More women than ever hold seats in parliaments around the world, but governments need to make a greater effort to achieve gender equality, says a group that tracks women in politics.

The Inter-Parliamentary Union said Thursday in New York at UN headquarters that women now comprise nearly 17 per cent of parliamentarians now, up from 11.3 per cent 12 years ago.

Anders Johnsson, secretary general of the IPU, said that women are not only standing for election in greater numbers than before, they are getting elected, thanks in part to quota systems.

In countries with gender quotas, women took 21.7 per cent of seats compared with 11.8 per cent in countries without.

However, Johnsson said, the rate at which women have been making gains has slowed.

"The good news is that the number of seats held by women in parliament continues to go up and now has reached an all time high of nearly 17 per cent in 2006," he said.

"The bad news is the increase in the number of women is slower than it was in the preceding year. If we are aiming for equality in parliament — in other words, roughly 50 per cent men and 50 per cent women — we will wait until the year 2077 to celebrate that event."

Of the women who won seats in 2006, 1,459 were directly elected, 63 were indirectly elected, and 35 were appointed. A total of 9,335 seats were up for grabs in 2006, with women capturing 16.7 per cent of seats. A total of 23 countries used quota systems last year.

Johnsson said there are more female presiding officers of parliament than ever before: a total of 35 out of 262 worldwide, with a record number of women elected speakers.

Remarkable gains

Women speakers were elected for the first time in Gambia, Israel, Swaziland, Turkmenistan and the U.S., with the election of U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
 
Of heads of government, he said, the numbers of women more than doubled last year, with six elected in 2006 alone, including Chilean President Michelle Bachelet.

In some countries and regions, the increases in the numbers of women were remarkable, he said. The regions where gains were made include the Gulf States, the Middle East and Latin America.

For example, the United Arab Emirates allowed men and women to vote and to stand for election for the first time ever in 2006. The number of women in the UAE parliament went from zero to 22.5 per cent, with nine women elected.

"That reflects a growing trend in that part of the world where more and more women not only get the right to vote and stand for election, but also they are actually getting elected to parliament," he said.

Rwanda leads list

And in Costa Rica, after an election in 2006, women now make up 38.6 per cent of parliamentarians, with 22 women elected. There were 20 elections in all in Latin America last year.

According to a table compiled by the IPU, which classifies 189 countries by descending order of the percentage of women in their respective parliaments, including lower or upper houses, Rwanda, Sweden and Costa Rica are the top three.

In Rwanda, women occupy 48.8 per cent of seats in its Lower House, while in Sweden, women make up 47.3 per cent of its parliamentarians.

Canada ranks 47 on the list, given that only 20.8 per cent of its MPs are female. Of 308 federal seats, 64 were won by women in the last federal election in January 2006. And only 35 out of its 100 senators are women.

There were elections in 51 countries in all last year. The IPU, established in 1889, is an international organization of parliaments of sovereign states , with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.