Women in National Parliaments: An Overview

Post the ratification of the Beijing Platform for Action, globally, the share of women's membership in Parliaments doubled between 1995 and 2015. However, the growth in the share of women Parliamentarians across countries has been extremely uneven. As of 2015, only 22 per cent of the countries have achieved the Beijing Platform for Action target of 30 per cent of seats held by women Parliamentarians. Region-wise, the share of women Parliamentarians is highest in the Nordic countries, followed by the Americas and the European countries other than the Nordic countries. In light of the progress in women's political participation globally, this paper presents a snapshot of participation of women in electoral politics in India. The data presented in this paper clearly demonstrates that Indian electoral politics remains largely exclusionary in terms of participation of women particularly at the national and State levels.