Op-Eds
January 26, 2021
Excerpted from Gender Quota Helps Women Win in Egypt, published in Medium on January 26, 2021 by RepresentWomen's Fatma Tawfik.
In 2019, after Egypt witnessed a long fight for gender equality in the political, economic and social spheres, the Egyptian parliament approved a constitutional amendment that includes a gender quota, reserving 25 percent of parliamentary seats for women.
Following the critical election in 2020, the new members of parliament (MPs) took their oath of office on January 12, 2021, marking the new year as a historical one for women’s representation. Women achieved their highest level of representation in Egypt, since winning the right to vote and run for office in 1956.
In the new parliamentary term (2021–2026), women won 162 seats out of 596 seats, 142 MPs won from party list constituencies, six from individual constituencies, and 14 through presidential appointments. With the combination of women’s electoral successes this election cycle and presidential appointments, women now make up 27 percent of the Egyptian Parliament; Egypt now ranks 67th in the world for women’s representation.
Prior to this year, women’s representation in the Egyptian parliament has never exceeded 15 percent. In recent years, women’s representation has even dropped below five percent; during the 2000–2005 term women only held two percent of seats in parliament.
Read the full article here.
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