Countries around the world continue to be confronted with an alarming gender gap in leadership. In all realms of society, women continue to be underrepresented. In politics, for example, out of 187 countries, there are only 19 countries where women make up 30% of parliamentarians; in 11 countries, there are no female parliamentarians at all.
Yet there are also promising developments, like the election of Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf as president of Liberia or Angela Merkel as first female Chancellor of Germany. Or countries like Rwanda, which has introduced a quota system and now has almost 50% female parliamentarians.
Are there particular characteristics of female leadership? What are the socio-economic and cultural barriers preventing women from rising through the ranks? How can women leadership be developed?
In this section of the resource corner you will find a selection of readings and case stories addressing these and other questions.
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Quality controlled resources
This paper tests a series of four hypotheses about the relationship between a society’s political culture and gender equality in political leadership. In 2000, worldwide women represented only one in seven parlimentarians, one in ten cabinet min...
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Non-quality controlled resources
This online paper presents and analyses the findings of a questionnaire to explore women's definition of leadership, their perception of how leadership developed, and how its development in the workplace was encouraged.
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This paper analyses the experiences of women candidates that won office in the 2004 municipal elections in Niger. Based on research in five municipalities, it examines the formal criteria and informal dynamics that influenced their election.
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Juil 2006This handbook was produced collaboratively by the Women’s Learning Partnership for Rights, Development, and Peace (WLP) and its partner organizations Association Démocratique des Femmes du Maroc (ADFM) in Morocco, BAOBAB for Women’s Human Rights (BAOBAB) in Nigeria, and the Women’s Affairs Tech...
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This case study presents the findings of a research into the informal factors in the life history of 11 elected women councilors in Northern Tanzania that contributed to their success in politics.
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This case study documents the process and findings of a research into the 'informal factors' that influence pastoralist women's access to elective political leadership at the district-level in Kenya.