EXAMPLE 11: The chart below shows the percentage of female members of parliament in 5

European countries from 2000 to 2012

The line graph illustrates female members’ rate of parliament in European countries namely
Germany, Italy, France, UK and Belgium and compares changes of these figures during the
period from 2000 to 2012.
Overall, women’s participation in parliament had an upward trend in all countries during the
whole period of time with the most significant rise belonging to UK. Germany was the country
showing the highest rate in female participants of parliament for the most of the time studied.
Specifically, in 2000, starting moderately at 2.5% in the proportion of female members of
parliament, UK was the lowest amongst 5 countries. However, this figure grew remarkably to
23% in 2012, equal to Belgium's figure. By contrast, Belgium experienced a fluctuation while
the figure increased from 17 to 23% during 12 years.
Another point worth noting is that Germany, Italy and France underwent a parallel climb from
2000 to 2008. However, after 2008, Italy’s figure surpassed Germany and reached the peak at
almost 40% in the percentage of female members of parliament among 5 countries.
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