They are also a litmus test for political will and commitment to gender equality. Gender equality and womens empowerment, in particular, are recognised as essential components of human development and basic human rights. Yet nowhere, says the report of the United Nations (UN) to the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995, ‘is the gap between de jure and de facto equality among men and women greater than in the area of decision-making’ (UN 1995, p. 12). The 2016 World Economic Forum (WEF) Gender Gap Report (WEF 2016) noted that, while the gender gap in political participation was the widest that year, it exhibited the most progress, narrowing by 9 per cent since 2006.