The line chart demonstrates the proportion of women serving as parliament members across five nations in Europe from 2000 to 2012.
Overall, despite with different rates, the percentage of females in Spain, Belgium, the UK and Italy increased throughout the given period, and Germany was the only nation to remain relatively stable. Italy had the most dramatic rise even though it represented the lowest share in the beginning.
In 2000, women in Italy made up only around 3% of parliament members, but in 2004, the figure surged to almost 25% in 2008 without much change until 2012. Similarly, in the beginning Belgium and Spain had roughly 23 and 27 percent of women representation respectively, followed by a significant rise to about 35% in 2004 in both nations. However, whereas Spain had a slight decline in 2012, Belgium reached just below 40% in the same year.
The UK and Germany experienced relatively less dramatic rise in the given years. In 2000, the UK had around 17% of women sitting in the parliament, followed by a small increase to around 23% from 2004 to 2012. Germany, however, levelled off at about 32% throughout the recorded years.