Political parties and gender equality: A guide to inside-out transformation

Even though gender balanced representation is crucial in a democracy, women remain underrepresented in public offices around the world. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, women make for 50.9% of the population, but only 27.4% of women were elected in 2018 General Election. The Political Parties and Gender Equality: A Guide to Inside-Out Transformation represents a response to the findings of the Baseline Study on Barriers to Political Participation of Women in Bosnia and Herzegovina published in 2020. It is intended to inform political parties in considering different strategies for strengthening women's political participation and their political influence in political processes by reinforcing parties’ internal structures. The Guide presents the strategic approaches to achieving gender equality, explaining the stages and methods used to develop gender equality policy, it draws from international practice and experience presented in an array of studies and publications of international and civil society organizations, and highlights some of the most frequently used strategies to ensure political participation of women in party structures and decision making processes, and to strengthen women’s participation in political life. Strategies presented in this Guide target internal structures and institutional strengthening of political parties by formalizing party rules and procedures. The Guide is intended for all political parties in Bosnia and Herzegovina, those with already developed internal structures and applying some of the strategies for gender equality, and the newly formed political parties or parties which have not dealt with gender equality issues on a systemic level before.