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Young women’s political participation and leadership

Summary

14:00-17:00 (CET)

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Twenty-five years after the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, which set the international target for reaching gender equality in political decision-making, despite some progress, women are still underrepresented across all levels of political leadership.

Young women are the least represented in leadership positions. IPU data on youth participation in parliaments shows that only 2.2 per cent of parliamentarians are under 30 and less than 1 per cent of them are young women parliamentarians.

The IPU and the Office of the United Nations Secretary General’s Envoy on Youth (OSGEY) are co-organizing an interactive online event on young women’s political participation and leadership as a contribution to generation equality.

Objectives

The main objectives of the event are to galvanize momentum for young women’s political participation, recognize and understand the specific challenges faced by young women in engaging in political leadership, share experiences, identify strategic solutions to be pursued by different stakeholders and, jointly develop a call to action.

Participation

The event will bring together young women leaders from various fields and key stakeholders whose common ambition is to enhance young women’s participation in politics. Participants will include, but will not be limited to, men and women political leaders across generations, members of parliament, government officials, representatives of international organizations and UN agencies, representatives of youth and women’s movements, academics, the media, and representatives of civil society organizations working on political inclusion.

Documents

Concept note 268.6 KB