[watch the video of Shobha's talk] In a forceful address ahead of Nigeria’s 2027 elections, gender justice leader Shobha Shukla declared that inclusive democracy is not a side issue - it is a core gender justice demand. Women form roughly half of humanity and a large share of voters, yet they hold only a fraction of real political power. Speaking at a session organised by the Moment for Women Alliance and African Girls Empowerment Network (The AGE Network), Shobha warned that formal voting rights mean little when women remain locked out of the rooms where laws are written and budgets decided.
The numbers that shame democracy
Shobha opened with the hard data. Globally, women occupy just 27.5 percent of parliamentary seats and 22.4 percent of cabinet positions. Of 193 countries, only seven have reached 50 percent women in parliament and just 14 have achieved gender parity in cabinets. Only 28 countries currently have a woman as head of state or government. More than 100 nations - half the world - have never had one. At the present pace, true parity at the highest levels of political power will take more than 130 years.
These figures, she stressed, are not abstract. They represent the systematic exclusion of half the population from decisions that shape healthcare, education, wages, land rights, violence against women, childcare and access to justice. When women are missing from those rooms, policies are incomplete and often harmful.
Voting rights were never enough
Shobha reminded the audience that the right to vote itself was hard-won. New Zealand became the first country to grant women parliamentary suffrage, the product of long feminist struggle. Yet even today, Afghanistan, Eritrea and Vatican City deny women the right to vote. In most democracies, numerical strength at the ballot box has not translated into power in decision-making.
"It is we women who have to speak for ourselves and make others speak too,” she said. A democracy that asks half its citizens merely to vote while keeping them underrepresented in law-making and policy spaces fails its own claim of equality. Political equality cannot stop at the ballot box.
Presence without power changes nothing
Shobha rejected the idea that simply adding more women to existing structures will solve the problem. Representation is not only about numbers; it is about rights, agency and the redistribution of power. Quoting the late US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, she recalled Ginsburg’s reply when asked what number of women on the Supreme Court Bench - out of total nine seats.- would be 'enough' for her. Ginsburg replied that she would be happy when all nine judges were women, because men had dominated the institution for so long.
Presence without real influence, Shobha argued, delivers neither equality nor justice. The goal is not token seats. The goal is to ensure that women’s lived realities shape the political agenda itself.
The barriers that keep women out
Shobha identified interlocking structural obstacles. Patriarchal norms still equate leadership with masculine traits - authority, aggression, public command - while associating women with caregiving. Women are judged more harshly on appearance and family status. The same behaviour praised as decisive in a man is often labelled aggressive in a woman. Ambition in men is celebrated; in women it is frequently criticised as selfishness.
Unpaid care work forms another powerful barrier. Women still shoulder a disproportionate burden of childcare, elder care and domestic labour, leaving less time for political organising and campaigning. Political parties, which control nominations, funding and support, remain male-dominated in many places. Women who do enter politics face harassment, intimidation and online violence designed to silence them rather than simply disagree with them.
What must change
Shobha outlined concrete demands. Quotas and reservations, where appropriate, can disrupt systems that repeatedly favour men. But numbers alone are insufficient. Institutions must become places where women can speak, lead and influence outcomes without punishment. Political parties must give women equal access to nominations, leadership roles, campaign finance and training, and confront internal discrimination and harassment.
Societies must also tackle the unequal distribution of care. Public investment in affordable childcare, parental leave and social protection is a political necessity. As long as care work remains heavily feminised, women’s equal participation in public life will stay out of reach.
A critical moment for Nigeria and beyond
The African Girls Empowerment Network (AGE Network) session took place as Nigeria prepares for its 2027 elections - an important window for advocates to push for stronger inclusion. Shobha, founder-Executive Director of CNS is known for her leadership role at SHE & Rights global campaign for gender equality and human right to health. She also authored the 2026 book "Justice Unbound: Feminist Voices on Gender Equality, Health Rights, and Inclusive Futures," linked political representation to wider struggles for health equity and social justice.
Her message was unambiguous. A system that leaves half its population underrepresented in the institutions that decide the policies for everyone is not yet a full democracy. Inclusive democracy is a gender justice issue because the exclusion of women systematically shapes laws, resources and priorities in ways that disadvantage women and girls.
Until political power is redistributed - not merely complemented with a few more female faces - the claim of equal citizenship will remain incomplete. Half the world continues to wait for its fair share of power.
