Even as democracy grows in Eastern European and African nations, the overall number of women in parliaments is declining. The Inter-Parliamentary Union reported Sunday that of 105 parliaments women made up only 11.3 percent of legislators. This represents a drop from 1988 when women made up 14.8 percent of legislators. The higher percentages of women legislators occurs mainly in the Scandinavian countries, where they make up 40.4 percent in Sweden, 39.4 percent in Norway, and 33.5 percent in Finland. The United States, which has one of the lowest percentages of female legislators among Scandinavian and Western European countries, ranks 43rd out of the 105 countries with eight female Senators and forty-eight Representatives, or roughly ten percent representation in Congress.
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