Kuwait's new all-male parliament is a blow for women's rights Although none of the 29 female candidates won a seat in Kuwait's elections they are far from stopping their efforts. But analysts fear calls for quotas and women's political leadership are falling on deaf ears. Women candidates were out in force during the election campaign but failed to win a seat in parliament Less than a week after Kuwait's 4.8 million people (including 3.4 million foreign workers without voting rights) elected new members for the next four-year term of their national assembly, the shock that none of the female candidates made it, is setting in. In total, 326 candidates were vying for the 50-member legislature, 29 were women.