Wednesday, September 29, 2021

Iceland Parliament (Almost) Reaches Gender Parity and Europe's First Female-Majority Legislature

Iceland Elected the First Female-Majority Parliament in Europe. A Recount Reversed It.

Iceland heralded a weekend election result that would have made it the first country in Europe to have more women than men in parliament. But the celebrations were brief: A late recount put it just below gender parity.

 

Early results showed women won 33 seats in Iceland’s 63-seat Parliament, known as the Althing, up from 24 in the previous vote. Hours later, a surprise recount in the west of the country changed the outcome, leaving female candidates with 30 seats, according to state broadcaster RUV.

That is still the highest representation for women in Europe, at nearly 48 percent, ahead of Sweden and Finland with 47 percent and 46 percent, respectively.

 

“The female victory remains the big story of these elections,” politics professor Olafur Hardarson told the state broadcaster after the recount.

 

On average, just over a quarter of legislators globally are women, according to data from the Inter-Parliamentary Union. Only three countries — Rwanda, Cuba and Nicaragua — have more women than men in parliament, while Mexico and the United Arab Emirates have a 50-50 split.

 

Iceland, a North Atlantic island of 371,000 people, has been ranked the most gender-equal country in the world for more than a decade by the World Economic Forum, based on measures such as economic opportunities, education, health and political leadership. It even bettered its overall score last year at a time when global progress stagnated during the coronavirus pandemic.

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/gender_law/2021/09/iceland-parliament-almost-reaches-gender-parity-and-europes-first-female-majority-legislature.html

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