"That is something we never imagined. Rwanda led the list of 189 countries surveyed, with its lower house recording more than 60 per cent women," Johnsson said.
The report said several factors influenced the degree of women's access to parliament, with quotas being one of the main tools to facilitate women's access.
"Quotas must be ambitious, detailed and be implemented to have impact," IPU said.
UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka lauded the "record-breaking" increase by the gains made by women in political life around the world and vowed that the organisation will keep fighting gender-based bias.
"The record-breaking increase of women in national parliaments in 2013 is encouraging, but we are still far from equality," Mlambo-Ngcuka said.
"Around the world, women are excluded from parliaments by discrimination, violence, party structures, poverty and a lack of finance," she said.
