5th ISA Forum of Sociology (6-11 July 2025)

Women remain under-represented in politics across most of the globe. While there have been efforts over the years to ensure gender equality, these efforts have however come with setbacks as gender equality is slowly advancing. For instance, women currently constitute 26.9 percent of all members in legislative bodies in the world (Inter-Parliamentary Union, 2024). There are 28 women serving as Heads of State and/or Government (UN Women, 2024). According to the 2024 Global Gender Gap Report, at the current rate, it will take about 134 years to reach gender parity. According to the report, besides the economic gender gap, the political gender gap is the most challenging to close. Women’s equal participation and representation in politics are vital to achieving the United Nations’ (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Women’s political representation is important for various policies and public goods related to education, health care, social welfare, and family.

This session invites papers that examine gender (in)equality in politics, progress in women’s representation, and challenges to achieving equality. This session welcomes papers that address advances in national and international policies on gender and politics that aim at promoting gender equality. The submissions could be case studies from a country or comparative studies across different countries on gender and politics broadly construed.