Growth of women in power grinds to near-halt in a mega-election year
Originally published by Vibeke Venema, Stephanie Hegarty, and Leoni Robertson for BBC
Nearly half the world’s population – 3.6 billion people – had major elections in 2024, but it was also a year that saw the slowest rate of growth in female representation for 20 years.
Twenty-seven new parliaments now have fewer women than they did before the elections – countries such as the US, Portugal, Pakistan, India, Indonesia and South Africa. And, for the first time in its history, fewer women were also elected to the European Parliament.
The BBC has crunched numbers from 46 countries where election results have been confirmed and found that in nearly two-thirds of them the number of women elected fell.