Women continue to be under-represented in national and local decision making across the region. In Asia only 17.8% of parliamentary seats are held by women. The rates are even worse in Pacific Island nations where only 2.8% of seats are held by women and five countries have no women national parliamentarians at all. This is well below the 30-50% rate required to create a ‘critical mass’ of women who may be able to transform policy.

While there have been numerous initiatives by women to become more engaged in mainstream decision-making institutions, the few women who have been able to occupy positions, have often had to do it in the face of immense obstacles.

Women face multiple challenges in their involvement in political life generated by patriarchal power, structures and practices which stereotypically confine women’s role in the private and informal public sphere. Democratic freedoms such as of expression, media, opinion, peaceful assembly, association, and others are necessary vehicles for women’s full political participation.

In many countries in the region where the democratic space for civil society is limited, women find themselves under constant surveillance and sometimes under threat by their own governments. In countries where religion and culture impose numerous social restrictions and impinge on state laws, women experience more difficulties in accessing education and engaging in the public political space.

Simply increasing the numbers of women in parliaments is not the entire solution to ensuring women have an equal voice in democratic processes. We recognise that not all women who enter politics do so with a wish to strengthen women’s human rights. Many women parliamentarians in the region enter through family dynasties, for example. However research by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) suggests that a critical mass of women in parliament can have a transformative effect and make it easier for women to advance women’s human rights.

The Women in Power programme seeks to increase women’s political participation but also to offer a transformative model of governance and equip women with the knowledge, resources and networks to make a positive contribution to the realisation and advancement of women’s rights when elected.