Rwanda leads while the world retreats: The global decline in women's political power
Namibia's first female President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah during her inauguration in Windhoek on March 21, 2025. The number of women in government positions is declining across the globe.
What you need to know:
- Women's political representation is declining globally to 22.9 per cent.
- Men outnumber women three-to-one in positions of power worldwide.
- Only nine countries have gender-equal cabinets, down from 15 last year.
Men outnumber women by more than three times in positions of power globally. In 106 countries, a woman has never led the nation. Only nine countries worldwide have achieved gender-equal cabinets—down from 15 just a year ago.
Thirty years after the Beijing Declaration promised a new era of gender equality, the 2025 edition of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) report Women in politics reveals a troubling reality: women's political representation isn't just stagnating—it's actively declining. As of 1 January 2025, the proportion of women heading ministries has decreased to 22.9 per cent, down from 23.3 per cent a year ago.
This isn't merely a pause in progress—it's a reversal. The decline reflects a sobering statistic: 64 countries have seen a decrease in women's representation at ministerial level, while another 63 remain unchanged. Only 62 countries managed to increase women's representation compared to the previous year.
"The glacial pace of progress in women's parliamentary representation, even after a year of significant elections, is alarming," says IPU President Tulia Ackson. "The global disparity highlights a systemic failure to advance gender equality in politics in some parts of the world. It's high time for decisive action to shatter these barriers and ensure women's voices are equally represented in politics worldwide. The health of our democracies depends on it."
The numbers paint a stark picture: men outnumber women by more than three times in executive and legislative positions globally. Women hold top state positions in just 25 countries, with Europe remaining the region with the highest number of women-led nations.
Despite historic firsts in 2024—including the first directly elected women presidents in Mexico, Namibia, and North Macedonia—106 countries have never had a woman leader. This persistent inequality reflects deep-rooted barriers that continue to exclude women from positions of power.
Progress towards greater women's representation in parliament is now moving at its slowest pace since 2017. While the proportion of women in parliament has increased by a mere 0.3 percentage points to 27.2 per cent compared to a year ago, it has declined by 0.4 percentage points in government positions.
Martin Chungong, IPU Secretary General, notes that this lack of progress "serves as a sobering call to action."
"Accelerating progress requires active participation and support of men," Chungong emphasises. "It is our collective responsibility to break down barriers and ensure women's voices are equally represented in leadership roles, fostering a more inclusive and robust democracy for all."
Only nine countries—predominantly in Europe—have achieved gender-equal cabinets, with 50 per cent or more women holding cabinet positions as heads of ministries. These rare success stories include Nicaragua (64.3 per cent), Finland (61.1 per cent), Iceland and Liechtenstein (60 per cent), Estonia (58.3 per cent), and Andorra, Chile, Spain, and the United Kingdom (all at 50 per cent).
This represents a decline compared to 2024, when 15 countries had achieved gender-equal cabinets.
In an additional 20 countries, women's representation in the cabinet ranges from 40 per cent to 49.9 per cent, with half of these countries in Europe. However, nine countries—mostly in Asia and the Pacific—do not have any women serving as cabinet ministers, an increase from seven countries in 2024.
Europe and North America (31.4 per cent), and Latin America and the Caribbean (30.4 per cent) have the highest shares of women cabinet ministers. In stark contrast, women remain significantly underrepresented in most other regions, with regional figures as low as 10.2 per cent on the Pacific Islands.
Sima Bahous, the executive director of UN Women, doesn't mince words when assessing the situation: "Thirty years after the Beijing Declaration, the promise of gender equality in political leadership remains unfulfilled. Progress is not just slow—it is backsliding."
Her frustration echoes the sentiment of women's rights advocates worldwide. "We cannot accept a world where half the population is systematically excluded from decision-making," Bahous continues. "We know the solutions: Quotas, electoral reforms, and the political will to dismantle systemic barriers. The time for half-measures is over; it is time for governments to act now to ensure women have an equal seat at every table where power is exercised."
Amidst this global regression, some African nations stand as beacons of progress. The IPU ranks Rwanda first in the world for women's political representation—a remarkable achievement for a country that emerged from the devastation of the 1994 genocide.
Rwanda implemented political reforms aimed at empowering previously marginalised groups and preventing history from repeating itself. These reforms placed women at the forefront of Rwanda's rebuilding effort.
The country's 2003 constitution, revised in 2015, emphasised the importance of gender and ethnic equality, mandating 30 per cent reserved seats for women in all decision-making political positions, including in both chambers of parliament. It also defined a voting system that combines direct and indirect elections for House of Deputies (lower house) members.
Rwanda uses an open-list proportional representation voting system to elect 53 members; 24 women members are elected through an electoral college that includes electors from all of Rwanda's provinces and the City of Kigali; the National Youth Council elects two members; and the Federation of the Associations of the Disabled elects one member.
The government has established several bodies and organisations to empower women's political, economic, and social equality. These include the Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion, Rwanda Women Parliamentary Forum, National Women's Councils, the Gender Monitoring Office, National Gender Cluster, Gender Focal Points, and Isange One Stop Centre.
The results have been transformative. Women's representation in Rwanda's House of Deputies soared from just 4.0 per cent in 1994 to 49 per cent in 2003. Women exceeded the quota and achieved a representation of 63.2 per cent in 2014, 50 per cent in 2018, and 41 per cent in the current cabinet.
South Africa's recent general election in June saw more than 43 per cent of the newly elected MPs being women. A total of 174 women and 226 men were elected to the country's national assembly, representing 43.5 per cent women and 56.5 per cent men respectively.
However, women's representation in South Africa dropped from 46 per cent in 2020 to 43 per cent following the May 29 elections. As a result, South Africa has fallen from 12th to 22nd place in the global ranking of women's political participation.
In the Southern African Development Community region, South Africa has dropped from first to third place, with Namibia now leading, followed by Mozambique.
The 2024 election was the most contested since the advent of democracy 30 years ago. The ruling African National Congress (ANC), which won 63 per cent of the vote in 1994, attained just 40 per cent this time, losing its outright majority for the first time since coming to power.
The country's electoral system, where parties win seats in proportion to their vote share, offers some advantages for gender equality. Parties that alternate women and male candidates on their list (sometimes referred to as the "zebra" system) ensure more equitable representation.
Women now comprise the majority of ANC parliamentarians, at 53 per cent. The Economic Freedom Front, which broke away from the ANC, also surpassed the 50 per cent mark, with 54 per cent of its parliamentarians being women.
Five smaller parties have 50 per cent or more women in parliament. These include Patricia de Lille's Good Party, Build One South Africa, African Transformation Movement and the Patriotic Alliance. The two main opposition parties, the Democratic Alliance and Jacob Zuma's uMkhonto weSizwe Party, have 32 and 34 per cent women respectively. The Inkatha Freedom Party has 29 per cent women in parliament.