The line graph depicts the percentage of women elected to work in parliament in 5 European nations from 2000 to 2012, with a 4-year interval.
Overall, the percentage of women working in parliament increased by varying degrees in all examined countries, with the most drastic rise being seen in the UK. Despite this, this country remained the nation with the lowest proportion of parliamentary female members throughout the given timeframe.
Looking first at Germany and Italy, the former started with the highest figure on the whole chart, with approximately 34 percent of parliamentary women workers in Germany. The proportion of women holding a position in parliament, then, increased gradually to reach a peak at just north of 35 percent in 2012. By comparison, the figure for Italy saw a more pronounced rise. Commencing at around 26 percent, the percentage of Italian women working in parliament grew markedly, surpassing that of Germany at 35 percent in 2009 before peaking at nearly 40 percent at the end of the period.
Turning to the remaining countries, the figure for the UK started at 4 percent, after which it saw a dramatic growth before ending the period at around 28 percent. The percentage of women holding a parliamentary position in Belgium rose noticeably from 16 percent in 2000 to 27 percent 2004, where it almost levelled off at this point, eventually reaching parity with that of the UK. As for France, the data revealed that there was a fluctuation in the range of 25 to 37 percent, peaking at 37% in 2005 before finishing the period at 32%.
