Gender News Archive

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Greater efforts needed to promote women’s participation in politics: Released: 20 September 2011; Commonwealth Chair-in-Office spearheads high-level meeting at UN attended by Hillary Clinton and Michelle Bachelet
Commonwealth Chair-in-Office spearheads women’s leadership panel: Released: 14 September 2011; Speakers at high-level UN dialogue include Hillary Clinton and Michelle Bachelet
Commonwealth chair to co-host UN event on women’s political participation: Released: 22 August 2011; Commonwealth Chair-in-Office Kamla Persad-Bissessar to raise awareness on women’s leadership role at UN General Assembly event
Secretary-General to visit Samoa and Tonga: Released: 11 July 2011; Kamalesh Sharma will call on Samoa Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi and Tonga’s new Prime Minister, Lord Tu’ivakano.
Caribbean women leaders seek higher representation in parliament: Released: 11 July 2011; “That call to leadership must be nurtured in women of all social strata, representing the full diversity of women” – Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago
Top Commonwealth photographic awards’ winners to visit Australia: Released: 30 June 2011; Two winners of the Royal Commonwealth Society Photographic Awards will be flown to Perth for festival celebrating the Commonwealth
Global women’s rights leaders take forward 2011 Commonwealth theme: Released: 28 June 2011; Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen addresses London symposium on Women as Agents of Change
Women leaders gather for first Caribbean regional colloquium on women empowerment: Released: 28 June 2011; “It is a truly historic moment when women leaders in the region can come together to decide on the path towards empowerment in the lives of women” - Kamla Persad-Bissessar
Amartya Sen launches publication on causes of conflict: Released: 28 June 2011; “The engagement through which we unite very often takes place through not emphasising where we differ but where we agree” – Sen
Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen to address London meeting on women’s rights: Released: 14 June 2011; Speakers include Louise Mushikiwabo, Rwandan Foreign Minister, and Baroness Verma, Department for International Development’s Spokesperson in the House of Lords

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International Women’s Day is held each year on 8 March. It was first observed worldwide in 1909.

There are 20 women Presidents and Prime Ministers in the world; seven from Commonwealth countries: Australia's Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed, India's President Pratibha Patil, Jamaica's Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller, Malawi's President Joyce Banda, Mauritius' President Monique Ohsan Bellepeau and Trinidad and Tobago's Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar.

Currently, 13 Commonwealth countries are in the top 40 for mainstreaming women into Parliaments: Australia, Canada, Guyana, Mozambique, Namibia, New Zealand, Rwanda, Seychelles, Singapore, South Africa, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago, and Uganda. Rwanda ranks first with 56 per cent.

A third of African countries have over 30 per cent representation of women in governance.

Following constitutional amendments to reserve a third of all local government seats for women in India, over one million have been elected to the Panchayat Raj (local government)

Each year, more than 500,000 women – at least one every minute – die from pregnancy-related causes. The vast majority of these deaths occur in developing countries. An African woman's lifetime risk of dying from pregnancy-related causes is one in 16; in Asia, it's one in 65. In Europe, it's one in 1,400.

Women produce half the world's food, but own only 1 per cent of its farmland.

Past mortality rates for females in child-bearing age groups were higher than males at the same age. This is no longer the case. Female human life expectancy is considerably higher than men.

The first computer programmer was a woman in 1842: Ada Lovelace (1815–1852), analyst of Charles Babbage‘s analytical engine.

The first country to grant women the right to vote was New Zealand in 1893.

700,000 people will experience domestic violence in the UK. 90 per cent are white British females

Gender-based violence causes more deaths and disabilities among women aged 15 to 44 than cancer, malaria, traffic accidents and war.

More than one billion people live in extreme poverty, 75 per cent are women and girls.

7 of the top 9 Fortune list of the most powerful businesswomen are from Commonwealth countries.

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Enquiries on our gender work:

Ms Linda Kalindi
gender@commonwealth.int

Media enquiries:

Victoria Holdsworth
+44(0)20 7747 6383
v.holdsworth@commonwealth.int

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