Despite the benefits of greater inclusion of women in politics, women in Japan and the UK still face barriers which restrict them from attaining full participation in political life. While the UK has shown significant progress in this regard, increasing female participation in the House of Commons from 18% in 1997 to 34% this year, female representation in the Lower House of the Japanese Diet is at only 9.9%, showing very limited improvement over the past 20 years.

This webinar will discuss the importance of women in politics, the current state of affairs in the UK and Japan, the various barriers and structural obstacles to female participation, and recommendations to deal with them.

Date: Friday 9 April 2021

UK Time: 12:00pm-1:00pm (BST)
Japan Time: 8:00pm-9:00pm (GMT+9)

About the contributors

Baroness Helena Kennedy QC is one of Britain’s most distinguished lawyers. She has spent her professional life giving voice to those who have least power within the system, championing civil liberties and promoting human rights. She has conducted many prominent cases of terrorism, official secrets and homicide. She is the founding force behind the establishment of the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights at the University of Oxford. In 1997, she was elevated to the House of Lords where she is a Labour peer. She has published two books on how the justice system is failing women, and has written and broadcasted on many issues over the years. Currently, she has taken on the role of Director to the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute. She directs the Institute’s work upholding the rule of law and human rights globally.

Mari Miura is Professor of Political Science, Faculty of Law, Sophia University. Ph.D. from University of California, Berkeley. Author of Welfare Through Work: Conservative Ideas, Partisan Dynamics, and Social Protection in Japan (Cornell University Press, 2012), editor of Japan’s Women Representatives (in Japanese, Asahi Shimbun Shuppansha, 2016), co-editor of Gender Quotas in Comparative Perspectives: Understanding the Increase in Women Representatives (in Japanese, Akashi Shoten, 2014). Co-founder of the “Academy for Gender Parity,” which provides training programs for young women to run for office. She received the Wilma Rule Award (IPSA Award for the Best Research on Gender and Politics) in 2018.

Sarah Childs is Professor of Politics & Gender at Royal Holloway, University of London in May 2020. Previously she was Professor of Politics & Gender at Birkbeck College, University of London (2017-2020), and the University of Bristol (2009-2014; lecturer and SL 2003-2009). In 2020 she published Feminist Democratic Representation (Oxford University Press, US), with Karen Celis (VUB). Other books include: New Labour’s Women MPs, 2004; Women and British Party Politics, 2008; Sex Gender and the Conservative Party, with Paul Webb, 2012; she is currently working on a new book Building Feminist Institutions. Sarah has also advised the UK House of Commons and in 2016 published The Good Parliament Report, which has given rise to a number of reforms at Westminster.

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