Women This Week: Historic Number of Women Lawmakers Elected in Britain

New UK Cabinet Includes Highest Number of Female Members in History 

The United Kingdom’s newly elected Parliament has broken records for including the highest proportion of women and ethnically diverse lawmakers in history. Of the 650 Members of Parliament elected, more than 40 percent are women, an increase from 33 percent in 2019. The proportion of lawmakers from ethnic minority backgrounds has also increased from 10 to 14 percent. “The 2024 election is a landmark for representation, with record diversity in our parliament, closer than ever to that of the electorate,” said Sunder Katwala, director of British Future. In another first, the cabinet announced by Britain’s new Prime Minister Keir includes the largest number of women in history. Rachel Reeves has become the first-ever female chancellor, a decision that some are calling a “game-changer.” The chancellor is the UK’s chief financial minister.  

Russia Orders Arrest of Yulia Navalnaya, Aleksei Navalny’s Widow   

This week, Russia convicted Yulia Navalnaya, the wife of opposition leader Aleksei Navalny, on charges of extremism. The charges against her cited Navalnaya’s role in leading the advisory board of her late husband’s NGO, the Foundation for Fighting Corruption, which now operates internationally. Navalnaya has been placed on the international wanted list and would be subject to arrest if she returns to Russia. Navalnaya responded to the decision by saying, “When you write about this, please do not forget to write the main thing: Vladimir Putin is a murderer and a war criminal.” She continued, “His place is in prison, and not somewhere in The Hague, in a cozy cell with a TV, but in Russia—in the same colony and the same two-by-three-meter cell in which he killed Aleksei.” 

Female Sprinter Selected for Afghan Olympic Team  

Afghan sprinter Kimia Yousofi has been selected to represent Afghanistan in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games from her training base in Australia and will compete in the one-hundred-meter sprint. This will be Yousofi’s third Olympics. Yousofi, who served as Afghanistan’s flag bearer for the 2021 Tokyo Games, said that “It’s an honor to represent the girls of my homeland once again.” She also added that she “represent[s] the stolen dreams and aspirations of these women.” The Afghan Olympic Committee, which operates from outside the country, extended their gratitude to the Australian Olympic Committee for its support of Yousofi. Yousofi’s Australia-based coach, John Quinn, praised her technical improvement since the last Olympic Games, as well as her ability to “juggle [everything] – training, a new language, getting her family here, all those things.”  

Imaan Mirza is the intern for the Women and Foreign Policy Program