United Nations ? A record number of women are serving in parliaments around the world this year, but they aren’t even halfway to achieving equality with men in national legislative bodies, the Inter-Parliamentary Union said Friday.

Some 17.7 percent of the legislators in parliaments were women on Jan. 1, up from 16.3 percent at the end of 2005 and 15.7 percent in December 2004, said Anders Johnsson, the secretary-general of the association of national legislatures.

“It is progress, but if you ask me it is very slow progress,” Johnsson said. “If you try to look beyond, down the road to see when do we reach gender equality in parliament, it is still very, very far off into the distant future, unfortunately.”

At the current rate, he said, “we will not achieve parity in parliament before 2050.”