- Women in politics
Women in politics have historically been underrepresented in Western socities compared to men. Many women, however, have been politically elected to be heads of state and government. Most prominent may be the female leaders of
world power s such asPrime Minister of the United Kingdom Margaret Thatcher ,Prime Minister of India Indira Gandhi ,Prime Minister of Israel Golda Meir ,Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel ,Prime Minister of Canada Kim Campbell ,Prime Minister of France Edith Cresson ,President of the People's Republic of China Soong Ching-ling (AKA Rosamond Soong), and Director of the Cultural Revolution, dictatorJiang Qing .Women's suffrage
Executive branch of government
The Nordic countries have been forerunners in including women in the executive branch. The
second cabinet Brundtland (1986-1989) were historical in that 8 out of 18 cabinet members were women, and in 2007 thesecond cabinet Stoltenberg (2005-present) was more than 50% women. Some current female politicians that have reached top positions in the Nordic countries are the President ofFinland ,Tarja Halonen andDeputy Prime Minister of Sweden ,Maud Olofsson .The world's first elected female president was
Vigdís Finnbogadóttir ofIceland , whose term lasted from 1980 to 1996.In 2005,
Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf ofLiberia became Africa's first elected female head of state.Currently, in
Israel , women are heading two out of the three estates.Dorit Beinisch is the president of the Supreme Court (she is heading theJudiciary system), andDalia Itzik is theSpeaker of the Knesset (she is heading thelegislature ).IfTzipi Livni will achieve to form acoalition government , she will be the Prime Minister and will be heading theExecutive . In this situation,Israel will be the first country in which all the three branches are headen by women.Legislative branch of government
It was not until after World War I that the first few women became members of governments.
Nina Bang , Danish Minister of Education from 1924-26, was the world's first full female cabinet minister. Nevertheless, development was slow and it was not until the end of the 20th century that female ministers stopped being unusual.According to a 2006 report by the
Inter-Parliamentary Union , 16% of all parliament members in the world are female. In 1995, theUnited Nations set a goal of 30%.cite news |author= |title=Women politicians 'making gains' |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4758036.stm |work=BBC News |date=28 February 2006 |accessdate=2007-11-18 ]The top ten countries are
Rwanda with 48.8%,Sweden (45.3%),Norway (37.9%),Finland (37.5%),Denmark (36.9%),the Netherlands (36.7%),Spain (36%),Cuba (36%),Costa Rica (35.1%),Argentina (35%), andMozambique (34.8%).b]According to the same report, nine countries have no women parliament members.
The US House of Representatives contains 77 women, and the US Senate contains 16. Eight states have female governors. See also:
Women in the United States House of Representatives ,Women in the United States Senate , andList of female state governors in the United States .International organizations
There has not yet been a female
United Nations Secretary-General .References
ee also
*
List of the first female holders of political offices External links
* [http://www.qub.ac.uk/cawp/ Centre for Advancement of Women in politics] (
Queens University, Belfast
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