TED Initiative - Women and Youth as Political Drivers Webinar

Political party and parliamentary support programming increasingly recognises that these institutions are not merely representative bodies, but core pillars of democratic governance, responsible for law-making, oversight and accountability of the executive. Inclusive political participation strengthening is therefore central to democratic resilience, with growing emphasis on the role of youth and women. This reflects wider evidence that democracies are more durable where parliaments and parties are effective, representative and accessible.

Across democratic and semi-democratic systems alike, youth and women remain structurally under-represented in political decision-making, despite their central role in social mobilisation, electoral participation and community-level governance. While global and European policy frameworks promote inclusive political participation, including through the EU Youth Action Plan in EU External Action (2022–2027), formal political arenas, such as political parties, parliaments and institutionalised participatory platforms, often remain inaccessible or actively hostile to younger actors and women. For instance, mechanisms intended to institutionalise youth (political) participation, including youth sounding boards, structured youth dialogues and engagement with young parliamentarians, frequently remain consultative in nature and limited in connection to party and parliamentary decision-making, limiting their transformative impact.

Comparative evidence, including the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR) study Women in Politics: Local and European Trends, highlights the gatekeeping role of political parties in shaping access to elected office. Candidate selection procedures, informal party hierarchies, age-based seniority norms, unequal access to political finance and weak enforcement of gender equality commitments continue to constrain youth and women’s advancement, particularly at senior levels. Parliaments, while often more gender-balanced than parties, provide limited pathways from activism to representation and frequently reproduce unequal power relations through committee assignments, leadership positions and procedural norms that marginalise influence.

These structural barriers are compounded by widespread intersectional discrimination, violence and harassment in politics. Psychological abuse, online harassment, threats and reputational attacks are increasingly used to deter women and youth, and particularly young women and LGBTQI+ individuals, from entering or remaining in political life. Such violence is also rarely sanctioned effectively. Weak enforcement of codes of conduct and limited people-centred (survivor) mechanisms further reinforce impunity and self-censorship, with direct consequences for political participation and leadership trajectories.

These dynamics are also unfolding in an increasingly contested international environment. Recent analysis by Demo Finland and the European Democracy Hub in China’s Development Playbook: A Test for European Democracy Support highlights the power-play of influence. External actors are also investing directly in political parties, parliaments and state institutions through non-normative, state-centric approaches that prioritise stability, elite cooperation and rapid delivery over inclusive participation. Such engagement often bypasses or deprioritises gender equality, youth leadership and safeguards against discrimination and harassment, while appealing to political actors frustrated by conditionality or slow reform processes.

In some contexts, these approaches reach political elites, youth constituencies and marginalised groups that democracy support struggles to engage consistently, reshaping incentives within parties and parliaments and narrowing space for transformative participation. Where youth participation, for instance, is channelled primarily through informal or parallel platforms rather than embedded within political parties and parliaments, democratic systems risk losing a generation of leaders to disengagement, co-optation or alternative governance models. For Europe, this raises strategic questions about how to sustain inclusive political participation as a core element of democratic resilience, and how programmes supporting women’s and youth leadership can remain credible, politically relevant and competitive. 

At the same time, youth- and women-led movements, party caucuses, parliamentary initiatives, including peer-to-peer parliamentary cooperation, and digital participatory platforms are reshaping political agendas on democracy, climate, social justice and accountability. Understanding how these actors function as political drivers within and alongside formal institutions, or outside them, is critical for donor external action, democracy support and development cooperation.

This webinar aims to contribute to that understanding by bringing together policy actors, practitioners and civil society organisations, in collaboration with the Women and Youth Democratic Engagement (WYDE) programme and members of the Team Europe Democracy (TED) Network, especially those active in both initiatives. It creates space for exchange on how democracy support and development cooperation can better enable youth and women’s political leadership, address the barriers (structural and normative), while strengthen links between programming, civil society networks and practitioners working on inclusive political participation.