PACE Winter session: 25-29 January 2010

Positive discrimination needed in electoral systems to increase political representation of women  
 
Under-representation of women in politics is a threat to the legitimacy of democracies. The global situation is severe with less than 20% of parliamentary seats held by women and not even 5% women heads of state. At the end of a debate on the ways to increase women's representation in politics through the electoral system, the Assembly called on  member states to employ a series of measures to rectify this situation by reforming electoral systems and by applying positive discrimination, such as introducing quotas for women on political party lists (in countries with a proportional representation system).

The adopted texts, based on the proposals by Lydie Err (Luxembourg, SOC), also encourage measures such as  gender-sensitive civic education in political parties who, together with the media and trade unions, have traditionally often shown "built-in" bias against women.