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Facts and figures
Facts and figures: Women’s leadership and political
participation
11 MARCH 2025
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A village council head from a village in Alwar district of Rajasthan in India attends a meeting organized by
UN Women’s partner The Hunger Project, to develop her leadership skills. Women get together to discuss
priority issues and find solutions to problems such as alcoholism, lack of roads or drinking water. Photo:
UN Women/Ashutosh Negi
Women’s equal participation and leadership in political and public
life are essential to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by
2030. However, data show that women are underrepresented at all
levels of decision-making worldwide and that achieving gender parity
in political life is far off.
Women in executive government positions
Women in national parliaments
Women in local government
Expanding participation
Notes
Women in executive government
positions
As of 1 January 2025, there are 25 countries where 28 women serve as Heads of
State and/or Government [1]. At the current rate, gender equality in the highest
positions of power will not be reached for another 130 years [2].
Just 18 countries have a woman Head of State, and 16 countries have a woman Head
of Government [3].
Data compiled data by UN Women show that women represent 22.9 per cent of
Cabinet members heading Ministries, leading a policy area as of 1 January 2025 [4].
There are only nine countries in which women hold 50 per cent or more of the
positions of Cabinet Ministers leading policy areas [5].
The five most commonly held portfolios by women Cabinet Ministers are Women
and gender equality, followed by Family and children affairs, Social inclusion and
development, Social protection and social security, and Culture [6].
Women in national parliaments
Only 27.2 per cent of parliamentarians in single or lower houses are women, up
from 11 per cent in 1995 [7].
Only six countries have 50 per cent or more women in parliament in single or
lower houses: Rwanda (64 per cent), Cuba (56 per cent), Nicaragua (55 per cent),
Andorra (50 per cent), Mexico (50 per cent), and the United Arab Emirates (50 per
cent) [8].
A further 21 countries have reached or surpassed 40 per cent, including nine
countries in Europe, six in Latin America and the Caribbean, five in Africa, and one
in Asia-Pacific [9].
Globally, there are 21 States in which women account for less than 10 per cent of
parliamentarians in single or lower houses, including three lower chambers with
no women at all [10].
At the current rate of progress, gender parity in national legislative bodies will not
be achieved before 2063 [11].
Women hold 36 per cent of parliamentary seats in Latin America and the
Caribbean and make up 33 per cent of parliamentarians in Europe and Northern
America. In sub-Saharan Africa, there are 27 per cent of women legislators,
followed by Eastern and South-Eastern Asia with 23.5 per cent, Oceania with 20 per
cent, Northern Africa and Western Asia with 19 per cent, and Central and Southern
Asia with 17 per cent of women Members of Parliament [12].
Women in local government
Data from 145 countries show that women constitute more than 3 million (35.5 per
cent) of elected members in local deliberative bodies. Only two countries have
reached 50 per cent, and an additional 26 countries have more than 40 per cent
women in local government [13].
Regional variations are also noted for women’s representation in local deliberative
bodies, as of January 2024: Central and Southern Asia, 41 per cent; Europe and
Northern America, 37 per cent; Oceania, 31 per cent; Eastern and South-Eastern
Asia, 31 per cent; Latin America and the Caribbean, 29 per cent; sub-Saharan
Africa, 26 per cent; Western Asia and Northern Africa, 20 per cent [14].
Expanding participation
Balanced political participation and power-sharing between women and men in
decision-making is the internationally agreed target set in the Beijing Declaration
and Platform for Action [15].
While most countries in the world have not achieved gender parity, gender quotas
have substantially contributed to progress over the years. In countries with
legislated candidate quotas, women’s representation is five percentage points and
seven percentage points higher in parliaments and local government, respectively,
compared to countries without such legislation [16].
There is established and growing evidence that women’s leadership in political
decision-making processes improves them. For example, research
on panchayats (local councils) in India discovered that the number of drinking
water projects in areas with women-led councils was 62 per cent higher than in
those with men-led councils. In Norway, a direct causal relationship between the
presence of women in municipal councils and childcare coverage was found [17].
Women demonstrate political leadership by working across party lines through
parliamentary women’s caucuses—even in the most politically combative
environments—and by championing issues of gender equality, such as the
elimination of gender-based violence, parental leave and childcare, pensions,
gender-equality laws, and electoral reform [18].
[1] UN Women calculation based on information provided by Permanent Missions to the United
Nations. Countries with monarchy-based systems are excluded from the count of Heads of State.
[2] UN Women calculations.
[3] UN Women calculation based on information provided by Permanent Missions to the United
Nations. Six leaders hold positions of both head of state and head of government. Countries with
monarchy-based systems are excluded from the count of Heads of State.
[4] Inter-Parliamentary Union and UN Women, Women in politics: 2025.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Inter-Parliamentary Union. Women in national parliaments, as of 1 January 2025.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Ibid.
[10] Ibid.
[11] UN Women calculations.
[12] Inter-Parliamentary Union. Women in national parliaments, as of 1 January 2025.
[13] UN Women, Women in Local Government. Data as of 1 January 2024.
[14] Ibid.
[15] United Nations (1995). Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, Critical Area G, “Women,
power and decision-making”.
[16] United Nations, Economic and Social Council (2021). Women’s full and effective participation
and decision-making in public life, as well as the elimination of violence, for achieving gender
equality and the empowerment of all women and girls: Report of the Secretary-General
(E/CN.6/2021/3).
[17] R. Chattopadhyay and E. Duflo (2004). “Women as policy makers: Evidence from a randomized
policy experiment in India,” Econometrica 72(5), pp. 1409–1443; K. A. Bratton and L. P. Ray. 2002.
“Descriptive representation: Policy outcomes and municipal day-care coverage in Norway,”
American Journal of Political Science, 46(2), pp. 428–437.
[18] Inter-Parliamentary Union (2008). Equality in politics: A survey of men and women in
parliaments.
[Page updated 11 March 2025.]
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