WPL Studies

Data and evidence are crucial to support advocacy for more women in political leadership. WPL Studies build this knowledge. WPL partners with outstanding academic institutions, international organisations and private sector supporters to produce fact-based reports.

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Representation Matters Report

This initial report by WPL, based on findings of the University of Korea and in partnership with King’s College and the Oliver Wyman Forum shows that a country’s overall progress and performance improves

when it has significant representation of women in political leadership because they often have different viewpoints and priorities than men. Increased representation of women typically results in more laws that ensure equality and greater participation of women in the workforce. Releasing the report on WPL’s 10th anniversary reinforces WPL’s mission to increase the number and influence of women in political leadership positions. Read more here.

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Women’s Political Careers

It is over a hundred years since the first women were elected to national parliaments, yet women worldwide still hold only 26.4 percent of parliamentary seats (IPU 2022). While progress has been made

in recent years there is still much to be done to ensure women’s voices are heard as much as men when it comes to making the decisions that shape all of our lives. This report follows on from the 2015 report The Female Political Career and aims to understand the experiences and intentions of women in politics in today; it is based on survey responses from women politicians in 66 countries seeking to better understand the motivations and challenges shared by women who decide to pursue a political career.

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Ending the stigma in politics on menopause

In 2021, women who were fifty years old and above constituted twenty-six per cent of the total female population worldwide. This marked a four per cent increase compared to the preceding decade. Given that most

women experience menopause between ages forty-five and fifty-five and have longer lifespans, the need to offer effective healthcare and support to women in their personal and professional lives becomes highly evident.
The changing demographics, along with a compelling moral and social duty, highlight the critical need for heightened awareness of the stigma around menopause. Additionally, it emphasises the importance of formulating effective policies governing the access and provision of suitable resources for women across the globe.
With this in mind, Women Political Leaders (WPL) offers this toolkit to help global policymakers develop ways to recognise and practically address problems that arise from the stigma and taboo around menopause. Making menopause manageable by minimising stigma and improving support will benefit all of our constituents and ensure we create a culture where women are supported at every stage of their lives.

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Women Political Leaders Policy Toolkit: Women’s healthcare throughout their lives

This toolkit aims to identify some of the actions it will take to bring equality to women’s health and explore what can be done

to ensure women are able to live long and healthy lives. Women Political Leaders (WPL) is enormously grateful to the experts who took part in interviews that informed the development of this toolkit. A better understanding of women’s unmet health needs can help identify actions required to address them. As the saying goes: “communities are only as strong as the health of their women”.

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Boosting women’s economic empowerment: An action list for legislators report

In 2021, Google.org funded a report by Women Political Leaders entitled “Boosting women’s economic empowerment: An action list for legislators” which seeks to provide policymakers with a concrete set of indicators that will assist those seeking to legislate towards economic equality. The data, derived from The World Bank’s annual report on ‘Women, Business and the Law‘, shows that “nearly 2.4 billion women globally don’t have the same economic rights as men”; WPL has worked to provide a toolkit for legislators to remove these legal barriers to women.

Download the report by clicking here

those seeking to legislate towards economic equality. The data, derived from The World Bank’s annual report on ‘Women, Business and the Law‘, shows that “nearly 2.4 billion women globally don’t have the same economic rights as men”; WPL has worked to provide a toolkit for legislators to remove these legal barriers to women.

Download the report by clicking here

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WPL Global Study on Immunisation

The WPL Global Study on Immunisation shares the perspectives of political leaders toward vaccination programmes and its importance throughout the landscape of the pandemic. 

Höfði house report 2020

Höfði House will forever hold a place in history as the location of the 1986 Reykjavík Summit talks. Now, some 35 years later, it has become the site of the annual Power Together: Reykjavík Summit, a distinguished

roundtable discussion among women leaders to advance progress on the Women, Peace, and Security Agenda. The Höfði house report marks another step on the path to greater cooperation and international engagement. Together, the world’s leaders must renew their commitments to advance the Women, Peace, and Security agenda. 

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Time for a check up: The state of mental healthcare in Europe

Women Political Leaders (WPL), with the patronage of Centene Corporation, has carried out a Europe-wide survey of political leaders, policymakers, and healthcare professionals to illustrate the current state

of mental healthcare in 28 countries. The Report brings greater attention to the strengths and weaknesses currently at play. It presents evidence which could prove useful when shaping future healthcare solutions capable of responding to current challenges being highlighted by COVID-19 pandemic.

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The state of mental healthcare in Europe: Part 1

In the interest of sustaining and improving the global state of mental health in difficult times, Women Political Leaders (WPL) with the support of healthcare company Centene Corporation presents

the findings of the first (quantitative) phase report, mapping the comparative state of mental healthcare in EU Member States and the UK.

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Höfði house report 2019

The Power Together: Reykjavik Summit 2019 convened a group of women from the upper echelons of political leadership. Their reflections upon the countless challenges that linger for women in peace and security are

summarised in this report.

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Iron Deficiency and Women’s Health: A Practical Toolkit for Parliamentarians

WPL, with the support of Vifor Pharma, has produced an overview of  healthcare responses that demonstrates an astounding lack of gender-sensitive awareness surrounding ID and IDA’s impact on women.

The toolkit is an offer to policymakers for giving iron deficiency and iron deficiency anemia the awareness they need.  It highlights target areas for political action and proposes collaborative policy response that will allow parliamentarians to lead the charge in effectively reducing the presence of ID & IDA in women in the near future.

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WPL Latin America Regional Meeting 2019

Only 50 per cent of women participate in the labour market in Latin America. The price to pay for the whole region?  A lower level of well-being of the population and negative impacts on the development

process for this part of the world. The many protests sparking in Latin America in 2019 shouldn’t come as a surprise then.

This year, to capitalise on the commitment of female politicians in the region, the WPL Latin America Community met in Bogotá, Colombia. Leaders from Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil and Mexico, pointed out that women’s equality is essential for sustainable economic growth and good governance. They also identified current obstacles to the economic participation of women in Latin America.

Rebeca Grynspan, Ibero-American Secretary-General, and Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, United Nations Under-Secretary-General, and Executive Director of UN Women also contributed to the final report providing a more global vision to the challenges of the region.

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Policy focus

Höfði House Report: Power together

Women Political Leaders (WPL) is determined to highlight the work of women in the peace and security space, and encourages women leaders around the globe to demand and take their seats at the table for these pivotal decision making processes. WPL gathered extraordinary women leaders for a roundtable conversation about peace and security, one of the most pressing topics in society today, during the Women Leaders Global Forum on November 27, 2018. This roundtable, the first of its kind, was held in cooperation with the Council of Women World Leaders (CWWL), the University of Iceland, and Höfði Reykjavík Peace Centre.

The report contains the outcome of the roundtable discussions as well as the declaration issued by the participants “Declaration Women Leaders: Power, Together”.

 

Policy focus

Improving Maternal Healthcare for Vulnerable Women in EU28: What Can YOU Do?

The Women Political Leaders Global Forum (WPL) is launching a study called “Improving Maternal Healthcare for Vulnerable Women in EU28: What Can You Do?”, supported by MSD for Mothers.

This study is meant to be a tool for policymakers, who strive for access to healthcare for all women. It includes key recommendations for incorporating access to maternal healthcare for vulnerable women into EU policies.

 

Policy focus

Social Media: Advancing Women in Politics?

Over 900 female Parliamentarians from 107 countries participated in this unique survey based study, giving insights into their social media experiences and behaviour. Is social media a means to bypass the bias often found in classical media? Is it a tool to counter stereotypes that women political leaders face? In cooperating with Harvard University (Shorenstein Center) and Facebook, WPL assembled data and information on today’s chances and challenges of social media in politics.

Policy focus

The female political career

Why are still almost 80 % of the world’s Parliamentarians men, and only 17% of government ministers are women? Why are there, in 2016, only 19 female Heads of State or Government? The study “The Female Political Career” analyses survey answers of 617 female and male politicians from 84 countries. It is designed to understand the non-legal barriers that women face in the different phases of the political lifecycle. “The Female Political Career” is the result of a cooperation with the World Bank, the Universities of Yale and California-Berkeley, and it is supported by EY.