the concept of critical mass as applied to women s political representation and the un targets that have flowed from it have played an important role in supporting countries in the adoption of gender quotas in various spheres of the public and private sectors according to data provided by the interparliamentary union ipu the global average of women in national parliaments has nearly doubled in the past years from in to in a rise of points however recent sociopolitical studies childs and krook as well as ipu data ipu confirm that the achievement of a critical mass is no longer seen as the sole target of efforts to bring about genderequal participation in positions of leadership