Final Report Gender Election Observation Mission The Netherlands 2025
On October 29th, the Netherlands took a bold step forward in gender equality as the ballots delivered a historic number of elected women in the Dutch Parliament.
Gender Concerns International, through its Gender Election Observation Mission (GEOM NL 2025), has released its final report, shedding critical light on women's participation as voters, election administrators, and candidates. This effort builds on the foundation established by previous observation missions in 2017 and 2021, aiming to measure progress and foster an evolving space to support women in participating in electoral and democratic activities.
GEOM NL 2025 examined gender parity in electoral administration bodies, voter turnout, and candidate representation. The limited assessment mission deployed a hybrid-approach of both desk research and targeted field observation.
Gender Concerns International made the following main findings for the House of Representatives Elections 2025:
- The Netherlands achieved the highest number of female parliamentarians elected, with women holding 66 out of 150 seats in total (43%).
- There was notable progress with respect to gender parity on party candidate lists. Several parties fielded female-majority or gender-diverse lists, with D66 achieving a 1:1 male-to-female ratio. Nevertheless, the majority of parties still put forward male-majority lists, and SGP did not nominate a single female candidate.
- The Electoral Council (Kiesraad) reached a female-majority composition, with 4 women out of its 7 members.
- The mission observed a remarkable increase in polling stations administered by women and people from different ethnic groups & other minorities.
- Campaigning increasingly shifted online, with women, especially those of minority backgrounds, facing disproportionate abuse and lower visibility.
A major focus for GEOM NL 2025 was assessing how past recommendations have shaped today’s governance and political landscape. The mission found that the recommendations provided by GEOM NL in 2017 and 2021, and GEOM EP 2024 on increasing women’s presence in the key electoral body, have now been successfully implemented.
However, we do recognise there is room for improvement and further steps to be made to reach gender parity in the Dutch Parliament. Gender Concerns recommends:
- Introducing legally binding gender quotas
- Ensuring 1:1 female-male placement of candidates on the candidate list by political parties
- Collect gender-disaggregated data on voter participation.
The 2025 GEOM report highlights notable advances while underscoring the ongoing need for refined policies and vigilant monitoring.