fighting human trafficking

Japan blows its own trumpet

Time for Britain to learn from Japan’s “Bullet” train service

IPU Review: Summer 2008