With assistance from NDI’s “Enhancing Women’s Participation in Elections” program, Jordanian women achieved unprecedented levels of participation and success in the September 20, 2016, parliamentary elections. More than 250 women nationwide ran for office, and 20 won seats to serve as Members of Parliament. Five of those women won competitive seats, rather than one of the 15 quota seats, demonstrating women’s increasing levels of political activism and influence throughout the country.

When Vicky Zwein ran in municipal elections in 2004, she was already a young mother, aged 29, and was expecting another baby. She was nominated by her political party, the National Liberal Party, and with the support of her family and especially her husband she started canvassing her neighborhood. “People would tell me that it was not the right moment to run since I have children and that I need to take care of them. But my answer was, it’s BECAUSE I want to take care of my children that I am running.”

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the signing of the peace accords that ended Guatemala’s 36-year internal conflict that deeply divided the country. However, in the two subsequent decades many of the accords’ goals remain to be achieved in critical areas such as rule of law, social justice, and the alleviation of poverty for marginalized groups including women, indigenous people, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) communities.

NDI's Gender, Women and Democracy (GWD) team has been working in partnership with Thomas Carothers, vice president for studies and director of the Democracy and Rule of Law Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, to explore the ways democracy assistance treats the issue of gender equality and women's political empowerment, in various political environments.