16 Gender and Security Toolkit Ê A mere 24.3 per cent of the world’s parliamentarians were women, and only 46 countries had surpassed the 30 per cent threshold in women’s representation.* Ê Regional analysis reveals that parliaments in Nordic countries had 42.5 per cent women MPs, followed by the Americas with 30.6 per cent. The Pacific region had the lowest proportion of women at 16.3 per cent. Ê Amongst OSCE participating States, the average percentage of women in parliament was 26.7 per cent (see Table 1). Table 1: Women in parliament in OSCE countries, regional average Category Single house or lower house (%) Upper house or senate (%) Both houses combined (%) Europe – OSCE participating States, including the Nordic countries 28.6 28.1 28.5 Europe – OSCE participating States, excluding the Nordic countries 27.2 28.1 27.4 Source: Inter-Parliamentary Union (2019) “Women in national parliaments: Regional averages (situation as of 1 April 2019)”, http://archive.ipu.org/wmn-e/arc/world010419.htm. Among the top ten countries in terms of women’s participation, there are six nations from Latin America and the Caribbean: Cuba, Bolivia, Mexico, Grenada, Nicaragua and Costa Rica have either achieved gender parity or come close to it. Progress is being made. In 2007 women constituted only 17 per cent of parliamentarians worldwide, with only 18 countries reaching or surpassing 30 per cent female representation.11 Within parliaments, the distribution of committee membership/leadership also tends to be gendered; health and education feature more women parliamentarians than found in defence, budgets and foreign affairs committees, which are typically male-led. It is significant that the advances made over the past decade are being translated into genderbalanced parliamentary committees in some contexts. Both male and female parliamentarians share responsibility for making parliamentary oversight more reflective of the population at large. The attainment of gender equality has to be a goal for parliament in and of itself. A more diverse, inclusive parliament constitutes a more effective body in ensuring that all its oversight functions integrate a gender perspective. * Data on women in national parliaments are published by the Inter-Parliamentary Union, https://data.ipu.org/.