New Guide Helps Break Glass Ceiling for Women in Political Parties

“Parties that take women’s political participation seriously benefit from stronger electoral positions, access to new groups of voters and stronger relations with their constituents,” NDI President Kenneth Wollack said at the Feb. 29 launch of a new guidebook for political parties.

The guide, Empowering Women for Stronger Political Parties: A Good Practices Guide to Promote Women’s Political Participation, was written and produced by the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP) and NDI.

Available in Arabic, English, French, Russian and Spanish, the guide offers direction and specific actions that may be taken to promote a stronger women’s presence in political parties. Wollack was joined by Helen Clark, former prime minister of New Zealand and UNDP administrator, and Rebecca Kadaga, speaker of the Ugandan parliament, at the event in New York.

Political parties are the primary and most direct vehicle through which women can access elected office and political leadership, according to the guide. In most countries, parties are responsible for candidate recruitment and selection and decide on which issues are placed on the policy agenda. Helping political parties encourage, nurture and incorporate women’s involvement is key to increasing women’s roles and influence in the political process.

The guide provides general principles for parties to empower women, as well as case studies from 20 countries, showing their approach to increasing women’s participation in political parties.

When parties include women as full partners in the political process, “some results are dramatic, some are subtle and some are achieved progressively, but the overall outcome for political parties is a net gain in every case,” Wollack said.

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Published March 5, 2012