Editing Gender equality (section)

====Political participation of women====
{{Main|Women in government}}

[[File:Countries with female Heads of State and Government.svg|thumb|upright=1.15|Map showing countries which since independence have had (counting [[Governor-General|Governors-General]] as heads of state, but excluding monarchs):
{{legend|#ffeda6|Female head of government{{Efn|name="Peru"}}}}
{{legend|#91c3ff|Female head of state{{Efn|name="Andorra"}}}}
{{legend|#91eb91|Female head of state/government (combined)}}
{{legend|#BB71BB|Female head of state and female head of government}}
Three former sovereign states ([[Sabine Bergmann-Pohl|East Germany]], [[Khertek Anchimaa-Toka|Tannu Tuva]], and [[Milka Planinc|Yugoslavia]]) have also had a female Head of State or Head of Government]] [[File:Map3.8Government Participation by Women compressed.jpg|right|thumb|A world map showing countries governmental participation by women, 2010]]

Women are underrepresented in most countries' National Parliaments.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ipu.org/wmn-e/world.htm|title=Women in Parliaments: World and Regional Averages|website=Ipu.org|access-date=14 November 2017|archive-date=30 March 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070330191653/http://www.ipu.org/wmn-e/world.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> The 2011 UN General Assembly resolution on women's political participation called for female participation in politics, and expressed concern about the fact that "women in every part of the world continue to be largely marginalized from the political sphere".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://dag.un.org/handle/11176/294223 |title=Women and Political Participation: resolution |website=United Nations |access-date=14 November 2017 |date=March 19, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180303105958/http://dag.un.org/handle/11176/294223 |archive-date=3 March 2018}}</ref>{{Refn|The Council of Europe states that:<ref name="coe.int">{{cite web|url=https://www.coe.int/en/web/genderequality/gender-equality-strategy|title=Gender Equality Strategy 2014–2017|website=Council of Europe|access-date=14 November 2017|archive-date=16 May 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190516223227/https://www.coe.int/en/web/genderequality/gender-equality-strategy|url-status=live}}</ref>
:"Pluralist democracy requires balanced participation of women and men in political and public decision-making. Council of Europe standards provide clear guidance on how to achieve this."|group=lower-roman}} Only 22 percent of parliamentarians globally are women and therefore, men continue to occupy most positions of political and legal authority.<ref name="unfpa.org1" /> As of November 2014, women accounted for 28% of members of the single or lower houses of parliaments in the [[European Union]] member states.<ref group=upper-roman>{{cite web|url=http://ec.europa.eu/justice/gender-equality/gender-decision-making/index_en.htm|title=Gender balance in decision-making positions|website=Ec.europa.eu|access-date=14 November 2017|archive-date=17 November 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171117163226/http://ec.europa.eu/justice/gender-equality/gender-decision-making/index_en.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>

In some Western countries{{Which|date=December 2023}} women have only recently{{When|date=December 2023}} [[Women's suffrage|obtained the right to vote]].{{Refn|Notably in [[Switzerland]], where women gained the right to vote in federal elections in 1971;<ref name="switzerland-chronology" group=upper-roman>{{cite web |url=http://history-switzerland.geschichte-schweiz.ch/chronology-womens-right-vote-switzerland.html |title=The Long Way to Women's Right to Vote in Switzerland: a Chronology |publisher=History-switzerland.geschichte-schweiz.ch |access-date=2011-01-08 |archive-date=2019-11-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191121120734/http://history-switzerland.geschichte-schweiz.ch/chronology-womens-right-vote-switzerland.html |url-status=live }}</ref> but in the canton of [[Appenzell Innerrhoden]] women obtained the right to vote on local issues only in 1991, when the canton was forced to do so by the [[Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland]].<ref group=upper-roman>{{cite web |url=https://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2003/WOM1373.doc.htm |title=United Nations press release of a meeting of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), issued on 14 January 2003 |publisher=Un.org |access-date=2011-09-02 |archive-date=2013-06-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130618092604/http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2003/WOM1373.doc.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>|group=lower-roman}}

In 2015, 61.3% of [[Rwanda]]'s [[Lower house|Lower House]] of Parliament were women, the highest proportion anywhere in the world, but worldwide that was one of only two such bodies where women were in the majority, the other being [[Bolivia]]'s Lower House of Parliament.<ref name=IPU2015a>{{cite web |author=Inter-Parliamentary Union |date=1 August 2015 |title=Women in national parliaments |author-link=Inter-Parliamentary Union |url=http://www.ipu.org/wmn-e/classif.htm |access-date=31 August 2015 |archive-date=28 March 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140328105108/http://www.ipu.org/wmn-e/classif.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> (See also [[Gender equality in Rwanda]]).