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Women have been vanishing from political leadership globally, and India currently has one of the lowest shares of women among cabinet ministers, according to a new factsheet published by the United Nations.
With a rank of 174 out of 181, India was placed in the second-lowest category of nations that have 2-9.9 per cent of women political leaders, UN noted.
The global picture is abysmal — the number of women in government's executive roles has reduced over the years, the intergovernmental organisation noted. As of January 1, 2025, only 22.9 per cent of heads of Cabinet ministries were women, down from 23.3 per cent in 2024.
There are more countries this year (nine) that have no women ministers than last year (seven). The number of cabinets with at least 50 per cent women ministers has dropped to just nine this year compared to 15 last year.
Discrimination and prejudice pervade portfolio allocation, the analysis found. "Women are most frequently appointed to positions related to gender equality (87 per cent) and family and children affairs (71 per cent)."
It is quite common, on the other hand, for men to be heading ministries that dominate issues of national and global importance. These include defence (87 per cent), financial and fiscal affairs (84 per cent) and foreign affairs (82 per cent).
Overall, only 27 countries were led by women, an improvement from 21 five years ago. Some 103 countries have never had a woman head of government, according to the publication Women Political Leaders 2025.
The lack of women in political leadership throttles women's voice on important issues that involve them, making their empowerment a challenging goal.
The regression of women's leadership comes at a time when women's rights are already threatened and cases violence against them have gone up.