Parliamentary Under-Representation

International Representation

 

International representation of women in Parliaments and Congress varies dramatically, from a close-to-proportional rate of 48.8% in Rwanda to an inexcusable 0% in nine countries (these nations are listed below). You will note that in no country on Earth is there more than 50% representation of women in a nationally elected body. Every nation is ruled by more men than women, with some being more egalitarian than others.

The map below highlights nations with roughly proportional female representation in national legislatures as well as nations with less than proportional representation. 

GREEN: 40-50% representation, YELLOW: 30-40% representation, BROWN: less than 30% representation

According to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, which keeps data on the composition of international legislatures, there are 44,145 members of legislatures in the world. Only 7,999 of them are women. Thus, only 18.2% of members of all legislatures around the world are women. 

The differences among international regions are striking. Scandinavia (Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark) is the region that has the highest percentage of women legislators with 41.4%. The Americas are a distant second with 21.6%, and the rest of Europe (not including Scandinavia) is in third with 19.3%. The Arab world is in last place with only 9.1%. 

The following nations have roughly proportional representation of women in their national legislatures: 

1. Argentina
2. Cuba
3. Finland
4. Rwanda
5. Sweden

The following nine nations have no women in their national legislature(s):

1. Belize
2. Micronesia
3. Nauru
4. Oman
5. Palau
6. Qatar
7. Saudi Arabia
8. Solomon Islands
9. Tuvalu
10. Kuwait

It should be noted that Saudi Arabia and Qatar both have highly restrictive laws in place that apply only to women. In Saudi Arabia women are not even permitted to run for office. They are also cannot drive, vote, or leave home unaccompanied by a male relative. 

The Middle East has a particularly bad record when it comes to the proportion of women elected or appointed to national legislatures, with only 9.1% of all legislators in the region being women, the worst in the world. 

In the United States Congress

According to the Chronological List of United States Senators published by the Senate Historical Office, there have been 1,897 Senators since the body was formed in 1789. Only 35 of them have been women. This means that only 1.85% of the Senators since the body was formed have been women. Currently, 16 of the members of the United States Senate are women, the highest number that have ever served simultaneously. Because there are 100 members of the US Senate, women make up exactly 16% of the Senate.

A picture taken after the 2006 mid-term elections of all of the 16 current female US Senators. STANDING, from left to right: Sens. Lincoln, Bailey-Hutchison, Boxer, Clinton, Landrieu, Stabenow, Collins, Mulkolski, Dole, Klobuchar, and Murray. SITTING, from left to right: Sens. McCaskill, Feinstein, Cantwell, Murkowski, and Snowe

 

The United States Senate with all members present.

 

The representation of women in the United States House of Representatives is slightly better than in the Senate. Since the creation of the US House in 1789, only 218 women have served as elected or appointed members out of a total numbering high in the thousands. As of 2007, thee were 73 female members of the US House out of 435 total members. That means that roughly 17.8% of members in the US House are women, slightly better than the 16% representation in the Senate, but far short of the 50% threshold required for proportionality.

 

There has been some progress made in recent years, with the current Congress having more women serving simultaneously than ever before.  In addition, the Speaker of the House of Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is the highest ranking woman in United States history. While this progress is welcomed, there is still a very long way to go before the US reaches proportionality in Congress. The United States still only ranks 69th globally in female representation in national legislatures.

A Potential Solution

In order to find potential solutions to this problem, let us look to see what some of the nations which have reached rough proportionality in their legislatures have done. The three nations that have been most successful at achieving equality in their legislatures have been Rwanda (48.8%), Sweden (47.0%), and Cuba (43.2%). Each of these nations has Equality Laws in place with legally require the legislature to be composed of 50% women and 50% men (they do not equal exactly 50% because of a woman legislator retiring in Rwanda and an odd number of seats in the Swedish Parliament. No reason was given for the lack of exact equality in the Cuban legislature). 

An Equality Law requires that a certain proportion of seats in a legislature be allotted to women before the legislature is allowed to be in session. This forces political parties to nominate more women as candidates to the national legislature and increases the proportion of women elected.

With no offense at all meant to the nation of Rwanda;  Rwanda is of the world’s most impoverished nations that just recently went through a brutal civil war and genocide and that still regularly sees catastrophic fighting with hundreds of thousands of refugees. And it is this war-torn nation that has managed to have a completely equal legislature. If Rwanda can do it, it is simply impossible to believe that it cannot be done in the United States or absolutely anywhere else for that matter.

Women Heads of State

        

BLUE: Male head of state. PINK: Female head of state. PURPLE Female head of state who serves simultaneously as the head of government

 

 

Nations with female heads of state who do not serve simultaneously as heads of government:

Australia

Canada

United Kingdom

Switzerland

Finland

Denmark

The Netherlands

India

Ireland

The following nations have female heads of state who simultaneously serve as heads of government:

Argentina 

Chile

Liberia

As you can see if you compare this article and map to the one here, you can see that there are significantly more women serving as the head of state of a nation that there are serving as head of government. This is revealing in that the position of head of state is historically an entirely ceremonial role with (normally) absolutely no power in comparison to the head of government. For a brief overview of the differences between heads of state and heads of government, see this article

Iron Ladies

This article will examine the phenomenon of women masculinizing themselves once in possession of governmental authority. The main cases that I will examine are those of Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir.

Heads of Government vs. Heads of State: The Subtle Differences

On the rare occasions when women are in a position of governmental authority, they are usually placed in a position that is subservient to a higher governmental figure. If a woman is in a national leadership role such as Prime Minister or President, there is often a male figure who possesses more actual or symbolic authority that actually pulls the strings of government. For this reason, it is important to know who is actually holding power in any given government. I will attempt to explain how to distinguish that in this article. 

For many people, especially people that have been raised in a Presidential Republic such as the United States, the notions and differences between Heads of State and Heads of Government may seem vague. I will attempt to alleviate any confusion about the subtle nuances between the two titles/positions below. 

Heads of Government

As the name implies, a Head of Government is an individual, usually elected or appointed, who is charged with the duty of running the day-to-day affairs of a nation, region, state, or province’s government. This usually entails directing government policy, appointing ministers and (sometimes) other public officials like judges or the heads of various bureaucratic agencies, and the leadership of the largest party in a nation’s Parliament or Congress. Heads of Government are usually – although certainly not necessarily – the most powerful political/governmental figure in a particular region or nation. Because of this, there is a smaller proportion of women whom have served in this role than have in other government roles.

Some example of Heads of Government include the British, Canadian, and French Prime Ministers, The Chancellor of Germany, and the United States President. Heads of Government are usually, although not exclusively, called a Prime Minister. 

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair, who was the Head of Government of the United Kingdom

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Heads of State

Heads of State, however, are usually (once again, I stress the word “usually.” There are some exceptions to this, notably France and the United States) individuals, either elected or appointed, who serve the largely ceremonial role of representing the nation. In many nations, the Head of State is considered as the physical embodiment of the entire nation, the personification of the state. For this reason, they are usually non-partisan figures who are highly respected, but who have little to no say in the day-to-day running of government business.

In many nations, the Head of State is constitutionally charged with opening and closing Parliament or Congress, deciding when to call an election, and approving any appointments that the Head of Government makes. In practice, however, even these meager duties are usually actually decided upon by the Head of Government for the Head of State. There are very few instances in history of Heads of State making decisions contrary to the request of the Head of Government. Thus, Heads of State usually serve largely ceremonial roles, performing duties such as greeting visiting foreign dignitaries, opening museums, and other relatively unimportant roles, although there are some exceptions to this (notably France, Russia, and the United States. In all three of these nations, the President is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces and is also charged with foreign affairs while the Prime Minister is in charge of domestic affairs in Russia and France but obviously not in the United States where there is no Prime Minister) where the Head of State plays an active role in government decision-making. 

Some examples of Heads of Government include the Queen of England, the King of Spain, the Emperor of Japan, the King of Thailand, the Governors-General of Canada, New Zealand, and Australia, and the Presidents of Germany, France, Russia, Portugal, Israel, and the United States. 

Queen Elizabeth II, The head of state of the UK

In the United States

The United States is a special case when it comes to Heads of State and Government. In the United States, the President serves simultaneously as Head of State and Head of Government. It is primarily for this reason that many Americans find the concepts described here so confusing. 

This same form of Presidential Republic is also in place in states like Argentina, Venezuela, and South Africa. 

Women Heads of Government

Below is the map of nations that have had female heads of government in the past. Pink corresponds to those nations that have had a female head of government in the past while blue corresponds to those nations that have never had a female head of government.  

BLUE: Have never had a female head of government. PINK: Have had a female head of government.

The following map is the map of nations that currently have female heads of government: 

BLUE: Male head of government. PINK: Female head of government.

The following women are the only current female heads of government in the world. They make up only 5% of the heads of government in the world, while women are approximately 51% of the population of the world. 

1. Michelle Bachelet, President of Chile, Partido Socialista de Chile

Michelle Bachelet

 

 

2. Helen Clark, Prime Minister of New Zealand, Labour Party

Helen Clark

 

 

3. Luísa Diogo, Prime Minister of Mozambique, FRELIMO

4. Zinaida Greceanîi, Prime Minister of Moldova, Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova

5. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, President of Liberia, Unity Party

 

Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf

 

6. Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, President of Chile, Justicialist Party

Cristina Kirchner

 

7. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, President of The Philippines, Partner of the Free Filipino

8. Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany, Christian Democratic Union

Angela Merkel

 

9. Yulia Tymoschenko, Prime Minister of Ukraine, Yulia Tymoschenko Bloc

 

 

 

Yulia Tymoschenko

As you can see if you compare this article and map to the one here, you can see that there are significantly les women serving as the head of government of a nation that there are serving as head of state. This is revealing in that the position of head of state is historically an entirely ceremonial role with (normally) absolutely no power in comparison to the head of government. For a brief overview of the differences between heads of state and heads of government, see this article