IPU President Tulia Ackson said, “Even after a year of important elections, the pace of ice age progress in women’s parliamentary representation is surprising. Global disparities highlight the systemic failures that have not advanced gender equality in politics in some parts of the world. It is time for decisive action to shatter these barriers and ensure that women’s voices are equally represented in politics around the world. The health of our democratic democracy depends on it.”
IPU Executive Director Martin Chungong said: Accelerating progress requires active participation and support from men. It is our collective responsibility to break the barriers, to promote a more inclusive and robust democracy for all, with women’s voices being equally represented in the role of leadership. ”
Shimabahaus, executive director of UN Women, said: Progress is not just slow. It’s backslide. We cannot accept a world where half of our population is systematically excluded from decision-making. We know the solutions: quotas, election reforms, and the political will to dismantle systemic barriers. The time for half-measurement is over. This is the time for women to act now to ensure equal seats at all tables where power is employed.
Countries that lead women remain exceptions
Women hold top state status in just 25 countries. Europe continues to be the region with the highest number of women-led countries (12).
In 2024, we saw the historic first, including the first directly elected female presidents in Mexico, Namibia and North Macedonia, but 106 countries still lacked female leaders.
Women’s representation among Cabinet Ministers will decrease
As of January 1, 2025, the proportion of women leading ministries had fallen from 23.3% the previous year to 22.9%. This decline comes as 64 countries have declined in female representation at this level, and 63 countries have increased by just 62 compared to a year ago.
Only nine countries, primarily in Europe, have achieved gender-equal cabinetry, with over 50% of women holding cabinet positions as ministries. These are Nicaragua (64.3 percent), Finland (61.1 percent), Iceland and Liechtenstein (60 percent), Estonia (58.3 percent), Andorra, Chile, Spain and the UK (50 percent). This represents a decline compared to 2024, when 15 countries had gender equal cabinets.
There are 20 more countries with half of these countries in Europe, with women representing between 40% and 49.9%. The nine countries, primarily in Asia and the Pacific, do not have women as ministers from the seven countries in 2024.
Europe and North America (31.4%), and Latin America and the Caribbean (30.4%) have the highest shares of women’s Cabinet Ministers.
In contrast, women are significantly underestimated in most other regions, with regional figures of 10.2% (excluding Australia and New Zealand) in the Pacific Islands and 9% in Central and South Asia.
The Minister’s portfolio continues to withstand gender-based bias
The Minister’s portfolio allocation highlights continuous gender bias. Women are assigned primarily to policy areas on gender equality, human rights and social issues. The most influential policy areas, such as diplomacy, monetary and fiscal, interior affairs and defense, are dominated primarily by men.
Ministerial Portfolio% Women and Gender Equality86.7 Families and Children Issues71.4 Social Inclusion and Development55.6 Social Protection and Social Protection42.1 Foreign Affairs17.8 Finance and Finance16.4 Household 13.2 Defense13.0
Although still underestimated, new data shows more women than women at the helm of other important policy portfolios, such as culture (35.4%), education (30.6%) and tourism (30.5%).
Women’s growth at council stalls
The map follows the release of IPU’s annual “Parliament of Women” report, which reveals that despite 2024 being the super-election year, it has made the slowest progress towards women’s representation since 2017.
The data also reveals important regional disparities.
The Americas have the highest percentage of female lawmakers (34.5 percent), with women being congressional speakers (33.3 percent). Europe ranks second with 31.8% female lawmakers and 30.4% female speakers. Regions in the Middle East and North Africa were last placed, with women occupying only 16.7% of parliamentary seats and currently no female speakers in parliament.
In rare bright spots, the total number of female speakers increased to 64 out of 270 positions, reaching 23.7% in 2023 (62 out of 273).
And the female vice-chairman currently accounts for 32.6% of the total, up from 28.9% in 2023.
The new IPU-UN Women’s “Women’s Politics” map was announced during the 69th session on the status of women, the largest UN rally on gender equality.
