The line graph compares statistics about how many women were members of parliament in five different European countries from 2000 to 2012.
Overall, it is clear that, despite some fluctuations, there was an upward trend in the percentage of female members of parliament in all given countries.
In 2000, German females were by far the highest proportion of members of parliament with about 34%, while 27% of Italian women participated in parliament. The figures for French and Belgian female members of parliament were 25% and 17%, respectively and English females accounted for the lowest percentage of parliamentarians. In 2004, there was a dramatic increase in the percentage of parliamentarians of French and Belgian women, which were 37% and 28%, respectively.
From 2008 to 2012, the figures for German and French parliamentarians rose slightly which were 36% and 32%, respectively, whereas the percentage of Italian parliamentarians reached a peak at 39%. At the end of the period, the proportions of Belgian and English female parliamentarians remained at the same level, with 28%.