GENEVA (AN) —The percentage of women elected to parliaments more than doubled in three decades but the recent progress on advancing women’s and girls’ rights has slowed amid a "mainstreaming of misogyny."
That's the picture from several reports on Thursday commemorating three decades since 189 nations attended a 1995 conference that adopted the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, a blueprint for achieving equal rights for women and girls and fighting gender-based violence.
The blueprint called for action in 12 areas such as elevating more women to leadership positions in government and business and doing far more to combat poverty, educate girls and eliminate gender-based violence.
World average figures show women hold 27.2% of the seats in parliaments in 2025 comparied with 11.3% in 1995, the Inter-Parliamentary Union reported on Thursday. The Geneva-based global organization, which is not part of the United Nations, includes 181 national parliaments.
The average rate of gains for women-held seats accelerated between 2000 and 2015 but slowed in the last decade, the IPU's report said based on data for 185 countries in 2025 compared with data for 172 countries in 1995.
Bots 'multiplying' online violence
Meantime, U.N. Women reported that almost 1-in-4 countries faced a backlash over women’s rights in 2024. Despite some progress, it said, just 87 countries have ever been led by a woman – and, around the world, a woman or girl is killed every 10 minutes by a partner or family member.
The report, issued ahead of International Women’s Day on Saturday, said cases of conflict-related sexual violence rose 50% just since 2022. It emphasized the role of digital technology and artificial intelligence in spreading harmful stereotypes, noting that bots are "multiplying the speed and scale of online violence" and gaps remain in legal frameworks on technology and gender discrimination in the media.
“Globally, women’s human rights are under attack,” U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said. “Instead of mainstreaming equal rights, we’re seeing the mainstreaming of misogyny.”
This is a developing story and will be updated.
