Percentages of Women in National Parliaments
The world’s parliaments are no exception to the pattern of gender inequality. With a global average of only 22 percent women, most parliaments remain male-dominated, and women M.P.s often lack equal representation in senior positions or on decision-making bodies (Inter-Parliamentary Union, 2017). Even where women are present in greater numbers, glass ceilings, economic, and social discrimination often remain firmly in place.
The following info-gram shows gender inequality in the Parliamentary seats in 4 different regions.
The first infographic, which is a heat-map, represents the percentages of female parliamentary seats in 2017 in four different regions (the Arab world, Central Europe and the Baltics, Europe and Central Asia, and East Asia and the Pacific). The key of the heat-map ranges from 0 to 50 and the colors differs from warm to cold. The warm yellowish color represents the low number of seats that women held in the parliament in different countries during 2007, and the cold bluish color represents the high number of seats in the same year. the heat map shows all the countries belonging to these four regions as I collected the data from furthermore, I collect all countries that belongs to the above mentioned regions. Note: the black areas resembles missing data.
Besides, the second graph which is a bar-chart shows the percentage of females’ in the same 4 regions but during 4 years (from 2004 to 2007). Each year is represented in different color. however, we can see the huge gap in percentages of female parliamentary seats between the Arab world and Europe and Asia. The graph also shows a progressive/evolution in the number of seats held by women in this period of time and in all the regions.
The third graph is a pi-chart that shows a comparison between males and females in having seats in the parliament specifically in 2007. I calculated the percentages of men’s seats by subtracting the total from women’s percentages (100 — women percentage, see appendix).
And finally, the 4th graph which is a line & line graph shows the progress of the number of seats of females from 2004 to 2007 and the 4 mentioned regions. the graph shows how the number of females’ seats has increased from 2004 to 2007 especially in the Arab world, but remained the same in Central Europe and the Baltics.
Analysis:
Basically, the infograph represents the typical issue of gender discrimination among parliamentary seats in four different regions: the Arab world, Central Europe and the Baltics, Europe and Central Asia, and East Asia and the Pacific, and through four different years between 2004 and 2007 as there is no data has been recently collected for the same issue.
As the parliamentary elections are so near, It is important to study the woman role in politics in comparison to studies of her role in other professions. However, choosing these 4 regions specifically in order to show the different inequality inside the one region and to compare it with other areas from the same regions and with the Arab world as gender discrimination in parliamentary seats has been agreed on since long time ago. Apparently, the graphs show the high gap between the females’ number of seats in the Arab world which is very low in comparison with other regions like Asia and Europe, and this means that the indicators are significant. for example: the last infograph shows the percentage of females’ seats in 2004 is 6% in the Arab world, where as id increases to become 19% in Europe and Central Asia which is a huge gap. This is show that women are still discriminated and men are still controlling the political life especially in the Arab world.
Alternatively, the positive side of this is that there is a big progressive in the number of seats held by women in the last few years. Women’s role in politics is being reinforced especially during this elections in 2018 in Lebanon where the female candidates reaches 111. Nonetheless, although western counties and in specific the developed countries are giving the females more seats than the the Arab countries, however, the progress in this number of seats is obviously being increased in the Arab world and being fixed or increasing slightly in the western countries. For example, the second graph shows 7% of females taking parliamentary seats in the Arab world in 2004 and 10% in 2007, whereas a fixed percentage which is 17% in Central Europe and the Baltics from 2004 to 2007.
The missing data are the recent data for those regions and other regions because apparently, the role of women in politics is being reinforced through time, and studying gender equality in 2007 where we are now in 2018 is too unhelpful as there is a huge time passed since then and data should have changed so far. Besides, to increase our understanding to of persistent gender inequality although we are now in 2018, we should consider the the factor of the power of men in a males’ patriarchal society, the fixed and deeply inherited traditions regarding those who still believe that women are born to get married and make families only, and society stereotypes in general regarding the weakness and the inadequacy of females in taking responsibilities especially politically ones in comparison to males.
Changing parliaments is key to changing society. Women’s increasing presence and influence result in changes in laws, practices, behavior and cultures. Support women in the parliament!
References:
U.D. (2017). Gender equality. Inter-Parliamentary Union. Retrieved from: https://www.ipu.org/our-work/gender-equality
Appendix:
