During more than a century, accelerating after the UN Conference on Women in Beijing 1995, male dominance in politics has been challenged all over the world, in many countries with considerable success. As of Nov. 2025, 74 countries have over 30% women in their parliament, and 29 over 40%. In other countries progress has been minor, and we have even seen backlash in women’s parliamentary representation, e.g. in Tunisia, Nigeria and Algeria.The aim of this chapter is to identify male-dominance in political institutions. It will analyze changes in women’s parliamentary representation and political leadership positions, e.g. as Cabinet ministers, globally and with a special emphasis on selected countries in North and West Africa. It will discuss some of the severe dilemmas and choices, which women’s rights advocates and women politicians face, when trying to change male-dominance in politics.This article will argue that the dilemmas involved in breaking male dominance in politics do not derive from some lack of feminist clarification, but is a consequence of the historical fact, that the political systems were established based on the norms of men or selective groups of elite men, before women had access to the halls of politics.