Which Caribbean Countries Have the Most Female Members of Parliament?

Above: Grenada

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Across the world, female political representation continues to be an issue.

Most recently, it’s become a significant issue in Jamaica, where the 51 Percent Coalition has been pushing for more women in Parliament (and in boardrooms) in the country.

So we decided to take a look at the Parliaments in the Caribbean that have the most female members.

In order to find out, we examined data compiled by the World Bank that ranked sovereign countries around the world by the percentage of parliamentarians who were women. (The data considered the percentage of seats in a single or lower chamber held by women).

So which countries in the Caribbean had the most female members in 2013?

Cuba had the highest rate, with 49 percent of its Parliament made up of women, followed by Grenada, which led CARICOM countries with 33 percent of its Parliament comprised of women.

Second in CARICOM was Guyana, where 31 percent of Parliamentarians are women.

As a point of comparison, women made up 23 percent of United Kingdom lawmakers, while US lawmakers were 18 percent women.

See below for the full ranking: