The Boys’ Club
November 3rd, 2009 by 
Zach Ammerman, IDS Columnist
Among the member nations of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the median percentage of females members of parliament (MPs) is only 23%. This is especially shocking considering that the OECD is composed of thirty of the richest and most “developed” Western nations around the world (including The United States, the United Kingdom, France, Canada, Australia, Japan, and Germany, among others).
It is my belief that this startling lack of women in positions of authority reflects the rampant institutionalized sexism that exists in nations across the world, including the nations of the supposedly “developed” and enlightened West.
International representation of women in Parliaments and Congress varies dramatically, from a close-to-proportional rate of 48.8% in Rwanda to an inexcusable 0% in nine countries (these nations are listed below). You will note that in no country on Earth is there more than 50% representation of women in a nationally elected body. Every nation is ruled by more men than women, with some being more egalitarian than others.
The map below highlights nations with roughly proportional female representation in national legislatures as well as nations with less than proportional representation.
- GREEN: 40-50% representation, YELLOW: 30-40% representation, BROWN: less than 30% representation
According to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, which keeps data on the composition of international legislatures, there are 44,145 members of legislatures in the world. Only 7,999 of them are women. Thus, only 18.2% of members of all legislatures around the world are women.
The differences among international regions are striking. Scandinavia (Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark) is the region that has the highest percentage of women legislators with 41.4%. The Americas are a distant second with 21.6%, and the rest of Europe (not including Scandinavia) is in third with 19.3%. The Arab world is in last place with only 9.1%.
The following nations have roughly proportional representation of women in their national legislatures:
- Argentina
- Cuba
- Finland
- Rwanda
- Sweden
The following nine nations have no women in their national legislature(s):
- Belize
- Micronesia
- Nauru
- Oman
- Palau
- Qatar
- Saudi Arabia
- Solomon Islands
- Tuvalu
- Kuwait
In the United States Congress
According to the Chronological List of United States Senators published by the Senate Historical Office, there have been 1,897 Senators since the body was formed in 1789. Only 35 of them have been women. This means that only 1.85% of the Senators since the body was formed have been women. Currently, 16 of the members of the United States Senate are women, the highest number that have ever served simultaneously. Because there are 100 members of the US Senate, women make up exactly 16% of the Senate.
- A picture taken after the 2006 mid-term elections of all of the 16 female US Senators at the time. STANDING, from left to right: Sens. Lincoln, Bailey-Hutchison, Boxer, Clinton, Landrieu, Stabenow, Collins, Mulkolski, Dole, Klobuchar, and Murray. SITTING, from left to right: Sens. McCaskill, Feinstein, Cantwell, Murkowski, and Snowe
The representation of women in the United States House of Representatives is slightly better than in the Senate. Since the creation of the US House in 1789, only 218 women have served as elected or appointed members out of a total numbering high in the thousands. As of 2007, thee were 73 female members of the US House out of 435 total members. That means that roughly 17.8% of members in the US House are women, slightly better than the 16% representation in the Senate, but far short of the 50% threshold required for proportionality.
There has been some progress made in recent years, with the current Congress having more women serving simultaneously than ever before. In addition, the Speaker of the House of Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is the highest ranking woman in United States history. While this progress is welcomed, there is still a very long way to go before the US reaches proportionality in Congress. The United States still only ranks 69th globally in female representation in national legislatures.
A Potential Solution
In order to find potential solutions to this problem, let us look to see what some of the nations which have reached rough proportionality in their legislatures have done. The three nations that have been most successful at achieving equality in their legislatures have been Rwanda (48.8%), Sweden (47.0%), and Cuba (43.2%). Each of these nations has Equality Laws in place with legally require the legislature to be composed of 50% women and 50% men (they do not equal exactly 50% because of a woman legislator retiring in Rwanda and an odd number of seats in the Swedish Parliament. No reason was given for the lack of exact equality in the Cuban legislature).
An Equality Law requires that a certain proportion of seats in a legislature be allotted to women before the legislature is allowed to be in session. This forces political parties to nominate more women as candidates to the national legislature and increases the proportion of women elected.
With no offense at all meant to the nation of Rwanda; Rwanda is of the world’s most impoverished nations that just recently went through a brutal civil war and genocide and that still regularly sees catastrophic fighting with hundreds of thousands of refugees. And it is this war-torn nation that has managed to have a completely equal legislature. If Rwanda can do it, it is simply impossible to believe that it cannot be done in the United States or absolutely anywhere else for that matter.
November 4th, 2009 at 2:03 pm
Nice writing style. I look forward to reading more in the future.
November 5th, 2009 at 6:46 pm
People who believe that sexism, and racism for that matter, is dead clearly lack any longevity in their hindsight. Our parents, politicians, and teachers grew up in a world much like an episode of Mad Men. They are the ones largely responsible for electing our representation.
Despite the fact that it’s no longer okay to be explicitly sexist or racist, those beliefs still implicitly exist. Gender stereotypes and roles surround us, reinforced in activities so mundane and everyday that we don’t even notice.
I think these implicit societal beliefs are reflected in our elected representation.
I found it somewhat sad that the reason the three most equal nations were indeed so equal is because they mandated it. While I commend their effort and am sure that the mandates afford women many opportunities and benefit their countries on the whole, it makes me question: Does that imply that there is no place on earth where women are simply elected as equals? Were there no mandates, would any nation have roughly equal representation between men and women?
November 5th, 2009 at 9:49 pm
First, all the real power in Cuba is split between the Castro brothers and the military. The make up of the country’s legislature is irrelevant.
Second, mandating equal representation to women is a lousy policy. It doesn’t actually solve the problem, it just tries to cover up one of the symptoms.
The system in Rwanda takes place in an electoral system that is based on proportional representation. When voters are choosing a party instead of specific candidates it is easy to throw as many seats to women as is needed. I am not sure how a similar system of mandates would work in the U.S., where all senators and representatives are elected individually.
In any case, mandating a certain proportion of seats by gender decreases the amount of competition for each seat by exactly half. That is a rather negative unintended consequence.
Third, it is interesting that legislative bodies in the U.S. are still so unrepresentative even though women exercise their right to vote at greater frequencies than men. I am not sure the problem of unequal representation is really that well understood.