WiP is a centre for academic studies of women in politics

Although women make up more than 50 percent of the population, only 18 percent of all parliamentarians in the world today are women. But over the past decade, active measures have been introduced all over the world, such as capacity building activities for women politicians and electoral gender quotas.

At WiP we study gendered discourses and practices concerning women’s political representation. We analyze nominations and electoral processes, but we also encourage studies of the conditions under which women politicians work in various countries and settings today. Special interest is given to the inclusion of immigrant and minority women in political life.

Our approach is not just to look at women and women’s organizations, but also to focus on the institutional norms and frameworks which create exclusion – or inclusion. We study best practices as well as worst cases!

We co-operate with other scholars world-wide. Our extended network also includes international organizations and NGOs working on the issue of women in politics.

News

Drude Dahlerup on mission to Tunisia

The Iinter-parliamentary Union, IPU, dispatched an expert mission to the Tunisia from 21 to 25 March 2011 in a bid to lend support to the process of electoral reform in Tunisia as preparations get under way for the election of a Constituent Assembly on 24 July 2011, Following consultations with Tunisian women politicians, members of civil society organizations and representatives of local and international youth movements, the mission met with the subcommittee tasked with writing the draft electoral law. The discussions centred on identifying which election systems are the most conducive to a balanced representation of women and men in the future Assembly.

The mission team was composed of Professor Drude Dahlerup from the University of Stockholm, an expert in election systems and quotas (Sweden), Ms. Françoise Gaspard, former MP and expert on the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (France), Ms. Syada Greiss, former MP and former President of the IPU Coordinating Committee of Women Parliamentarians (Egypt), and Ms. Zeina Hilal, Programme Officer, IPU Gender Partnership Programme. Read more »

New publications

• Drude Dahlerup (2010) ”Women in Arab Parliaments: Can Gender Quotas Contribute to Democratization?”, pp. 28-38 in al-raida -  Journal published by The Institute for Women’s Studies in the Arab World. Lebanese American University.

• Drude Dahlerup & Lenita Freidenvall (2010) "Judging Gender Quotas - Predictions and Results", pp.407-25, Policy & Politics, vol.38, no 3, July 2010.

• Alnevall, Christina (2009) "Kön och politisk makt i Sverige", in Kirsti Niskanen and Anita Nyberg (eds.) Kön och makt i Norden. Del I Landsrapporter. Köpenhamn: Nordiska ministerrådet

• Freidenvall, Lenita et al. (2009) Beijing + 15: The Platform for Action and the European Union - Report from the Swedish Presidency of the Council of the European Union. Read more »

• The WiP report Electoral Gender Quota Systems and Their Implementation in Europe is now also available in French, German, Italian and Spanish. Read more »