By Hannatu Sadiq
The latest report by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) has dubbed Rwanda the world’s leading country with the most number of women in government positions.
The report also ranked Rwanda as the sixth country with women holding 50 percent or more ministerial positions and 61 percent parliamentary seats.
According to the body, Rwanda was the only African country in this year’s top ten leading countries with women in politics.
Besides Rwanda, there are only two parliaments where women account for above 50 percent of the seats. They include Cuba and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), occupying the second and third spots respectively.
For the first time, however, the global average of women in parliament reached a record-high 25.5 percent, an increase of 0.6 percent from the previous edition.
“Progress is being made, but parliaments must be more open to women. They should be gender-sensitive and transform their functioning and structures to facilitate work-life balance for women and men,” the IPU Secretary-General, Martin Chungong, said.
The IPU body emphasized that women’s equal participation and leadership in political and public life are crucial to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.
According to the author, achieving gender parity in political life worldwide will take another 50 years, with the current data.
