Women have a right to participate in any electoral role that is open to their fellow men. However, around the world, women are still underrepresented as voters, election officials, candidates and election observers. The Votes Without Violence project took a close look at the numbers of women that observers reported participating in elections in all capacities: overwhelmingly, women's participation levels still come in lower when compared to their fellow male citizens.
Women have a right to participate in any electoral role that is open to their fellow men. However, around the world, women are still underrepresented as voters, election officials, candidates and election observers. The Votes Without Violence project took a close look at the numbers of women that observers reported participating in elections in all capacities: overwhelmingly, women's participation levels still come in lower when compared to their fellow male citizens.
Of the incidents of violence that were reported by observers, the perpetrators were most likely to be men, regardless of the type of violence observed.
Of the reported incidents of violence, men were more likely to be targeted by harassment and violence than women; while women were more likely than men to be targeted by impersonation. In all categories, mixed-gender groups were the most frequently targeted.
Of the incidents that were reported by observers, 38% targeted voters, while 31% were against election officials, 23% were against party agents, and 8% were against observers.
One question that CEON’s observers were asked to report on was the breakdown of polling officials by gender: 27% of the officials at the polling stations observed were women.
CEON-U trained observers to report on hate speech, violence and intimidation against women candidates and their supporters. Of the reports received, only 8% of observers reported any acts of this gender-based violence.
98% of CEON-U’s observers reported that they had not witnessed or heard of any attacks against election officials, including acts of intimidation.
Women face violence from many different actors, whether from opposition political parties or members and leaders of their own parties, from election officials, candidates or elected representatives, and even from their own family and community members.
Observations should collect data on the common perpetrators of violence against women in elections. Importantly, perpetrators should not be assumed to be always men ...
