Facts and figures

South Asia

  • Although the first woman Prime Minister in the world was Sirimavo Bandarnaike from Sri Lanka, there are less than 5% Sri Lankan women at all levels of politics.
  • South Asia has only one female head of state- Pratibha Patil, President of India.
  • Nepal has the highest number of women MPs in South Asia. They account for 33.6% of total members of Constitutional Assembly.
      • In South Asia-
    • Women occupy only 7 % of the parliamentary seats.
    • Only 9 % of the cabinet members are women;
    • Only 6 % of positions in the judiciary are held by women;
    • Only 9 % of civil servants are women; and
    • Only 20 % members of local government are women.
  • Afghanistan has the highest number of seats reserved for women in South Asia.
  • Sri Lanka has no quota for women.

Beyond South Asia

  • First female President in the world was Isabel Peron of Argentina, who was sworn in as president in 1974.
  • Out of 200 countries in the world, less than 40 have ever had a woman as a prime minister or president.
  • Of the 150 Heads of State at the start of 2008, only seven (4.7%) are women. Only eight of the world’s 192 governments (4.2%) are headed by women.
  • Rwanda has the highest number of female MPs. They account for 48.8% of total members.
  • In 1995 Women in parliament in Asia was 13.2%, in 2008 16.9%
  • In May 2003, Qatar appointed Sheikha bint Ahmed Al-Mahmud as the state's first woman cabinet minister. (DAWN Internet newspaper, May 2003)
  • Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates do not give women the right to vote or stand for election.
  • In 1893, New Zealand became the first nation to grant women full voting rights.
  • The United States is the only industrialized nation that has not ratified CEDAW.
  • In Norway, the Labour Party in 1993 voluntarily introduced a 40% quota for women.

Sources:
Equality in politics: A survey of Women and Men in Parliaments, 2008
IPU Study No. 28, 1997, “Men and Women in Politics: Democracy Still in the Making.”
IPU
Online Women: Statistics, Online Women in Politics; 2007
Human Development in South Asia 2000, The Gender Question
DAWN Internet newspaper