Paper 6. Promoting Gender Equality in Parliaments

GPG’s Guide to Parliaments series explores the key processes and functions of parliaments around the world. The Guides highlight the main elements affecting design and delivery of effective parliamentary strengthening projects. In this Guide we consider:

  • The importance of gender equality in parliaments.
  • The range and effectiveness of methods used to increase women’s representation in parliament.
  • The decisions made by individual women MPs in thinking about how to organise their parliamentary and political life and to maximise their impact as MPs and politicians.
  • How parliaments could be reformed or reorganised to support the involvement of women.
  • How women parliamentarians have used cross-party collective bodies to increase their impact on promoting and monitoring legislation and raising engagement of women in parliamentary activities through civil society organisations.