Female foreign ministers are meeting in Montreal, Canada on Friday and Saturday in a bid to highlight women's rights and gender equality in politics, but also to push for broader issues such as global peace, security and democracy.

The meeting, co-hosted by Canada's Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland and EU Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini, is the first of its kind.

About 30 countries around the world currently have a female foreign minister -- including Australia, Sweden, South Africa, S. Korea, Croatia, India and Indonesia -- and at least half are expected to attend.

"We know that promoting gender equality is essential for our prosperity as well as peace and security in the world," Canadian foreign ministry spokesman Adam Austen said when the event was first announced in July.  

This meeting will provide "a unique opportunity to reinforce this commitment... in addition to putting forward the perspective of women leaders," he added.

On the agenda are meetings with experts and civil society organizations, as well as talks on ending gender-based violence, promoting women's empowerment and leadership, and strengthening democracy.

Giving women a voice

The meeting comes amid a growing push by female politicians in recent years to get their voices heard and promote their agendas.

The Council of Women World Leaders (CWWL), backed by the UN, includes over 60 former and current women presidents and prime ministers and has been working since 1996 towards "increasing the number, effectiveness, and visibility of women who lead their countries."

The Women Political Leaders Global Forum (WPL) provides a similar platform for female politicians at other levels, from ministers to parliamentary deputies and city mayors.

Women mayors of major cities -- including Paris, Durban, Sydney, Tokyo, Cape Town, Madrid, Warsaw and Washington, DC -- have meanwhile banded together to fight climate change under the Women4Climate initiative.

The argument: female politicians focus on different policy priorities than their male counterparts -- health, education, equality, and the rights of women, children and minorities -- and deal with them in a different way.

"Women leaders are more likely to respond to public needs and tend to cooperate across party lines," according to former European Parliament Vice-President and WPL founder Silvana Koch-Mehrin.

"Historically, this is not the case for men in power."

Under-representation in politics

From German Chancellor Angela Merkel to British Prime Minister Theresa May, New Zealand's Jacinda Ardern and International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Christine Lagarde, there are a number of high-powered women in politics nowadays.

They follow a long line of female leaders including Indira Gandhi, Benazir Bhutto, Margaret Thatcher and Golda Meir.

Nevertheless, women remain notoriously under-represented at the top levels of government.

A 2017 joint report by UN Women and the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) found just 7.2 percent of the world's heads of state and 5.7 percent of heads of government were women.

Women meanwhile filled only 18.4 percent of ministerial posts worldwide, the World Bank estimated in 2016, and they were predominantly tasked with softer issues such as social affairs; children, family, and disabilities; women's affairs and gender equality; education; and culture. Rarely were they given key portfolios such as defense, economy, finance, justice or home affairs.

National parliaments have done better, but even there only 24 percent of deputies are women, according to new IPU statistics from September 2018.

The highest representation is seen in Scandinavian countries, where women make up 41.4 percent of MPs. In the Americas and in Europe and the OSCE (Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe) region, the figure is just 27-30 percent, while Asia and Arab states hover around 18-20 percent.

One country bucking the trend is Rwanda where over 61 percent of deputies are women.

Governments are now recognizing they need to be more inclusive.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez made headlines in June by naming a majority female cabinet, composed of 11 women and six men.

Last year, French President Emmanuel Macron received similar attention after appointing an equal number of women and men as ministers.

Both Egypt and Jordan this year named a record number of women in their cabinets.

There is still some way to go to achieving the "critical mass" of 30-percent representation targeted by women politicians. 

But Ottawa is already hoping to make this week's meeting -- aimed at "bringing together women foreign ministers from around the world to reflect on and identify areas where cooperation could bring about change -- a regular event.