women in countries within the more developed regions fared better comprising in most cases to per cent of the candidates in only four countries belgium costa rica iceland and rwanda were candidates distributed roughly evenly by sex available data in africa display a low proportion of female candidates for the lower or single house of parliament lower than per cent with the exception of burundi and rwanda the proportion is under per cent in of the countries with available data in oceania this low proportion of female electoral candidates in the region parallels the limited representation of women in their parliaments as seen in the earlier section