Equality in politics
In the reporting year, Liechtenstein celebrated 40 years of women's suffrage. With the special exhibition "From half to the whole electorate" at the National Museum, the introduction of women's suffrage was historically reappraised and made public with a comprehensive accompanying program of lectures, discussions with contemporary witnesses and materials from the Women's Archive. On International Women's Day, the Department for Equal Opportunities launched a ceremony and the Women's Archive, which was set up by the "Women in good shape" association, was handed over to the National Museum.
However, even 40 years after the introduction of women's suffrage, women are still significantly underrepresented in politics. The unequal representation of women in government, parliament and municipalities is relevant in terms of human rights because it violates the right to equal treatment and political participation. The underrepresentation is also evident in commissions and advisory boards: as of December 2023, the proportion of men was 72.8 percent and no women were represented in 16 of 51 committees. The draft gender equality strategy includes measures to increase the participation of women in political offices and committees. However, no targets have been set.
The "Diversity in Politics"(ViP) project founded by the Women's Network in 2019 has shown impressive success in mobilizing women for political work. It developed processes that are suitable for maintaining a more balanced ratio of women and men in political bodies in the long term. In the reporting year, the project prepared for the state elections in spring 2025. The project will end after the state elections. In order to achieve a long-term gender balance in political bodies, the project's findings and successful measures must be continued as part of the gender equality strategy.
Integrate the successful measures of the "Diversity in politics" project for the balanced representation of women and men in political bodies into the national gender equality strategy.