Golden year analysis: Record wins for women in politics worldwide (2021 and 2022)

Orange graphic of the globe. In the top corner is the logo for Represent Women: a flag and white letters "RW"
Represent Women, October 2023

Represent Women’s latest report, Golden Year Analysis: Record Wins for Women in Politics Worldwide (2021 and 2022), looks at elections in 85 countries. 

The report finds that between 2021-2022, 43 countries had a “golden year” for women’s political representation, which occurs when a record number of women are elected into office. 

Key points:

  • Australia achieved its highest record of women’s representation in 2022 with 38.4% women in our federal parliament (a 7.3% increase on Australia’s previous record).
  • The countries that made the most progress for gender representation in parliament use gender quotas.
  • While progress is being made, only 3% of national parliaments are gender balanced.
  • Not all of the progress noted is significant: the vast majority of countries studied had less than a 6% increase in women’s representation from their previous record.

About Represent Women

Represent Women is a U.S.-based research organisation that studies the impact of major systems-level interventions on women’s political representation in the U.S. and internationally.


Read the report

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