At 17 per cent, the number of women parliamentarians worldwide is at an all time high, up from 11.3 per cent in 1995. However, at this rate gender equality will only be achieved by 2077. The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) presented its latest figures on women in parliament at UN Headquarters on 1 March 2007.

"This picture is quite far from satisfactory", said Margareth Mensah-Williams, Vice-Chairperson of the National Council of Namibia and Vice-President of the IPU Executive Committee. "Women hold half the world, so we should hold half the power", she said.

From left: Barbara Prammer, Anders B. Johnsson, Margareth Mensah-Williams UN photo/Evan Schneider

Rwanda has the highest percentage of women in parliament at 48.8 per cent and Sweden came in second with 47.3 per cent. Costa Rica came in third with 38.3 per cent, followed by the Netherlands, which has maintained 33 per cent over the past decade, and Austria with 32 per cent. Women speakers of parliament were elected for the first time in Gambia, Swaziland, Turkmenistan and the United States, holding a record 35 out of a total 262 speakers worldwide, according to the IPU.

In 2006 in the United Arab Emirates, women were allowed to stand for election and vote for the first time, giving that country the highest overall increase-from zero to 22.5 per cent women parliamentarians. "This reflects a growing trend in the Gulf States for representation and voting of women", said Anders B. Johnsson, Secretary-General of IPU. Gender quotas help "kick start to help women get into politics faster and in larger numbers", he said, and the IPU statistics support this argument: in 23 countries that had gender quotas, women took 21.7 per cent of seats in parliaments, as opposed to 11.8 per cent in countries without such quotas.

"We women who are in power have the responsibility to bring more women into parliament", said Barbara Prammer, Speaker of the Parliament of Austria. "It is not enough to be a woman in a political position; we have to do politics differently." She explained that she analyzed the position of women in her staff of 380 in the Austrian Parliament to determine whether they had sufficient opportunities to advance in their careers. Her next objective, she said, was to gender-balance the Austrian Parliament's 120 million Euro budget.

While the overall target was to reach gender parity in parliaments, reaching 30 per cent worldwide by 2010 would "set the world on the right road", said Ms. Mensah-Williams. "It just makes sense to have women in government, because we are peacebuilders. We build bridges of development and economic empowerment, and I feel that there will be less war in the world, because women will appropriate more funds for development than for weapons."

If women had more control of politics, the earth's environment would also be in better shape, contended Ms. Mensah-Williams. "Women are natural environmentalists; in Africa, it is women chopping the trees, making the fires, cultivating everything. Women are on the forefront, so if more women were Ministers of the Environment, the world would be a much better place." Ms. Prammer echoed this statement, saying that women politicians and non-governmental organization activists in Austria were leading the fight against global warming. "Women are more aware of the [environmental] situation, and feel a large responsibility to future generations; perhaps because we are mothers."