Although women remain significantly under-represented in today’s parliaments, they are now looking beyond the numbers to focus on what they can actually do while in parliament, how they can make an impact, whatever their numbers may be. They are learning the rules of the game and using this knowledge and understanding to promote women’s issues and concerns from inside the world’s legislatures. In so doing, they are not only increasing the chances of their own success, but they are also paving the way for a new generation of women to enter the legislative process.  

Women have been a growing factor in the world of the political influence industry. Their number has been increasing but despite these gains, there is still a substantial gap and the full potential of women in the field of government relations has yet to be tapped.  Seldom do women climb to the pinnacle of the lobbying profession. Yet, policymakers take female lobbyists seriously.

Female representatives have been expected to spur engagement with politics among other women. Female politicians may thus function as true role models, inspiring other women and girls to be politically active themselves. As the term “role model” suggests, female politicians can inspire younger women who are still learning about the political world and their place within it.

Empowerment is a process, though the result of the process may also be termed empowerment. More specifically, the outcome of empowerment for women should manifest itself as follows:

After each European election nearly half of the outgoing Members of the European Parliament re-enter the EP for an additional legislative term.

President François Hollande, seeking to reduce France’s punishingly high unemployment rate, has called for a “responsibility pact” with businesses that would reward companies that hire more people with lower taxes and greater flexibility.

Although some progress has been made, there is still an under-representation of women in national parliaments (in both Lower or Single Houses and Upper Houses or Senates of the EU Member States (see table below). Countries that have less than 20% women representation in their Lower Houses include: Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ireland, Malta, Romania , Cyprus and Hungary. For Upper Houses countries that have less than 20% women representation include: Czech Republic, Poland, Slovenia, Romania.

A growing number of  women have joined the public policy advocacy profession and they are moving into all sectors. Also as the ranks of women lawmakers have widened, more organizations have sought women public policy advocates. Today there's not a separation of labor and there is no group of any size or any consequence that doesn't have a female lobbyist. And, those lobbying groups reap the benefits of women's experience.

En tant que praticien possédant une longue expérience du lobbying, la réalité c’est que le lobbying ne peut-être enseigné à partir d’un livre et/ou d’une façon purement théorique ou académique. En vérité les compétences pour réussir dans ce domaine reposent plus sur les relations et un esprit critique que les gens ne le supposent. Ainsi lorsque quelqu’un s’inscrit à un cours sur le lobbying,  il devrait considéré non pas le lobbying en tant que sujet comme tel mais comme une compétence qui doit être développée individuellement.

As a practitioner with a long experience in public policy advocacy, the reality is that public policy advocacy can’t be taught out of a book and/or in a purely theorist/academic mode. Indeed the skills needed for success relies more on relationships and critical thinking than people think. As such, anyone who enters a class on public policy advocacy should really look at public policy advocacy not as a subject to be learned but as a skill that must be developed individually.