Download Infographic: Women in Power in Asia and the Pacific (2025)
Political Participation of Women
Five women from the Asia-Pacific region addressed the UN General Assembly’s 79th session in September 2024. (Clockwise): H.E. Fiamē Naomi Mata'afa, Prime Minister of Samoa; H.E. Hilda Heine, President of Marshall Islands; H.E. Penny Wong, Australia’s Minister for Foreign Affairs; H.E. Uduch Sengebau, Senior Vice President of Palau; and H.E. Retno Lestari Priansari Marsudi, Indonesia’s Minister for Foreign Affairs. Graphic: UN Photo/Loey Felipe
Studies show higher numbers of women in parliament generally contribute to stronger attention to women's issues. Women's political participation is a fundamental prerequisite for gender equality and genuine democracy. It facilitates women's direct engagement in public decision-making and is a means of ensuring better accountability to women.
Political accountability to women begins with increasing the number of women in decision-making positions, but it cannot stop there. What is required are gender-sensitive governance reforms that will make all elected officials more effective at promoting gender equality in public policy and ensuring their implementation.
One of the pillars of UN Women's work is advancing women's political participation and good governance, to ensure that decision-making processes are participatory, responsive, equitable and inclusive. Efforts are focused through strategic entry points that can advance the status of women by catalysing wide-ranging, long-term impacts.
Support is provided to equip women to translate the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), now ratified by the majority of the world's governments, into legal guarantees of gender equality. Another strategy is through working with multiple stakeholders, like women's organizations, governments, the UN system and the private sector, to bring more women into government, train women leaders, and boost women's skills to actively participate in elections as candidates and voters.
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Poster: Women Political Leaders 2026
The “Women in politics: 2026” map, prepared by the Inter-Parliamentary Union and UN Women, presents the latest data on women’s representation in executive positions and national parliaments as at 1 January 2026. Read more
Advancing Inclusive Governance in Asia and the Pacific (2022-2027)
The Asia-Pacific region has some of the lowest rates of women’s representation in parliaments in the world, with 21.2 per cent in Asia and 6.0 per cent in the Pacific Islands. Gender inequality in the region translates into weaknesses in existing governance systems and may also contribute to a deepening trust crisis between people and the institutions ... Read more