After completing Australia Awards – South Asia and Mongolia’s Regional Short Course on Women in Executive Leadership Development, delivered by The University of Queensland (UQ), Tandin Wangmo is turning her Return-to-Work Plan into action to improve women’s representation in Bhutan politics.
Bhutan’s need for that work is clear.
“Women now hold only 6.9 per cent of seats across both houses of parliament in Bhutan, down from more than 15 per cent in the country’s second Parliament after it became a parliamentary democracy in 2008,” Wangmo said. “Even if it goes back up to 15 per cent … I feel that this is a good start.”
That ambition is already gaining traction. Wangmo said about 284 women from across Bhutan have registered through the new network her team has developed, even though project resources were initially limited to 3 districts.
As Executive Director of the Bhutan Centre for Media and Democracy (BCMD), Wangmo said the initiative began after women in local government approached the organisation in 2024 asking for help to prepare aspiring female candidates for local elections. “They expressed if we could help support aspiring women candidates … in preparing them for participating in local elections,” she said.
Wangmo said there were no ready-made leadership tools or training modules available through the National Commission for Women and Children or the Bhutan Network for Empowering Women. Although BCMD had experience in media literacy, civic education and civic engagement, “we didn’t do these Women in Politics programs before,” she said, so the initiative had to be built “from the scratch”.
The course helped sharpen that work into a practical Return-to-Work Plan. Wangmo said she had originally proposed a broader, medium-term vision covering a full election cycle, but course trainers encouraged her to narrow the focus. “My Return- to-Work Plan … was brought down to just making sure that the women’s network was established,” she said – a focus that helped turn a broad ambition into a practical outcome.
A key outcome has been the women’s network designed to sit outside BCMD so it can continue beyond the organisation. Wangmo said earlier networks in Bhutan had faded when host organisations stopped operating. “There was nobody pulling it together,” she said.
Alongside the network, Wangmo and her team developed training modules for aspiring women candidates.
“The toolkit focuses on practical barriers to entering politics, including communication, public speaking, local government rules and the Election Commission of Bhutan’s functional literacy test.”
To ensure the program reflected local realities, Wangmo’s team used limited project funding to consult communities in 4 districts. The consultations found broad support for gender inclusion, but also concerns about women travelling safely to remote areas and balancing elected office with family responsibilities. Wangmo said those assumptions were challenged by women leaders themselves, including one local representative who explained she maintained services after giving birth by using digital tools such as WeChat to stay connected with her community.
For Wangmo, improving women’s political participation is not only about training women, but changing the environment around them.
“This is not a fight against men and women,” she said. “It is about how we can do things better when both the voices are represented at decision making tables.” BCMD has also worked with journalists to encourage more gender-sensitive reporting and stronger public narratives around women’s leadership.
The Australia Awards Regional Short Course also gave Wangmo confidence that her work was heading in the right direction. “I wasn’t very sure whether I was on the right trajectory,” she said. “I feel I’m okay. I’m better … I do not feel like a gender expert, but I feel that I’m better informed… ready.”
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