Women in European Politics

Liz Truss was formally appointed as the new prime minister of the United Kingdom last Tuesday, following the resignation of Boris Johnson. Truss beat former Finance Minister Rishi Sunak by 81,326 votes to 60,399 in the Conservative Party leadership election, making her the third woman to serve as UK Prime Minister, after Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May.

In light of this, we asked ourselves: What’s the state of women’s participation in politics across Europe? According to the latest data from the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), the European average for the share of women in each country’s respective Lower House or national parliament reached 31.3 percent in August this year. The Nordic countries have a high percentage of participation (44.7 percent) closely followed by Spain, with 43 percent.

The highest share of participation is held by Iceland, with 47.6 percent, and the lowest by Hungary, with 14.1 percent.