Women in parliament

In 1893 New Zealand became the first country to allow all adult women to vote. But it was not until 1919 that it allowed women to contest elections. Today, most countries allow both men and women to compete in elections. According to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, just under a fifth of members of the world's parliaments are women. Rwanda is the only country in the world where a majority of parliamentary seats are held by women. The country set aside 24 of 80 seats in its parliament for women. But in the last election, in 2008, women also won 21 of the seats where both sexes were free to compete. In contrast, women occupy only eight of the 290 seats in Iran's lower house, the majlis.