2.1.1. Politics is still a male domain that many women have found unwelcoming or even hostile. Societies in which traditional or patriarchal values remain strong may frown on women entering politics. On the other hand women are often more likely than men to face practical barriers to entering politics, including a paucity of financial resources, lower levels of education, less access to information, greater family responsibilities, and a deprivation of rights that has left them with fewer opportunities to acquire political experience. Women also generally lack the political networks necessary for electoral success and barriers to women’s political participation are often magnified in crises societies. These may be characterised by militarism, a volatile security situation, the political dominance of a small group of (typically male) elites, the absence of well-established political parties, the failure to include women in peace nego-tiations and the bodies created for peace implementation, and other limiting factors. When political parties are based more on prominent personalities associated with a faction in conflict than on issue-focused platforms and programmes, it is harder for women to emerge as political leaders