International Women’s Day – Exclusion by Gender in 2022

Today marks the International Women’s Day. This week’s graph shows the 2022 global state of women’s political exclusion.

Gender-based exclusion is especially high in countries currently experiencing conflict, such as Yemen, Afghanistan, Somalia, and Iraq, but also palpable in many places across the Middle East, North Africa, Latin America and in the Asia-Pacific region. Afghanistan and Yemen are the world’s worst countries for women’s political inclusion according to the V-Dem V13 dataset. In Afghanistan, the Taliban regime quickly dismantled nearly all rights Afghan women gained over the past 20 years. Latest restrictions ban divorces and reverse previous ones, ban girls from secondary education, women from studying at universities and from working in NGOs. In Yemen, women are practically absent from political decision-making processes. In other countries with high levels of gender-based exclusion like Papua New Guinea, Iran, Tajikistan, and Sudan women’s exclusion leads to a huge gap in literacy and basic education, higher risks of gender-based violence, and discrimination by the justice system.

Gender equality is an intrinsic feature of democratic societies.

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