Women in National Parliaments Statistical Archives
Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU)
Collate data on the representation of women in national parliaments.
The IPU is financed by its 138 member parliaments out of public funds.
This is a simple compilation of the percentages and numbers of seats in national parliaments (upper and lower house) occupied by women.
Number of seats held in both lower and upper houses.
Country Coverage: 189 countries.
Year Coverage: 1997 to present
Inter-Parliamentary Union
5, chemin du Pommier
Case postale 330
CH – 1218 Le Grand – Saconnex/Geneva
Switzerland
Tel: (41) 22 919 41 50
E-mail: postbox@mail.ipu.org
The data used are percentages without the application of statistical techniques.
Percentages and rankings of parliaments, from highest percentages of women in parliament to lowest.
Can be valuable to those who work to increase women’s political representation.
This cannot be used to draw conclusions about the functioning of the democratic process without further information.
To use this data as a proxy for the representation of women’s issues within the democratic system of a country would imply an assumption that women’s issues are uniquely, or better covered by female representatives.
