Achieving Balanced Participation of Women and Men in Political and Public Decision-Making
In Council of Europe member states, men still represent on average approximately three quarters of members of national governments and parliaments. The realisation of a balanced participation of women and men in decision-making requires co-ordinated action in a wide range of areas and has been high on the Council of Europe agenda for decades. This includes the implementation of existing standards, but also supporting policies to achieve parity democracy.
Standards
Texts and documents of the Council of Europe
- ElecData, Compendium of Electoral Data
- Conference report on “Work-life balance as a leverage for women’s empowerment and promoting gender equality”, 2022
- Partictipation of women in political life at the local level in Greece, Study and Policy Advice, Centre of Expertise for Good Governance, 2021
- Achieving balanced participation of women and men in political and public decision making in the Russian Federation - European best practices, 2020 English | Russian
- Participation of young women and girls from disadvantaged groups in political and public decision-making processes at local level, Toolkit, 2020
Ukrainian - Fighting sexist violence against women in politics at local and regional level, Report, Current Affairs Committee, Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, Council of Europe, 2020
- Preventing and Combatting sexism at the local level in Ukraine: A Guide for Women and Men in Local Politics, Congress of Local and Regional authorities, Council of Europe, 2020
Ukrainian - Preventing and combatting sexism at local level in Kosovo*: A Guide for women and men in local politics, Congress of Local and Regional authorities, Council of Europe, 2020
Albanian | Serbian - Preventing and combatting sexism at local level in Georgia: A Guide for women and men in local politics, Congress of Local and Regional authorities, Council of Europe, 2020
Georgian - Parliaments free of sexism and sexual harassement, Factsheet of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, 2019
- Gender equality in parliaments, On-line collection of electoral data of the Council of Europe, 2019
- Sexism, harassment and violence against women in parliaments in Europe, Study by the Inter-Parliamentary Union and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, 2018
- Balanced participation of women and men in decision-making, Analytical Report of the Council of Europe, 2017 (data of 2016)
- Achieving balanced participation of women and men in political and public decision-making: a gender equality and democratic requirement, Factsheet, 2017
- Sex-disaggregated statistics on the participation of women and men in political and public decision-making in Council of Europe member states (Situation as at 15 July 2016)
- Regional Study on Women's Political Representation in the Eastern Partnership Countries published by the Division of Electoral Assistance (April 2017). Versions in Armenian, Georgian, Romanian and Ukrainian are available in the “Handbooks” section of the webpage of the Division of Electoral Assistance.
- Short film on the presentation of the study in Kiev in December 2016
- Report on the method of nomination of candidates within political parties, adopted by the Council for Democratic Elections at its 51th meeting (Venice, 18 june 2015) and by the Venice Commission at its 103rd Plenary Session (Venice, 19-20 June 2015) CDL-AD(2015)020-e
- Genderware – the Council of Europe and the participation of women in political life (2003) - Croatian
- Parity democracy - A far cry from reality: Comparative study on the results of the first and second rounds of monitoring of Council of Europe Recommendation Rec (2003)3 on balanced participation of women and men in political and public decision-making (2009)
- Sex-disaggregated statistics on the participation of women and men in political and public decision-making in Council of Europe member states:
Situation as at 1 September 2008
Situation as at 1 September 2005 - Proceedings of the Seminar on Women in Diplomacy (2004)
- Parental Leave in Council of Europe member states (2004)
- Women’s individual voting rights a democratic requirement ISBN 92-871-5040-0 (2003)
- Women in politics in the Council of Europe member states: Information document (2002)
- Good Practices to achieve gender-balanced representation in political and social decision-making (2001)
Non official translations :
Albanian / Bulgarian / Hungarian / Macedonian / Romanian / Slovenian - Positive action in the field of equality between women and men: Final Report of Activities of the Group of Specialists on Positive Action in the field of Equality between Women and Men (EG-S-PA) (2000)
Texts of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
- Resolution 2111 (2016) on Assessing the impact of measures to improve women’s political representation
- Resolution 1898 (2012) on Political parties and women’s political representation
- Recommendation 1899 (2010) on Increasing women’s representation in politics through the electoral system
- Resolution 1781 (2010) on A minimum of 30% of representatives of the under-represented sex in Assembly national delegations
- Resolution 1489 (2006) on mechanisms to ensure women’s participation in decision-making
- Resolution 1585 (2007) on Gender principles in the Parliamentary Assembly
- Recommendation 1676 (2004) on Women’s participation in elections
- Resolution 1348 (2003) on Gender-balanced representation in the Parliamentary Assembly
- Resolution 1079 (1996) on Increased representation of women in the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly
Texts of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities
- Recommendation 390 (2016) Women’s political participation and representation at local and regional levels
- Charter of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe (2011)
- Recommendation 288 (2010) Achieving sustainable gender equality in local and regional political life
- Resolution 303 (2010) Achieving sustainable gender equality in local and regional political life
- Recommendation 111 (2002) on women’s individual voting rights: a democratic requirement
- Women’s individual voting rights a democratic requirement ISBN 92-871-5040-0 (2003)
- Resolution 85 (1999) on women's participation in political life in the regions of Europe
- Recommendation 68 (1999) on women's participation in political life in the regions of Europe
Reports and Websites of other Organisations
- OSCE “Compendium of Good Practices for Advancing Women’s Political Participation in the OSCE Region”, (2016)
- Factsheet: Gender balance on corporate boards - Europe is cracking the glass ceiling, European Commission, (2016)
- Gender Equality in Power and Decision-Making Report - Review of the Implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action in the EU Member States, European Institute for Gender Equality, (2015)
- “Inclusive Electoral Processes: A Guide for Electoral Management Bodies on Promoting Gender Equality and Women’s Participation UN Women and UNDP, (2015)
- OECD Recommendation of the Council on Gender Equality in Public Life, (2015)
- Thematic brief on the work of UN Women on leadership and political participation, (2014)
- Working Paper: How to engage senior men to promote women to senior decision-making positions in their organisations, European Commission, (2012)
- Women in economic decision-making in the EU: Progress report, European Commission, (2012)
- Positive Action Measures to Ensure Full Equality in Practice between Men and Women, including on Company Boards, European Network of Legal Experts in the Field of Gender Equality, European Commission, (2012)
Websites and Databases
- Database on women and men in decision-making, EIGE
- Data on women in parliaments, Inter-Parliamentary Union
- Global Database on Quotas for Women, Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance
- International Knowledge Network of Women in Politics, online workspace to help elected officials, candidates, political party leaders and members, researchers, students and other practitioners interested in advancing women in politics
