The Liberian Vice President Jewel Howard-Taylor has called on the government of Japan to ensure that more women are involved in electioneering processes to allow for gender equality in the parliament of the East Asian nation.
She was speaking at the Women Political Leaders (WPL) Summit 2019 in Tokyo. The summit was under the theme: “Advancing Society through Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).”
The office of the Vice President says WPL preceded the Group of Twenty (G-20) Summit hosted by Japan for the first time since the establishment of the G20 in 1999.
The WPL, said to be an independent and non-partisan foundation, is a global network of female politicians which is headquartered in Iceland, and is understood to be the global champion of equality between men and women.
The Liberian vice president indicated in the statement that that Japan has low female parliamentarians performance which accounts for only 10% of female occupying seats in the lower house and 20% in the upper house.
She expressed support for women who are in elected positions and challenged women to support each other, citing that they should reduce words and increase their actions, and that it was vital to establish quotas in various countries to reflect more women participation in parliament and cabinet positions.
Notwithstanding, she hailed the Women of Liberia who finally broke the “glass ceiling” by electing former president Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf as Africa and Liberia’s first female President, thus “opening the doors for many women in Liberia and Africa at large.”
The 2019 Women Political Leaders Summit was attended by 230 women from more than 30 countries across the world.
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