Abigail L. Wise

Across the globe, women are the majority of the population in countries of all sizes and all stages of development. The statistics regarding female political participation, however, do not measure up. Women's voices continue to go unheard in parliaments worldwide, despite positive reports about the benefits of including women in governance and on specific issues such as post-conflict peace-building efforts. Despite global support for UN legislation such as the Convention on Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and Security Council Resolution 1325, more remains to be done to ensure greater female political participation worldwide. In this presentation, I discuss the research I did this summer on elections taking place in 2014, and what efforts seem promising for the future of making women's voices heard.