women's participation in politics essay

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Why Women in Politics?

Photo: female parliamentary candidates in Nepal learn how to recruit volunteers, target voters and create campaign plans during an NDI workshop in Kathmandu.

There is growing recognition of the untapped capacity and talents of women and women’s leadership. Over the last two decades, the rate of women’s representation in national parliaments globally has incrementally increased from 11.8 percent in 1998 to 17.8 percent in 2008 to 23.5 percent in 2018. Some regions have seen particularly dramatic increases, such as Sub-Saharan Africa, where in the last 20 years the number of women in parliaments has risen from 11 to 23.6 percent, and the Arab States region, which has seen an increase from 3.1 to 17.5 percent. Total global representation is still well below the 30 percent benchmark often identified as the necessary level of representation to achieve a “ critical mass ” – a considerable minority of all legislators with significant impact, rather than a token few individuals – not to mention falling short of women’s representation as half of the world’s population.

The full and equitable participation of women in public life is essential to building and sustaining strong, vibrant democracies.

Accordingly, the meaningful participation of women in national, local, and community leadership roles has become an important focus on global development policy. Still, some may ask why it matters if women become political leaders, elected policymakers, or civil society activists. Why does the world need more women involved in all aspects of the political process? Women's political participation results in tangible gains for democracy, including greater responsiveness to citizen needs, increased cooperation across party and ethnic lines, and a more sustainable future.

Women’s participation in politics helps advance gender equality and affects both the range of policy issues that get considered and the types of solutions that are proposed.   Research indicates that whether a legislator is male or female has a distinct impact on their policy priorities. There is also strong evidence that as more women are elected to office, there is a corollary increase in policy making that emphasizes quality of life and reflects the priorities of families, women, and ethnic and racial minorities.

In the words of the National Democratic Institute’s (NDI) Chairman Madeleine Albright, women in power “can be counted on to raise issues that others overlook, to support ideas that others oppose, and to seek an end to abuses that others accept.”

Further, in NDI’s 35 years of work in over 100 countries around the world, we have  found that, more than men, women tend to:

• work across party lines
• be highly responsive to constituent concerns
• help secure lasting peace
• encourage citizen confidence in democracy through their own participation, and
• prioritize health, education, and other key development indicators.

Women’s engagement is crucial—and it is important to recognize that women are not a homogeneous group. Depending on whether women are young or older, educated or uneducated, live in rural or urban areas, they have very different life experiences that lead to different priorities and needs. Moreover, not every woman elected to parliament or another legislative body will place women’s issues or rights at the forefront of her own agenda. Clearly, women’s representation is not the only factor, but it is a critical factor for the development of inclusive, responsive, and transparent democracies.

So, why women in politics? The positive impact of women in politics is undeniable.  Kofi Annan noted, “study after study has taught us, there is no tool for development more effective than the empowerment of women. No other policy is as likely to raise economic productivity or to reduce child and maternal mortality. No other policy is as sure to improve nutrition and promote health, including the prevention of HIV/AIDS. No other policy is as powerful in increasing the chances of education for the next generation.” Further, as Madeleine Albright has stated, the world is wasting a precious resource in the dramatic underrepresentation of women in leadership positions, often resulting in the exclusion of women’s talents and skills in political life.

Male and female legislators must work together in order to solve the myriad of problems in their countries. In order to meet worldwide development goals and build strong, sustainable democracies, women must be encouraged, empowered and supported in becoming strong political and community leaders.

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Women's political participation is essential for building a more just and peaceful world. Here's why

Women's participation in politics is essential for building more just and equitable societies. Image:  Pexels/August de Richelieu

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Stay up to date:, gender inequality.

• Women make up half of the world's population, but they hold only 25% of seats in national parliaments.
• Dismantling these barriers is essential to achieving gender equality and building more inclusive societies.
• Women's participation in politics is essential for building more just and equitable societies.

I have been at UNDP for one year as part of the African Young Women Leaders (AfYWL) Fellowship. The AfYWL is a partnership between the African Union Commission and UNDP and works to enhance women’s representation in public and private institutions. The fellowship equips young African women leaders with the skills and experience required to advance the UN’s 2030 Agenda and the African Union’s Agenda 2063 , the blueprint for transforming Africa into a global powerhouse of the future. Unfortunately, this critical ambition makes little impact if the challenges to women’s political participation around the world are not addressed.

The recently released 2023 update of UNDP’s Gender Social Norms Index (GSNI) underscores the significant obstacles women and girls confront in realizing their potential, spanning from politics to corporate boardrooms. These are largely attributable to deeply entrenched social norms. Disturbingly, nearly half of the world’s population believe men make better political leaders than women. Stereotypes such as these create barriers for women to participate equally in government institutions. These incredible hurdles warrant immediate action. Here is why:

• Women make up half of every country's population and should rightfully have equal participation in decision-making systems.
• Higher levels of women’s political participation are associated with lower risk of civil war and reduced likelihood of state-perpetrated political violence — fewer killings, forced disappearances, torture and political imprisonment.
• When women are elected to political offices, they are more likely to be held accountable by their constituencies, which leads to responsive and transparent governance.
• Lived experiences give women unique perspectives on gendered issues such as domestic violence, reproductive rights and equal pay.
• Women in leadership positions break down stereotypes and change social norms and perceptions of female leaders.

There is a long way to go in attaining gender equality in politics globally, despite its clear positive outcomes. UN Women notes that, under the current trajectory, it will take 130 years to achieve gender equality in the highest positions of power. As of January 2023, 34 women in 31 countries were serving as head of state and/or government; 22.8 percent of government ministers were women; 13 countries achieved the quota of 50 percent or more women in cabinet; and in national parliaments, just 26.5 percent of members in single or lower houses were women.

The march towards equal participation has been agonizingly slow. Despite a modest uptick in numbers over the years, women still face discrimination and barriers, including cultural and societal norms as well as access to financial resources to fully participate in decision-making roles.

Many countries have adopted measures such as quotas, affirmative action, and other temporary special provisions to increase women’s participation. However, these interventions alone are not enough for global gender parity.

I recently helped to undertake a stocktaking exercise which mapped 73 UNDP programmes advancing women’s political participation. This allows UNDP Country Offices and partners to connect and learn from each other. UNDP’s women political participation work has six broad areas of engagement: women’s participation in elections, parliaments, civic life, public administration, peacebuilding and peace processes, and politics and the media. Together, these reflect UNDP’s ability to work holistically with a range of actors to strengthen gender equality in governance. Here is a snapshot from the stocktaking:

The biggest proportion of projects focus on women’s participation in elections. 16 are in Africa, 12 are in Asia and the Pacific, six are in Latin America and the Caribbean, three are in Europe and Central Asia, and nine are in the Arab States. Women in Elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina works to strengthen female participation in political life with a two-pronged approach – vertically by proposing structural adjustments to accommodate more significant numbers of women in politics and horizontally by supporting the next generation of women leaders in communities through tailored networking initiatives. Similarly, the Women in Leadership in Samoa programme is designed to increase civic awareness of the need for inclusive women's representation in public processes through partnership building, advocacy and outreach.

Twenty-one projects focus on parliaments, including four projects in Africa, nine in Asia and the Pacific, two in Europe and Central Asia, and three in the Arab States. Strengthening Democratic institutions in Sierra Leone works with the women’s parliamentary caucus to advocate for gender-related issues. In Serbia, the Parliamentary Democracy and Inclusive Dialogue initiative strengthens women’s parliamentary networks to advance women’s political participation, create gender-sensitive legislation, and promote women’s economic empowerment at the local level.

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How a women's cooperative in india is helping accelerate empowerment.

Twelve projects are advancing women’s participation in peacebuilding processes. In Liberia , UNDP and UN Women supported the New Elections Law (1986, 2014) which requires a 30 percent mandatory party gender quota for political party candidate listings. Its passage followed a concerted effort of advocacy, lobbying, and collaboration with the Women Legislative Caucus of Liberia and the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection. Unfortunately, the bill still awaits presidential assent and will not be in effect for the 2023 general elections.

By empowering women to participate fully in politics, we stand to cultivate societies that are more equitable as well as sustainable. This will have a ripple effect, resulting in in better governance, increased economic stability and improved social cohesion. The pursuit of gender equality in politics isn't merely an ethical obligation — it's a foundational requirement for a prosperous, balanced and inclusive future for us all.

The World Economic Forum has been measuring gender gaps since 2006 in the annual Global Gender Gap Report .

The Global Gender Gap Report tracks progress towards closing gender gaps on a national level. To turn these insights into concrete action and national progress, we have developed the Gender Parity Accelerator model for public private collaboration.

These accelerators have been convened in twelve countries across three regions. Accelerators are established in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Mexico and Panama in partnership with the Inter-American Development Bank in Latin America and the Caribbean, Egypt and Jordan in the Middle East and North Africa, and Japan and Kazakhstan in Asia.

All Country Accelerators, along with Knowledge Partner countries demonstrating global leadership in closing gender gaps, are part of a wider ecosystem, the Global Learning Network, that facilitates exchange of insights and experiences through the Forum’s platform.

In these countries CEOs and ministers are working together in a three-year time frame on policies that help to further close the economic gender gaps in their countries. This includes extended parental leave, subsidized childcare and making recruitment, retention and promotion practices more gender inclusive.

If you are a business in one of the Gender Parity Accelerator countries you can join the local membership base.

If you are a business or government in a country where we currently do not have a Gender Parity Accelerator you can reach out to us to explore opportunities for setting one up.

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Background Essay: Women in the Political World Today

Directions:

Keep these discussion questions in mind as you read the background essay, making marginal notes as desired. Respond to the reflection and analysis questions at the end of the essay.

Discussion Questions

• Skim the quotes shown in Appendix B: Timeline and Quotes and select for discussion a few that most powerfully express the pathway toward legal equality for women.
• Regarding the principle of equality, have we achieved the promise of the Declaration of Independence? Are we there yet?

Before and after they won the right to vote, women have played an active role in American politics and public life. In the 1920s, the newly enfranchised women did not agree how to take the next steps towards legal equality. From the beginning of American history to the present, women of all backgrounds and political persuasions have exercised their First Amendment rights, voicing concerns that reflect their understandings of what constitutes the best way of life for a free people.

What historians call First Wave Feminism encompassed the period from the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention to 1920 when the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment guaranteed the right of American women to vote. The focus during this period was on removing legal barriers to women’s participation in political life. Even before the Nineteenth Amendment had been ratified, NAWSA President Carrie Chapman Catt founded the League of Women Voters, whose initial purpose was to provide non-partisan education for women’s new civic responsibility of voting. Just as they had advocated several different approaches to win the vote, the newly enfranchised women did not all agree on the next steps they should take in pursuit of full legal equality. State laws limiting women’s property rights, opportunity to serve on juries, education and job prospects, and other roles in society continued to be barriers to women’s civil, economic, and social goals.

Equal Rights Amendment Proposed 1923

The National Woman’s Party advocated an equal rights amendment to the Constitution, requiring that men and women would be treated exactly the same under all U.S. laws. In 1923, Alice Paul proposed an amendment stating, “Men and women shall have equal rights throughout the United States and every place subject to its jurisdiction.” The amendment had many prominent supporters among professional women.

But many others did not support this idea. In particular, many “labor feminists” disagreed, arguing for “specific bills for specific ills.” In other words, these women argued that not all laws that treated men and women differently were bad. Discriminatory laws that hurt women should be repealed, of course, but they believed others, such as laws aimed at protecting women from especially long work hours, or laws requiring maternity leave should remain. About fifty years later, another equal rights amendment proposal would again fail to gain sufficient traction and fall in defeat.

As large numbers of women entered the work force during World War II, some in Congress spoke up to ensure equal pay for equal work. Republican Representative Winifred C. Stanley proposed a bill banning wage discrimination based on sex in 1942, but the bill failed. The 1944 Republican Party platform included support for an equal rights amendment.

By the end of World War II, a generation had passed since the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment. Many women of child-bearing age who worked outside the home during the war returned home, but others remained in the workforce. According to Department of Labor statistics, the labor force participation rate of women ages 16 – 24 declined slightly and leveled off through the 1950s, but labor force participation rates of women older than that have continued to rise throughout the succeeding decades.

Photograph of President Kennedy and former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, 1962. National Archives and Records Administration.

The President’s Commission on the Status of Women 1963

Just as the suffrage movement had gained strength alongside other social and legal reforms, the women’s movement of the 1960s developed alongside a Civil Rights Movement. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy issued Executive Order 10925 directing federal contractors to “take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed and that employees are treated during employment without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin.” This gave rise to what came to be called “affirmative action,” or taking steps to ensure greater numbers of minorities (and, later, women) were provided opportunities and access to various settings like college and the workplace.

President Kennedy was concerned about protecting equal rights for women. However, the proposed equal rights amendment stirred up fears of threats to women’s traditional roles among some conservatives across the country, and he needed to walk carefully in order to avoid angering those tradition-minded Democrats. Kennedy’s solution was the President’s Commission on the Status of Women, whose goal was to make recommendations for, “services which will enable women to continue their role as wives and mothers while making a maximum contribution to the world around them.”

Run by Esther Peterson, Assistant Secretary of Labor, and chaired by former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, the committee of 20 lawmakers and philanthropists examined employment practices, labor laws, tax regulations, and other factors that they believed contributed to inequality. The commission issued its report in 1963, calling for a number of reforms including:

• Equality of jury service
• Reform of property and family laws that disadvantaged women
• State laws guaranteeing equal pay for equal work
• Tax deductions for child care for working parents
• Expansion of widow’s benefits under Social Security
• Expanded adult education
• Taxpayer-funded maternity leave
• Taxpayer-funded universal day-care

One immediate response to the commission report was that Congress passed the Equal Pay Act (1963), prohibiting wage discrimination based on gender within the same jobs. The commission also likely heightened the sense among Americans that the national government should play an active role in promoting women’s equality.

Eleanor Roosevelt and others at the opening of Midway Hall, one of two residence halls built for female African American government employees, 1943. National Archives and Records Administration.

The Feminine Mystique and Second Wave Feminism

The express goal of the president’s commission had been to safeguard the important role of wives and mothers in the home, while expanding their opportunity to pursue additional roles and responsibilities in society. As did most of the earlier advocates for women’s equality, the commission valued the work of homemakers and wished to protect mothers’ vital role in the family. A new, “second wave” of feminism was about to gain strength and it challenged the assumption that this was necessarily the most vital role of women.

The same year that the commission released its report, Betty Friedan published The Feminine Mystique, a critique of the middle-class nuclear family structure. Friedan pointed to what she called “the problem that has no name,” or the pervasive, below-the-surface dissatisfaction of middle-class housewives that she herself had experienced. Friedan argued these homemakers whose husbands provided a comfortable living for their families had been lulled into a false consciousness, believing themselves happy when they were actually bored and unfulfilled. This delusion was the “mystique.” If Friedan believed there was a cultural “myth” of a happy housewife, she created a new, competing narrative alongside it of frustrated wives held captive in what she called “a comfortable concentration camp.” While not every woman agreed that housewives were being fooled into believing themselves happy, this landmark book drew many white, middle-class women to what was called Second Wave Feminism

Second Wave Feminists rejected the idea that gender roles or morality flowed out of natural law. They believed gender roles were purely social constructs, and that morality, especially as it related to sexual conduct, was subjective. In their view, it was generally the consent or lack of consent between adults that made an act right or wrong.

Second Wave Feminists went beyond the legal equality as defined by earlier reformers to advocate also for measures intended to bring about equality of outcome. Groups such as the National Organization for Women, which Friedan helped found, lobbied for taxpayerfunded day care, no-fault divorce, legalized abortion (including taxpayer-funded abortions through Medicaid), and other reforms.

Photograph of Betty Friedan, 1960. Library of Congress.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965

The momentum for civil rights and women’s rights would converge again a year later. President Kennedy had asked Congress to pass legislation “giving all Americans the right to be served in facilities which are open to the public—hotels, restaurants, theaters, retail stores, and similar establishments.” Congress began claiming authority under the Interstate Commerce Clause to regulate private businesses, reasoning that discriminatory practices by “public accommodations” such as restaurants and hotels affected citizens’ abilities to travel between states.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited racial segregation in private businesses that served the public, and banned discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin. It also banned discrimination in places receiving federal funds such as public universities.

Congress passed the Voting Rights Act the next year banning racial discrimination in voting. This federal law helped protect the rights of African American men and women in places where legal barriers such as literacy tests had been erected to prevent them from voting.

The Story Continues

Social scientists debate the effects of the cultural changes brought about by Second Wave Feminism. Many point to the numerous objective measures showing women today enjoy greater autonomy than at any time in U.S. history, and perhaps that of the world: high standards of living, educational attainment, and broad career choices. Yet, the National Bureau of Economic Research found in 2009 that subjective assessments of happiness were not keeping up:

“ By many objective measures, the lives of women in the United States have improved over the past 35 years, yet we show that measures of subjective well-being indicate that women’s happiness has declined both absolutely and relative to men. [Women] in the 1970s typically reported higher subjective well-being than did men.”

Second Wave Feminism was followed in the 1990s by Third Wave Feminism, which focused on layers of oppression caused by interactions between gender, race and class. And as has happened with all social movements fought in the name of women, many women rejected the movement and held more conservative views.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, 2009. Department of State.

What effect has women’s suffrage had on politics?

It should be noted that, just as there are class, ethnic, and racial divisions among males, as well as other specific issue positions that influence an individual’s political choices, the same divisions exist among women. Women do not generally vote as a block. However, given that important caution, there are some identifiable differences between the voting trends of women compared to those of men. The Center for the American Woman and Politics (CAWP) at Rutgers

University tracks those trends. Beginning in the 1920s, women were a little more likely than men to favor the Republican Party, but that trend began to reverse by 1980, and women since then have continued to be more likely to favor the Democratic Party. In presidential elections since that time, women have preferred the Democratic candidate over other parties by four to ten percentage points. Since 1980, women’s turnout rate has been a little higher than that of men. Further, women are more likely than men to favor a more active role for the federal government in expanding health care and basic social services, to advocate restrictions on guns, to support same-sex marriage, and to favor legal abortion without restrictions.

In addition to making their mark as voters, women have gradually made their mark as successful candidates. In 1916, the first female member of Congress, Jeannette Rankin, won her bid to represent her district in Montana. In 1968, Shirley Chisholm of New York became the first African American congresswoman (though it should be noted that she did not want to be remembered by that description, but as a person who “had guts.”) According to CAWP data, in 1971 women made up three percent of people elected to U.S. Congress, seven percent of statewide elective offices, and 0 in state legislatures. In 2016, Democrat Hillary Clinton became the first female presidential candidate of a major party. In November 2018, women comprised 20% in U.S. Congress, 23.4 % in statewide elective offices, and 25.5 % in state legislatures. In the November 6 midterm elections, voter turnout across the nation was the highest in any midterm election in 100 years, with 50.1% of the voting-eligible population casting their ballots. As of January 2019, a record 121 women serve in the 116th United States Congress, 102 years after Jeannette Rankin was elected. Following the midterm election, women comprised 23.6 % in U.S. Congress, 27.6 % in statewide elective offices, 28.6 % in state legislatures.

Horace Greeley wrote in 1848, “When a sincere republican is asked to say in sober earnest what adequate reason he can give, for refusing the demand of women to an equal participation with men in political rights, he must answer, none at all. However unwise and mistaken the demand, it is but the assertion of a natural right, and such must be conceded.” Frederick Douglass in 1869 asked Susan B. Anthony whether she believed granting women the vote would truly do anything to change the inequality under the law between the sexes. She replied, “It will change the nature of one thing very much, and that is the dependent condition of woman. It will place her where she can earn her own bread, so that she may go out into the world an equal competitor in the struggle for life.” The political environment has changed considerably since the early days of women’s struggle for suffrage and equality. The participation of women in the public sphere has helped make the American republic more representative, and has removed many of the restrictions that formerly stood between individuals and the enjoyment of their natural rights.

Women of all backgrounds and political persuasions act on their understandings of what constitutes the best way of life for a free people, and suffrage is one of many important ways that they participate in public life. The principle of freedom of speech, press, and assembly, enshrined in the First Amendment, ensures the legal right to express one’s opinions freely, orally or in writing, alone or through peaceable assembly, no matter how offensive their point of view may seem to others. These First Amendment guarantees have been and will continue to be integral to the efforts of those seeking social and legal reforms in America.

REFLECTION AND ANALYSIS QUESTIONS

• What action did Alice Paul’s National Woman’s Party advocate after women won the right to vote?
• What was the goal of the President’s Commission on the Status of Women?
• In the years leading up to the Commission, most women were married in their early 20s. Families had more children during this time than any other in American history (known as the Baby Boom), but they spaced their children more closely together so mothers were finished having babies at a younger age than other generations. What effect might this have had on women’s concerns at the time?
• What is Betty Friedan’s connection to Second Wave Feminism?
• Betty Friedan wrote, “The feminist revolution had to be fought because women quite simply were stopped at a state of evolution far short of their human capacity.” How does this view compare to that of early advocates for equality and suffrage such as Abigail Adams, Angelina Grimké, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, or Carrie Chapman Catt?
• In what ways did the principle of freedom of speech, press, and assembly empower Second Wave Feminists, as well as their opponents?
• Consider the “official” and “unofficial” methods of change. Direct action aimed at winning the vote had an impact, but so did opportunity to participate more fully in the workforce. How might expanding opportunities for work outside the home have reinforced – or hindered- the movement to win the vote?
• Use the Principles and Virtues Glossary as needed and give examples of ways the varying approaches to post-1920s efforts to expand rights for women reflected any three of the constitutional principles below. Further, give examples of how such reform efforts require individuals to demonstrate any three of the civic virtues listed below.

Principles : equality, republican/representative government, popular sovereignty, federalism, inalienable rights

Virtues: perseverance, contribution, moderation, resourcefulness, courage, respect, justice

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An Essay on Women’s Political Representation

• Published: October 2020
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The Introductory Essay asks readers to consider four vignettes—on prostitution, Muslim women’s dress, abortion, and Marine Le Pen. The vignettes illustrate what the authors term the poverty of women’s political representation , representational problematics experienced by women in established democracies. These are also core issues identified in contemporary gender and politics research: of women’s ideological and intersectional differences, skewed political and parliamentary agendas, and disconnect from political parties and electoral politics. The vignettes adopt a dialogical style to clarify and magnify core concerns of the book, highlighting the contemporary relevance and importance of the book to academic scholarship and democratic practice. The discussion of the vignettes weaves through reflection on “representation as it should be,” what women’s good representation might be. There would be significant change to political institutions, political representatives, political parties, and parliaments; elected representatives would be institutionally and systemically required to represent women.

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04 May 2020

Why we need more women in politics

ZEENA DIDI: Better representation is essential for a properly functioning democracy

This piece was written by Zeena Didi, an MA Public Policy student at King's College London, as part of an internship with the Global Institute for Women's Leadership. 

The full and active participation of women in legislatures, equal to men, is not just a goal in itself, but central to building and sustaining democracies. The equal presence of women, their leadership and their perspective in parliaments is essential to ensure greater responsiveness to citizens’ needs.

Progress has certainly been achieved. There are more women legislators than ever before. Over the last 20 years, the proportion across the globe increased from 13 per cent in 2000 to 25 per cent in 2020. Some regions have experienced greater gains, such as Africa, where the number of women legislators increased from 11 to 24 per cent. The Arab states, too, have witnessed a significant increase, from 3 to 17 per cent. The share of women parliamentary speakers has also doubled over the past 25 years. Women are now serving as parliamentary speakers across all regions of the world with the exception of the Pacific.

Despite these gains, women still rarely hold leadership roles. It is also true that progress towards achieving gender balance in national parliaments across the globe is slow and uneven. By the dawn of 2020, women were leading just 20 of 193 nations and occupying a quarter of parliamentary seats globally. Women share an equal majority or more in only four parliaments around the world – Rwanda, Cuba, Bolivia and the United Arab Emirates. Global female representation is still below 30 per cent – the benchmark identified as the crucial level of representation to achieve a “critical mass” of female legislators to enable a significant impact, rather than a symbolic few.

That women occupy only a quarter of parliamentary seats across the world is a stark reminder of the pervasive and persisting nature of gender inequality. It is also indicative of the power dynamics within societies. Still, some may ask why it matters if there are more female legislators and political leaders? Why do we need more women involved in all aspects of the political process?

Put simply, it matters because women’s representation is necessary to ensure that democracy functions as effectively as possible.

Women are not a minority; they are half of the world’s population. For political institutions to be democratically legitimate and responsive to all citizens, they must be inclusive of the plurality of groups that exist within the population. This requires greater representation of women in national parliaments and broader diversity.

People’s interests and priorities are often shaped by their respective social, economic and ethnic differences. Female legislators belonging to various backgrounds can therefore bring a wide array of issues to the table for consideration and propose solutions accordingly. Furthermore, any democratic system benefits from having people from diverse backgrounds and life experiences represented in its political institutions. It enables us to draw on the full array of capacity and skills in the population in shaping policies for the advancement of all.

Since 1995, the world has made great strides towards achieving gender equality. For example, over the last 10 years, 131 countries have passed 274 legal reforms in support of gender equality. These include laws towards eliminating violence against women, childcare and universal healthcare. Research indicates that these achievements have coincided with an increasing number of female legislators around the world. One of the reasons for this is because women legislate differently compared to men. Even when women appear to be in limited numbers within the legislature, and economic and political dynamics make the task more difficult for women, findings suggest that women still legislate differently by placing a greater priority on women’s rights.

So, to conclude, why do women in politics matter? First and foremost, it is a matter of equity and human rights – both of which are cornerstones of a democratic society. Second, broad representation of women in parliaments has an enormous impact on what issues are raised and how policies are shaped. Third, it creates room to reform and revise discriminatory laws against girls and women. 

Related departments

• King's Global Institute for Women’s Leadership

2020 Theses Doctoral

Making Democracy Work for Women: Essays on Women's Political Participation in Pakistan

Khan, Sarah

The existence of stark and enduring gender inequalities in political participation and representation around the world is a well-documented phenomenon. What constrains women from participating in politics? How can we encourage more women to participate? What are the substantive implications of nominal equality in participation? In this dissertation, I explore these questions in the context of Pakistan: a developing democracy with high levels of gender inequality on various dimensions. An overarching goal of this work is to center the role of the household -- and the sexual division of household labor -- in our understanding of gender roles and gendered inequalities in political participation. In Paper 1, I develop an original behavioral measure of preference expression, embedded in a survey with 800 respondents in Faisalabad, to demonstrate that even when women participate in political communication, they overwhelmingly opt to communicate their spouse's political preferences to a political representative, rather than their own. The ability to express and communicate preferences is key to many definitions of democracy. While existing work studies external constraints on preference expression in the public sphere, in this paper I demonstrate the persistence of internal constraints on women's preference expression that operate in the private sphere. In Paper 2, coauthored with Ali Cheema, Asad Liaqat and Shandana Khan Mohmand, we use a field experiment conducted in 2500 households in Lahore to study what works to mobilize women's turnout. The design of the experiment relies on the understanding that women's participation in this context is shaped by household level constraints. We test whether targeting a canvassing treatment prior to the 2018 Pakistan National Election emphasizing the importance of women's vote works best when targeted to women, men, or both. We find that it is insufficient to target women, and necessary to target men, in order to increase women's electoral turnout. In Paper 3, I draw on the conceptual framework of role equity and role transformation to understand variation in public attitudes towards gender equality. I use survey data collected in Faisalabad and Lahore to demonstrate how abstract support for gender equality in various domains breaks down in the face of material costs and circumstances that pose a threat to status-quo gender roles.

Geographic Areas

• Political science
• Women--Political activity
• Women and democracy
• Political participation

More About This Work

• DOI Copy DOI to clipboard

Women’s political participation

There is overwhelming evidence that women’s participation in politics is beneficial to both their own communities and societies, and broader peace and stability. But despite the existence of a number of international conventions and legal frameworks guaranteeing women’s political rights, we remain far from the goal of gender parity.

This needs to change. The inclusion of women in political processes is a key element in achieving a truly inclusive democracy, and women must have the chance to exercise their political rights and participate in all political decision-making.

At NIMD, we are committed to ensuring that women from across society have equal opportunity to access political structures and positions of influence. We strive to include women from different backgrounds and from under-represented groups in our programming. This means actively reaching out to women from under-represented groups including indigenous women and LGBTQI+ communities and ensuring that women from all age groups and demographics are represented in our programming.

Our work goes beyond simply ensuring women have a seat at the table: it is about understanding the fundamental human right of women to participate, and incorporating their perspective at every stage of the planning and implementation of NIMD programmes. It is about working on the underlying political culture, and ensuring that gender inclusivity initiatives go beyond tokenistic gestures and genuinely addresses the underlying causes of exclusion.

Download our steps to more inclusive political parties.

Across our network, our offices and partners are working on a range of innovative approaches to further the political participation of women.

Underpinning all our gender inclusivity work are a set of goals, and at NIMD, we commit to:

• Ensure that all our approaches and solutions are rooted in an in-depth understanding and analysis of the culture and context of specific countries and regions
• Include women from across all sectors of society, reaching beyond the large urban areas and into the communities where women that have traditionally struggled to make their voices heard
• Bring together women from across political, religious, ethnic and cultural lines to build the cross-party networks needed to work together for the common good of all women in the country
• Invest in training the next generation of female and male leaders, by working towards gender parity in all our democracy education programmes
• Foster global recognition of the disproportionate effect of wartime violence on women, and promote the vital role of women in peace-building and reconciliation
• Bring about meaningful systematic change, so that the results of dialogues and consultations go beyond proposals and recommendations and are embedded into democratic structures
• Include a gender perspective in the design, monitoring and evaluation of each of our country programmes, so that we can learn from past experiences and shape future programmes based on expertise and analysis

Our Approach

To achieve our goals on women’s participation, we work with political and civil society actors to foster an open political culture.

We work with political parties on their internal party regulations and on national legislation, and ensure that political actors address the unwritten rules and practices that exclude women from participating.

We also bring politicians, government officials, civil society representatives, and women’s rights activists together to inspire and stimulate learning and action.

Our unique multi-level approach aims to encourage change at every level of the political landscape, through three key interventions:

• Changing the rules of the game Politicians must understand and challenge the mechanisms, practices and stereotypes that perpetuate inequalities between men and women in the political arena. Dialogue is central to this process, and NIMD helps establish dialogue platforms between parties and encourages them to exchange best practice and cooperate on gender issues. We also provide technical assistance and lobby for legislative and policy changes ensuring equal rights and equal participation.
• Bringing all players to the policy-making table We empower women to become active participants at the policymaking table, by promoting equal rights and opportunities for women in political parties and social change movements. This includes empowering female candidates during elections, mentoring and coaching, and providing training in political skills, media engagement, networking and political campaigning.
• Stimulating an inclusive culture Promoting new laws and legislation on gender equality is key, but equally important is building a democratic culture in which the rights of women are protected. NIMD builds the capacity of political parties to encourage awareness of their own rules and barriers, and analyse citizens’ interests and needs. We raise awareness of gender stereotypes through dialogue, research, media campaigns, and audio-visual products.

Working with partners around the world and sharing knowledge and experience is also crucial in achieving our goals.

NIMD is a proud member of the  LEAP4Peace Consortium , funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which supports women in Myanmar, Colombia and Burundi so they can play a meaningful role in political leadership, conflict resolution, and peace building.

NIMD is also a signatory to the  Women, Peace and Security and Humanitarian Action Compact , an inclusive global movement calling for the redesign of peace and security and humanitarian processes to systematically and meaningfully include women and girls.

Our Executive Director, Thijs Berman, also recently joined the International Gender Champions (IGC) network, reflecting NIMD’s ongoing commitment to empowering women and supporting their participation in politics around the world.

Practical Examples

NIMD Jordan partnered with the International Republican Institute (IRI) to launch a training programme for women in local administration. It targeted women who wanted to run in local elections, equipping them with the skills, knowledge and networks to work towards achieving their political ambition. Read More .

Understanding the barriers to the participation of women in politics is a key step in overcoming those issues. As part of the LEAP4Peace Consortium, we collaborated on the report Women, Peace and Security: Pillars of Peace , which examines the role of women in conflict resolution and reconciliation. Read More .

Meet the Team

Floortje Klijn is NIMD's lead thematic advisor on Women's Political Participation. With over two decades of experience in international cooperation, working on a variety of themes in Africa, South-Asia and the MENA region. Her commitment to good governance and peace building has stood central into her numerous work experiences around the world.

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Women and Politics: A Global Perspective

http://indusedu.org/

The role of women in modern politics is a subject that needs further insight, considering the growth in number of women that nowadays have relevant political positions on the international stage. There are studies today that emphasize the equality issue and all that is gender role related, but our interest is to analyze the women representation in power related positions. This paper attempts to analyze the political status of women in world, identify internal and external conditions and factors that facilitate or hinder the creation of an enabling environment for women's political empowerment. The development context of women's political participation at the community and national levels will be reviewed for nuanced understanding of the nature of women's participation and their share in development processes and outcomes.

Related Papers

IOSR Journal Of Humanities And Social Science (IOSR-JHSS)

Dr Pankaj Kumar

The presence of women in Parliament across the globe is a positive effort, whereby women are coming to Parliament. Now, if this study is seen now, at some socio-political level, some women from all over the world have themselves been presenting in Parliament and able to make themselves decisions. As mentioned in this letter, in 2017, there is only 23.3 percent of the female parliamentary seats in the world, which is very limited. The question arises that why women are not the leaders in politics? When women participate in politics, what problems do they face in front of them? In this letter, problems in women's politics have been faced. In political empowerment, women have to face the challenges of many difficulties. Women are not given the responsibility of creating their own nations. The representation of women in the parliament is weak. Due to the conviction of a woman, the elected women did not get much power in Parliament. This letter tells about enforcement measures which prevent a positive change in women's political participation. This paper has found that there are still many countries in which women's representation is non-existent such as women's participation in the Arab countries such as Yemen, Kuwait etc. is the lowest in the world and on the other hand, women's participation in the parliament of Nordic countries is better such as Sweden, Iceland and Denmark. It has been observed that differences in low political representation of women can be some difficulty, which has been evaluated in this paper. Interpretation has been given in the women's participation in Parliament has been done to reduce or improve barriers and to analyze the political empowerment of women and in the end, the suggestions have been given in this paper

International Conference on Recent Innovations in Science, Agriculture, Engineering and Management held in University College of Computer Applications Guru Kashi University, Punjab (India) 20th November, 2017.

Dr. Usman Bappi , Salihu Ahmed

According to the World Bank, gender equality enhances economic development, improves prospects for future generations and strengthens political and social systems. Though women now comprise more than 40 percent of the world's labor force, they still lag behind men in terms of possessing power, earnings and productivity. Women also face greater obstacles when it comes to participation in social and political institutions. Particularly in developing nations, the gender gap hinders economic and social development and destabilizes the political environment (World Development Report 2013). Women have the right to participate in political processes that affect them, their families, and their societies. Countries with increased women's participation and leadership in civil society and political parties tend to be more inclusive, responsive, egalitarian, and democratic. When women meaningfully participate in peace processes, they can help to expand the scope of agreements and improve the prospects for durable peace.

NIU International Journal of Human Rights

Dr.Ganganand Singh

There is no contemporary democratic state where women have not made a socioeconomic and political contribution that is both important and indispensable Women's engagement in Indian politics and national development is the subject of this article. In the inquiry, secondary information were used to enhance primary data. Women's active engagement in politics is hindered by cultural, environmental, educational, and gender issues, according to this research. One of the project's objectives is to increase the number of women who participate in national politics. Enlightenment campaigns at all levels should be launched to encourage more women to pursue and appreciate education. As a result of this, more women will participate in politics. According to the experts, all types of discrimination against women should be criminalised at all levels. In order to incorporate women into global economies, it is necessary to better their position and contribution to total development. The Gender and Development (GAD) approach recommended that rather than focusing just on women's issues, a larger emphasis be placed on gender relations.

Interal Res journa Managt Sci Tech

A good way to understand the importance of gender in politics is to examine the position of women in political Institutions and processes and link the differences and similarities in the way state operates in relation to the representation of women in politics. In public life, gender is normally a hierarchy in which men have more presence and power than woman, a syndrome especially apparent in politics. Thus it is necessary to map the power differentials between women and men to understand how gender affects politics. Ever since the advent of women‟s suffrage, women activists has been concerned with increasing the participation of women in political life. Women all over the world now vote in near equal proportion to men, but nowhere do they serve in equal numbers in political office. A threshold was set by the United Nations in 1995 i.e. 30% of the legislature as the necessary minimum of women representatives needed for women to be fairly represented.The right to political participation is a human right- inherent, in alienable and indivisible. As a right, states have the duty and obligation to fulfill and implement the right of women to participate in politics equally with men. This and other human rights of women are guaranteed in articles

VYTAUTAS MAGNUS UNIVERSITY

Political empowerment of women starts with understanding the political and economic context in which they operate, as well as rigorous gender analysis, and it requires a comprehensive approach to programming that looks beyond the legislature. The aim of women political empowerment is more than just having women in elective or appointive positions, or attaining at least 30% presence of women in the national legislative – these are but a part of it; the ultimate goal of women political empowerment is focused on women’s effort to make their voices heard (USAID, Women in Power Project Summary Report). This thesis was conducted to examine the various practices implemented by International Organizations to empower women in political participation. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected for the study carried out in this thesis and content analysis was employed.

Mridula Sharda

American Journal of Sociology

Sheri Kunovich

Ojulari Adebowale

Gender equality in political participation; especially the role of women in politics (Feminism) in the world

Naema Ali Abdullah

Naema A L I Abdullah

One of democracy's major principles are the basic human rights, which includes the political rights of both women and men. Equitable participation of women in politics and all decision making positions is essential to building and sustaining a democracy. A requirement of a fair democracy is that citizens' interests is to be heard, deliberated and legislated on. Women are half of the world's population, and as such their voice should be heard and considered in the democratic process for a better representation of the public. Democracy is determined not only by the form of institutions, but also by the extent of a degree in different social groups participation, which gives a better involvement to the purpose of democracy. Democratic governance need women participation in order to be a true representative of the public and build a viable and sustainable democratic system in society. However, without women participation, democratic governance is neither achievable nor sustainable as a great number of the society's voices are unheard. The participation of women in democratic governance is an important element of building a democracy and ensuring open, transparent and accountable decision–making processes are taken into an account to achieve gender equality society. In previous periods of history women were and are still facing obstacles in their political participation worldwide. The socioeconomic factors emerge as an obstacle to the advancement of women and inhibit their ability to make significant changes in politics. Women involved in politics for most cases have not got sufficient funds to run a successful campaign and have a lack of support from their political parties. Furthermore, the lack of access to good education for women, the complex nature of electoral system, huge burden of domestic tasks and general perception of women (that politics is always dirty and pure masculine sphere) are some of the many obstacles described to the advancement of women in being heard or being involved in politics. For the equal participation of women in policy-making, effort must be put into promoting gender fair government policies to increase participation of women such as legislative measures. Many countries have adopted some kind of quota system, during the elections to the parliament there are some seats that are reserved for women only, in order to level the playing field and enable women to enter this male-dominated field. The quota system was one of the biggest contributors towards increased political representation, which operates in more than 120 countries. The basic purpose of the quota system is to promote participation in women's government, in order to involve women in politics. The quota is applied temporarily to battle the barriers to women's political participation and to remove them.

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Civilsdaily

No. 1 UPSC IAS Platform for preparation

Women empowerment issues – Jobs,Reservation and education

Political participation and representation of women in india.

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Women centric Social reforms

Mains level: Political representation of women In India

• A truly representative democracy seeks adequate representation of women in politics. India is the largest and one of the most resilient parliamentary democracies in the world. Women’s representation in India’s Parliament has improved since independence. It is an important metric to evaluate progress in bridging gender inequalities in the country.

Background: Gender Inequality in Politics

• Women historically been Politically marginalized: Women, who constitute almost one-half of the world’s population (49.58 percent), have historically been politically marginalized in both developed and developing nations.
• Beginning of social reforms: From the mid-19 th century onwards, however, social movements have succeeded in effecting widespread reforms.
• UN charter: The charter of the United Nations Organization (UNO, started in 1945) supported women’s rights.
• International Bill of Rights for women: With the rise of feminist movements of the 1960s and ‘70s, the UN General Assembly in 1979 adopted the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) ,  often considered as an International Bill of Rights for women. In the Convention, Article 7 upholds women’s right to hold political and public office.
• Millennium development goals (MDGs), included gender equality: In 2000, UN member states adopted the Millennium Declaration and outlined eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), to be achieved by 2015, which included promoting gender equality.
• Empowering women under Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) : In January 2016 the initiative was extended to pursue 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of which Goal 5 seeks to “achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls”, ensuring “women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life.”

The present status of Women representation in politics worldwide.

• Representative governments increased but women count remains low: According to UN Women, as of September 2022, there were 30 women serving as elected heads of state and/or of government in 28 countries (out of a total of 193 UN member states).
• Dichotomy in active participation: There is the dichotomy between the rapid increase of women’s participation as voters in elections and other political activities, and the slow rise of female representation in Parliament.
• Global average women representation: As of May 2022, the global average of female representation in national parliaments was 26.2 percent.
• Above average representation: The Americas, Europe, and Sub-Saharan Africa have women’s representation above the global average;
• Below average representation : Asia, the Pacific region, and the Middle East and Northern Africa (MENA) region, are below average.
• Varied representation within Asian countries:
• The South Asian countries faring worse than the others.
• IPU data of May 2022 showed that women’s representation in Nepal, for example, was 34 percent, in Bangladesh 21 percent, in Pakistan 20 percent, in Bhutan 17 percent and in Sri Lanka 5 percent.
• For India, women’s representation in the Lok Sabha (the Lower House) has remained slightly below 15 percent.
• The study does not include Afghanistan, but World Bank data of 2021 stated that female representation in the country’s last parliament was 27 percent.

Journey of Women’s Political Participation in India  

• Before Independence: India has a history of marginalization and exploitation of women framed by patriarchal social structures and mindsets.
• Beginning of social reforms and participation in Freedom struggle: The Indian freedom movement, starting with the  swadeshi in Bengal (1905-08) also witnessed the impressive participation of women, who organized political demonstrations and mobilized resources, as well as occupied leadership positions in those movements.
• Post-Independence: After India attained independence, its Constitution guaranteed equal status for men and women in all political, social and economic spheres.
• Equality guaranteed by The Constitution:
• Part III of the Constitution guarantees the fundamental rights of men and women.
• The Directive Principles of State Policy ensure economic empowerment by providing for equal pay for equal work by both men and women, humane conditions of work, and maternity relief.
• Any Indian citizen who is registered as a voter and is over 25, can contest elections to the lower house of Parliament (Lok Sabha) or the state legislative assemblies; for the upper house (Rajya Sabha) the minimum age is 30.
• Articles 325 and 326 of the Constitution guarantee political equality and the right to vote.
• Reservation for women in local bodies: In 1992, the 73 rd and 74 th  amendments to the Constitution provided for reservation of one-third of the total number of seats for women in Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) and municipal bodies.

Three main parameters to assess women’s participation in politics in India

• Women as Voters: In the last Lok Sabha election of 2019, almost as many women voted as men a watershed in India’s progress towards gender equality in politics which has been called a “silent revolution of self-empowerment The increased participation, especially since the 1990s, is attributed to a number of factors.
• Women as Candidates: Overall, however, while women candidates in parliamentary elections have increased over time their proportion compared to male candidates remains low. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, of the total of 8,049 candidates in the fray, less than 9 percent were women.
• Women’s Representation in Parliament: Although women’s participation as voters in elections has increased significantly, the data on women’s representation in both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha suggests that the proportion of women representatives has remained low in comparison to their male counterparts.

Just to know:  

• The highest proportion of women representatives elected to the Lok Sabha so far was in the 2019 elections, and it was less than 15 percent of total
• The number of women candidates and MPs varies greatly across states and parties.
• In the present Lok Sabha (17 th ), Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal have the highest numbers of women MPs. In terms of percentage, Goa and Manipu r had fielded the highest proportion of women candidates.

Why female representation in Parliament and state legislatures remained low?

• Inaccessibility of Institutions: Election records show that most political parties, though pledging in their constitutions to provide adequate representation to women, in practice give far too few party tickets to women candidates. A study found that a large section of women who do get party tickets have family political connections, or are ‘dynastic’ politicians. With normal routes of accessibility limited, such connections are often an entry point for women
• Notion of women less likely to win: It is still widely held in political circles that women candidates are less likely to win elections than men, which leads to political parties giving them fewer tickets.
• Challenging Structural Conditions: Election campaigns in India are extremely demanding and time-consuming. Women politicians, with family commitments and the responsibilities of child care, often find it difficult to fully participate
• Highly vulnerable: Women politicians have been constantly subjected to humiliation, inappropriate comments, abuse and threats of abuse, making participation and contesting elections extremely challenging.
• Expensive electoral system: Financing is also an obstacle as many women are financially dependent on their families. Fighting parliamentary elections can be extremely expensive, and massive financial resources are required to be able to put up a formidable contest. Absent adequate support from their parties, women candidates are compelled to arrange for their own campaign financing this is a huge challenge that deters their participation
• Internalized patriarchy: A phenomenon known as ‘internalized patriarchy’ where many women consider it their duty to priorities family and household over political ambitions.

Why women participation in law making process is so important?

• Political empowerment: Legislative representation is fundamental to political empowerment, enabling participation in the law-making process. Legislatures play a vital role in raising debates and discussions on various aspects of governance and in exacting accountability from the government.
• Shows the status of gender parity: Women’s representation in the national parliament is a key indicator of the extent of gender equality in parliamentary politics.
• Women bring different skills to politics: According to Political scientist, Anne “women bring different skills to politics and provide role models for future generations; they appeal to justice between sexes.
• Facilitates specific interests of women in policy: Their inclusion in politics facilitates representation of the specific interests of women in state policy and creates conditions for a revitalized democracy that bridges the gap between representation and participation.
• Highly effective and less likely to be criminal and corrupt: Study found that, women legislators perform better in their constituencies on economic indicators than their male counterparts also women legislators are less likely to be criminal and corrupt, more efficacious, and less vulnerable to political opportunism.
• It should be made legally obligatory for every registered political party to give one-third of the total number of party tickets it distributes at every election to women. The Representation of People Act, 1950, will have to be amended to enable this strategy.
• Second, if the party-level reform proves difficult, the Women’s Reservation Bill 2008 which mandated reservation of one-third of parliamentary and state assembly seats for women will have to be revived.

Notes in short: Can be used in answers, essays and debates accordingly.

• Despite strong patriarchal norms, the country is seeing an increase in women’s political participation, parallel to higher levels of education and growing financial independence.
• The number of women contesting parliamentary and state legislative elections remains limited.
• Where constitutionally mandated reservation of seats for women has been provided at the local self-government level, women’s representation has increased.
• However, political parties, the primary vehicle of electoral politics, remain largely inaccessible for women to contest parliamentary and legislative elections even after 75 years of Indian independence.
• The organic shift to opening up spaces for women in Indian parliamentary politics has been slow. More women are needed in these platforms to transform the discourse on governance and policy-making, and bring India closer to becoming a truly inclusive and representative democracy.

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What Sandra Day O’Connor’s papers reveal about a landmark Supreme Court decision – and why it could be overturned soon

T he newly opened papers of the late Justice Sandra Day O’Connor reveal the internal deliberations of a groundbreaking Supreme Court case that gave US regulators significant latitude to protect the environment and public health – and show how the ruling almost never happened.

The 40-year-old milestone, Chevron USA v. Natural Resources Defense Council , has become a target of the current Supreme Court and appears likely to be rolled back in a pair of pending cases this term.

“Chevron deference,” as it is commonly called, generally requires judges to accept federal agencies’ interpretations of open-ended or vaguely worded statutes regarding their mandates. Conservative critics, including Justice Neil Gorsuch, believe it has led to excessive regulation of American business by executive branch agencies. Defenders of regulatory power, including the court’s three liberals, counter that agencies – with their focused expertise – are needed to safeguard public health and welfare.

More broadly, O’Connor’s contemporaneous notes now open at the Library of Congress offer a view into how nine justices communicate in private, revealing personal predilections and some exasperation as they negotiate against looming deadlines.

In the Chevron case, testing the protections of the Clean Air Act, the papers reveal an overall tentativeness among justices as they struggled with statutory intricacies and worked toward compromise while teetering on the loss of a quorum (only six of the nine justices were on the final tally).

Yet Chevron v. NRDC became a seminal opinion, cited in lower court opinions and law review articles more than just about any other case.

O’Connor’s archive reveals its tenuous beginnings.

“It shows the case came very, very close to not being heard by the court at all,” said Columbia University professor Thomas Merrill, an administrative law expert who has written extensively about the influence of the Chevron decision. “That compounds the ‘accidental landmark’ aspect of the case. It almost didn’t exist.”

Merrill has used that phrase as he’s referred to the little notice Chevron received when it was decided and how its importance grew over the years. The principle of agency deference was fortified by subsequent decisions at the DC Circuit US Court of Appeals, which specializes in regulatory disputes, and then reinforced by the high court itself.

Chevron’s impact on the so-called administrative state has particularly spurred critics. During January oral arguments in the pair of cases that could lead to reversal of Chevron this year, justices on the right-wing majority criticized the deference to agencies.

Gorsuch said the principle favors government over businesses as well as individuals challenging government policy. He referred to “the immigrant, the veteran seeking his benefits, the Social Security Disability applicant, who have no power to influence agencies” and contended in such instances, “ Chevron is exploited against the individual and in favor of the government.”

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, however, focused on the tension between judges and agencies to interpret statutory meaning, suggesting that the judiciary should not be in the position of effectively writing federal regulations.

“I see Chevron as doing the very important work of helping courts stay away from policymaking,” the liberal justice said. “I’m worried about the courts becoming uber-legislators.”

That sentiment echoed a concern of the late Justice John Paul Stevens, who wrote the Chevron opinion. “Judges are not experts in the field,” Stevens wrote in the 1984 case, adding, “The responsibilities for assessing the wisdom of such policy choices and resolving the struggle between competing views of the public interest are not judicial ones: Our Constitution vests such responsibilities in the political branches.”

The core Chevron principle now hanging in the balance holds that judges should defer to the agency’s construction of the statute if it is “reasonable,” and even if it differs from how judges might interpret the vague wording.

A case few wanted

The Chevron dispute began when the Reagan administration retrenched on standards for air quality and loosened state permitting requirements for new and expanded factories and power plants.

The legal question for the Supreme Court in 1984 was whether the permit process for a new “stationary source” – the phrase used in the amended Clean Air Act – required a plant-wide assessment or allowed each new pollution-emitting device to be treated separately. The Environmental Protection Agency, then run by Anne Gorsuch (the justice’s mother),  said states were allowed to define “source” as meaning the entire plant, so any increase in pollution from one part of a plant, or device, could be offset by a decrease elsewhere in the plant.

After the Natural Resources Defense Council and other environmental groups sued, the DC Circuit US Court of Appeals agreed with environmentalists that the regulation conflicted with the statute and set it aside.

When the justices first looked at the Chevron appeal in spring 1983, they hesitated to get involved, according to the O’Connor papers, which enhance prior accounts in the papers of late justices. It took a while to muster the requisite four votes to even hear the case, and the number of justices who would be part of the ultimate resolution – a bare six justices – was in flux from the start.

Justice Lewis Powell thought his interest in one electric power company might require him to recuse himself. But after troubleshooting the matter, Powell found no reason to sit the case out, and on May 17, 1983, he sent a note to the clerk of the court, with copies to then-Chief Justice Warren Burger and O’Connor saying he’d be in.

Powell’s own archive at Washington and Lee University holds a note he wrote memorializing his recusal consideration: “As these cases involve an environmental law issue of some importance, and the parties probably number well into the hundreds, I have been concerned about a possible need to disqualify … I find that we already have carefully checked out this litigation, and I do not have to disqualify.”

Once Powell decided he could participate, however, he separately noted in his Chevron file that he was inclined to reject the industries’ appeal. Most of his colleagues were also ready to reject it.

According to O’Connor’s note from the first vote in the justices’ private conference in mid-May, only Justices Byron White and William Rehnquist wanted to grant the case. O’Connor offered a “join 3,” meaning she would provide the requisite fourth vote if three others wanted to hear the case. But there was no third vote at that point.

Powell asked that they all wait at least another week so he could continue mulling the dispute, and when the nine again voted at the end of the month, he was ready to provide a third vote. So, with O’Connor’s “join three” the case was accepted.

On the day of oral arguments, February 29, 1984, two justices happened to be out ill (Rehnquist and Thurgood Marshall). They both declined to participate in further deliberations on the case.

Writing the opinion

A decision in any case begins with a private vote in a justices-only session held in a small room off the chambers of the chief justice. Then the drafting begins, as an individual justice is designated to author the opinion for the court, fielding requested changes from colleagues and working to ensure that a majority holds.

The conversation typically plays out by memos circulated among the nine but sometimes a justice writing the main opinion makes a more personal appeal with a phone call or visit to another justice’s chambers.

In the justices-only conference after the Chevron oral arguments, the vote among the seven participating justices was a close 4-3. O’Connor recorded most of the justices as being tentative or “very shaky.”

She also appeared mildly irritated with Rehnquist’s withdrawal. He had been one of the bare-minimum votes to grant the case. O’Connor wrote on her tally sheet next to Rehnquist’s name: “out of case tho was one of 4 to grant!”

Differences over how to resolve the case did not fall along ideological lines, a contrast to the current polarization. Burger, a conservative, and Justice William Brennan, a liberal, were among the initial three dissenters, along with O’Connor, who disapproved of the EPA’s interpretation of the Clean Air Act.

Burger believed, according to O’Connor’s notes, that EPA had exceeded its authority in its new interpretation of anti-pollution coverage. “EPA construc goes pretty far,” she wrote as she captured his sentiment, short-handing the word “construction.”

Brennan, meanwhile, was irritated by the inconsistencies in statutory interpretation from the Jimmy Carter administration to Ronald Reagan administrations.

“EPA has changed directions, so not entitled to deference,” he said in the private session, according to O’Connor’s record. Her notes also suggest he wanted the court to tell EPA to pick a direction and be consistent.

The four justices who wanted to reverse the DC Circuit were White, Powell, Stevens and Harry Blackmun.

White, as the most senior justice of the four, asked Stevens to write the court’s opinion. Burger asked Brennan to write for the three dissenters.

The correspondence reveals Brennan’s reluctance to pen the dissenting opinion – and the overall lukewarm views of that side of the case.

“Dear Chief,” Brennan wrote Burger, with a copy to O’Connor, “I am willing to take on the dissent in this case but, particularly because we were all somewhat tentative in our votes at Conference, I hold out some hope that John will write an opinion for the court that will bring us together. I am presently in the process of drafting a letter to him on the matter. I would prefer, therefore, to take the assignment on a tentative basis and await John’s response before going forward with a dissent.”

Stevens’ files, opened last year at the Library of Congress, show that he resisted Brennan’s effort to bring more scrutiny to the EPA’s interpretation. In response to a March 6 letter from Brennan, Stevens said he had yet to draft the opinion but that he had tentatively concluded the statutory definition was sufficiently flexible to allow the EPA to take the plant-wide approach.

A few weeks later, Stevens warned Brennan that he was sure where he was headed and said it was likely Brennan would have to write a dissent.

“At long last I have found the time to get back into these cases and to begin work on a draft opinion,” Stevens wrote on May 23. “Since you wrote to me on March 6, in the hope that you might be able to escape the chore of writing a dissenting opinion if I could see my way clear to accepting your approach to the case, I thought I should let you know that I am now quite firmly persuaded that the Government is correct in arguing that the EPA’s interpretation of the term ‘source’ is permissible.”

“… In all events, I thought I should let you know that you probably will have to be writing a dissent in this fascinating case unless what I put on paper is more persuasive than my threat to make you undergo the punishment of the hurdle.”

Justices White, Blackmun and Powell remained with Stevens in the majority.

Brennan eventually had a change of heart. He asked for a relatively modest addition to Stevens’ opinion then signed on to his full reasoning and bottom-line favoring the EPA. (Stevens, writing in a 2019 memoir published shortly before his death, attributed Brennan’s switch to a personal visit Stevens made to Brennan’s chambers.)

That shift, which Brennan revealed in a note to O’Connor and all other colleagues on June 14, left O’Connor and Burger as the only dissenters in the Chevron case.

A surprise recusal

That very same day, June 14, O’Connor revealed a potential conflict of interest.

The justices decide on their own whether to recuse themselves from a case. Some recusal choices have become controversial, such as Justice Antonin Scalia’s 2004 decision to sit on a case involving then-Vice President Dick Cheney after going duck hunting with him.

A continuing point of controversy is Justice Clarence Thomas’ participation in cases related to Donald Trump’s refusal to accept the 2020 presidential election results and his supporters’ January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol. Thomas’ wife, Virginia, an ardent backer of the false narrative that Trump won the 2020 election, attended his rally on January 6 but did not march to the Capitol with other protesters.

Back in 1984, O’Connor’s recusal reasoning was kept private, although at the end of the decision it noted that she, Marshall and Rehnquist took no part in the decision. According to her June 14 once-confidential note to colleagues, she appears to have erred on the cautious side.

“I have reviewed the petitions for certiorari in these cases and discovered that I should be recused. Since the arguments were heard, my father died,” she wrote of her father, Harry Day, who ran the family’s Lazy B ranch in Arizona.

“His estate is still unsettled, but I will have a remainder interest in a trust to be established. His estate holds stock in at least one of the parties to this action and until it is settled, I think it best that I not participate,” she added.

That would have left Burger to dissent alone. But on June 18 he wrote a note to Stevens, with copies to the group.

“Dear John,” the chief wrote, “With others, I am now persuaded you have the correct answer to this case.”

The final June 25 decision was decided by a bare six-justice quorum. And unanimously.

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Riley Gaines’ perspective on trans athletes in women’s sports

Recounting her personal encounters with trans athlete lia thomas, gaines stirs the conversation on sports equity and the future of athletics.

By Emma Pitts

All-American swimmer-turned-activist Riley Gaines is crisscrossing the country to talk about her concerns with transgender athletes competing in women’s sports.

Before her remarks at the University of Utah last weekend, she spoke to the Deseret News about why she is speaking out, even as many people have publicly disagreed with her.

“I graduated from the University of Kentucky last year where I got my degree in human health sciences and health law. And I had every intention upon graduating to be in dental school,” Gaines said to an audience Friday night at the University of Utah.

“That is to say, it would have been really easy for me, really safe, really secure for me to essentially ride off into the sunset with the plans that I had made for myself,” she added. “But I understood that the quickest way to make God laugh in your face is to make plans for yourself. Because he very clearly had different plans for me.”

Gaines, director of The Riley Gaines Center at the Leadership Institute, visited the college campus Friday evening as part of her Reclaim Feminism Campus Tour sponsored by the Leadership Institute . She has been touring the nation, advocating for preserving women’s spaces and has urged other female athletes to speak up on transgender athletes competing in women’s sports.

In a room of nearly a hundred audience members and supporters, Gaines shared her experience as a 12-time All-American swimmer who competed against transgender athlete Lia Thomas during her senior year of college.

As a competitive college athlete, Gaines said you have to devote your whole life to make it to the top level. “It’s a lifelong journey and impossible to put into words the amount of sacrifices, and I know none of that would have been possible without the women’s sporting category.”

The change in competition

“In most sports, your top tier athletes know each other, regardless of where you compete in the country, because we’ve grown up competing against each other,” Gaines said. So, she said, it was strange during senior year when neither she, her team or coaches recognized the name of the athlete leading the nation.

“This was a senior from the University of Pennsylvania, which is not a school that historically produces fast swimmers, again, leading the nation by body lengths in events ranging from the 100 freestyle, which is, of course, a sprint, and all of the freestyle events in between through the mile, which is, of course, long distance,” Gaines said. “And for those of you who might not necessarily understand swimming, think about that in terms of your Olympic runners. That’s like saying your best 200-meter runner is your best marathon runner — it doesn’t happen. Those are two totally different systems.”

It wasn’t until a news article came out that Gaines said it started to make sense to her and her team why Thomas was winning.

“I believe every single person is entitled — actually — I encourage every single person to play sports because I’ve reaped the benefits of what sports have meant for me in terms of leadership and competence, and setting goals and working to achieve those goals, all things that are very much playing out in my life,” Gaines told the Deseret News.

She emphasized that, however, first and foremost, it needs to be fair.

“I don’t think a third category (for transgender athletes) would suffice. Because at the end of the day, you would still very much have males competing against females,” Gaines added. “So, do you further break it down between males who identify as women? And then, do you go even further? Again, fairness and safety matter, even on the men’s side between men who started puberty blockers before puberty for example, and it’s just too much.”

Gaines said that the beauty of sports is that you don’t pander to outside identifiers. “We don’t look at religion, we don’t look at race. We don’t look at anything like that,” she said.

However, not everyone in college athletics shares Gaines’ sentiments. Over the weekend, the head coach of the South Carolina women’s basketball team shared her support of transgender athletes.

Ahead of the women’s NCAA championship, Dawn Staley was asked by a reporter what her opinion on the controversial topic was. She replied, “I’m of the opinion that if you’re a woman, you should play. If you consider yourself a woman and you want to play sports or vice versa, you should be able to play. That’s my opinion.”

When directly questioned about transgender women’s participation in women’s sports, Staley recognized that her stance might attract criticism.

“Yes, yes,” she said. “So now the barnstormer people are going to flood my timeline and be a distraction to me on one of the biggest days of our game, and I’m OK with that. I really am.”

The future of athletics

A majority of Americans say transgender athletes should not be allowed to play in women’s sports. Last year, a Gallup survey of about 1,000 adults found that 69% of Americans believed that people should play on a team that matches their sex at birth.

“Likewise, fewer endorse transgender athletes being able to play on teams that match their current gender identity, 26%, down from 34%,” per the survey.

The Deseret News previously reported that the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics recently adopted a policy that prohibits transgender participation in female-only sports:

“The NAIA supports fair and safe competition opportunities for all student-athletes. Title IX ensures there are separate and equal opportunities for female athletes. As a result, the NAIA offers separate categories of competition in all sports except for competitive cheer and competitive dance, which are both co-ed.”

More than a dozen female athletes, including Gaines, filed a lawsuit in March against the NCAA for violating Title IX. The lawsuit describes the shock Gaines and other swimmers felt when they learned they would have to share a locker room with Thomas during the championships at Georgia Tech.

“It demands the NCAA revoke all awards given to trans athletes in women’s competitions and ‘reassign’ them to their female contenders,” per The Free Press . “It also asks for ‘damages for pain and suffering, mental and emotional distress, suffering and anxiety, expense costs and other damages due to defendants’ wrongful conduct.’”

Gaines told the Deseret News that after her experience, she looked more into what the law says about women’s sports. “I’ve grown to understand Title IX more and really just understand the legal side of things more. I mean, they did violate this law. And so I thought to myself, for so long, someone has to do something.”

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This Week in DPPA: 30 March - 5 April 2024

A brief roundup of United Nations-related political and peacebuilding events  and developments globally.

This week, in our online magazine "Politically Speaking," we look at how DPPA is integrating climate and environmental considerations in its work and the role of Climate, Peace and Security Advisors in special political missions. With climate change multiplying risks, especially in areas more vulnerable to conflict, climate action needs to become an integral part of preventive diplomacy and peacebuilding efforts.

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