GENDER BALANCE IN 2020

Since May 2017, “[d]elegations are strongly encouraged to seek gender diversity” (Rules of Procedure, Article 1). Through this revision of the Rules of Procedure, the Assembly signalled its commitment to aiming towards a more representative gender balance, without imposing rigid rules as certain delegations face objective obstacles. The Assembly’s approach is therefore mostly based on raising awareness and encouraging incremental change.

The constitution of delegations after parliamentary elections present key moments when change can take place. Ten parliaments have had elections since the previous review. Of the seven delegations for which the data is relevant1 , four include more women than the previous delegations. Others have remained all-male delegations.

The sections below show overall progress towards a more gender-balanced Assembly membership in the past year.

The proportion of women in the International Secretariat remains steadily high.

1- North Macedonia did not have a member delegation before and the data for the United States is not taken into account due to the specific rules regarding the composition of that delegation. The Montenegrin and Romanian delegations had not been appointed yet at the time of writing.

REPRESENTATION OF MEN AND WOMEN IN NATIONAL DELEGATIONS

Gender balance in national delegations 2021

N/A indicates data that is either not available, e.g., a delegation has not yet appointed its members after an election or data that is not taken into consideration, e.g., prior to a new members’ accession.

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Delegations led by a woman

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Gender balance among participants in the Annual Session 2020

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The figures presented above show a positive evolution in the representation of women in the Assembly in the past year:

While the overall share of women in national delegations has remained relatively stable in past years at 14-16%, it currently stands at 18.8%, the highest share since reporting began (2016).
Seven delegations are led by women, the highest number in the past five years.
At the online Annual Session in November 2020, 26% of participants, i.e., members and alternates, were women. This is the highest share since statistics have been compiled (2016) and surpasses the previous record in 2018 (20%).
As mentioned above, of the delegations which have held elections since the last report, four have a larger number of women than prior to elections.

In contrast, the number of all-male delegations has hovered over the past four years, at 8-9. It currently stands at 8. In addition, the proportion of women in 18 national delegations to the NATO PA remains lower than the representation of women in their respective parliaments. In three of these, however, the gap is fairly small. In eight countries, the share of women is higher in their NATO PA delegations than in their respective parliaments. Overall, the picture regarding the composition of NATO PA delegations shows improvement, which will hopefully be sustained in coming years.