The line graph indicates the proportion of female members of parliament in five European countries between 2000 and 2012.
Overall, the percentages of women in parliament of the five-mentioned countries increased over time. While there was a sharp growth in the figure for women in Italian parliament, that in Germany remained stable throughout the time frame.
Regarding to Italian parliament, the percentage of female members was the lowest at around 2,5% in 2000, before experiencing a remarkably upward trend from 2004 to 2008, peaking at nearly 25%. Moreover, while there was a gap of 20% between the figure for women in parliament in the UK and Italy at the beginning of the period, the UK didn’t make any profound changes in the rate of women in parliament in the first eight years, which was just under 20%. It was surpassed by that in Italy in 2008, after then reaching roughly 24% in 2012.
In terms of parliament in Germany, the rate of female members was the highest in comparison with that in the other countries, at over 30%. However, it just remained at under 40%, which was soon taken the lead by the proportions of women in parliament in Belgium and Spain during the first two years. Those of these two countries witnessed an even climb, reaching a peak of 35% before ending at about 37%.
