Is Parliament Open to Women? An Appraisal

As part of its efforts to strengthen parliament’s capacity to promote gender equality, the IPU holds annual seminars for members of parliamentary bodies that deal with gender equality matters. The 2009 conference, Is Parliament Open to Women? An Appraisal, held in Geneva from 28-29 September, brought together around 80 parliamentarians from 38 countries. The conference appraised progress made in terms of women’s parliamentary participation across the world since the Beijing Conference. The objective of the meeting was to answer the question: is parliament open to women? As the readers of this report will discover, the answers to this ostensibly simple question are multifaceted and diverse. This publication contains the highlights of the experts' presentations, overviews of the debates and the summary and recommendations of the Rapporteur of the Conference.