The Ukrainian President, Victor Yuschenko, called a the third national election in three years. Citing Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s statement of neutrality on Russia’s invasion of Georgia and Yulia Tymoschenko’s Party’s support for a bill that would grant the Prime Minister significantly more power and allow for the impeachment of the Ukrainian president, Mr. Yuschenko stated that a government was no longer operational.
Ms. Tymoshenko is the first female Prime Minister of Ukraine and has been cited as one of the most powerful women on Earth by Forbes Magazine.
Ms. Tymoschenko’s party and the party of the President had formed a coalition and when the two parties broke relations with each other the government no longer had a governable majority in Parliament, necessitating the election.
Many believe that Ms. Tymoshenko has presidential aspirations and that she plans to run in the 2012 Ukrainian Presidential election.
The defeated Prime Minister of New Zealand, Helen Clark
Helen Clark, the first woman to be elected Prime Minister of New Zealand, was defeated on November eighh in general elections. Ms. Clark’s party, the center-left Labour Party, was defeated by the center-right National Party, headed by John Key.
Helen Clark was the first female Prime Minister elected of New Zealand and one of the longest serving female rulers in the world. The Labour Party has been in power in New Zealand for a decade.
Mr. Key will likely become the next Prime Minister. He must first gain the support of a combination of several smaller parties in Parliament in order to gain a governing majority.
Offices Held: Fmr. First Lady of Arkansas, Fmr. First Lady of the United States, United States Senator for the State of New York, Fmr. Presidential Candidate
Hillary Rodham Clinton’s career started as a lawyer working for the Children’s Defense Fund, a legal advocacy group for children. She graduated from Wellesley College and Yale Law School Twice named as one of the most influential lawyers in America by the American Bar Association (once while Bill was governor of Arkansas and once before), Hillary went to work for the extremely prestigious Rose Law Firm. It was often Hillary who was mentioned as a potential future president when people met the future first couple, not Bill.
A poster from Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign.
During Bill Clinton’s presidency, Hillary served in an active role, engaging herself in the day-to-day policy decisions of the administration. She was famously charged with co-chairing President Clinton’s initiative to reform the US healthcare system, a task in which she failed. But when she could not succeed in achieving health care reform for the entire nation, she instead went to work in providing healthcare for the nation’s impoverished children. The program she was instrumental in creating is known as the State Children’s Insurance Program (or SCHIP), and provides healthcare to nearly 16 million under-privileged children in the US today.
Hillary Clinton speaking to the House of Representatives Select Committee on Ethics during the Watergate investigation
Hillary was also instrumental as a representative of the United States abroad. During Bill’s first term, when he was focused on domestic affairs, Hillary effectively served as the global face of the United States for millions of people across the planet, visiting nearly 90 different countries during her tenure as First Lady, more than any First Lady before her.
After Bill Clinton’s presidency ended, Hillary audaciously announced that she would be the first First Lady to seek elected office in her own right. She ran and was successfully elected to serve as New York’s Senator, and was re-elected by a wide margin in 2006.
Hillary and Bill Clinton during their time at Yale University
In the beginning of 2007, Hillary (once again, somewhat audaciously) announced that she was running for President. While she was not successful in her quest, she did break barriers that no other woman had before her. She not only won more votes than any woman ever has before in any US election, but she also was the first women to win any state in a primary in US history, and changed US electoral history.
She currently is actively campaigning for Barack Obama’s candidacy for President of the United States and continues to serve as a US Senator for New York.
Hillary Clinton debating fellow contenders for the Democratic Presidential Nomination in 2008
Hillary Clinton has received numerous awards and much recognition for her work. She was twice named one of the most influential lawyers in America, twice listed as one of the most powerful woman in the world by Forbes Magazine, and listed in 2004, 2006, 2007, and 2008 as one of the most influential people in the world by TIME Magazine (4 times; second only to Oprah Winfrey). She was mentioned in national media as early as 1969 in Life Magazine after giving a stunning commencement address as Wellesley Student Body President which received a seven-minute standing ovation.
Hillary Clinton with the author in 2008. I couldn't resist
Tzipi Livni, the presumptive Prime Minister of Israel
Tzipi Livni, Israel’s Foreign Minister and Prime Minister in-waiting, called a snap election on Sunday after failing to build a coalition of parties in Israel’s Parliament, the Knesset, large enough to form a workable government. Ms. Livni’s party, the centrist Kadima, had garnered the support of the centre-left Labor Party (controlled by former Prime Minister Ehud Barak) and the left-wing Meretz, but could not get the support of the ultra-orthodox Sha’as Party.
Sha’as party leaders forced the election by failing to support the conditions upon which Kadima offered their party to join a potential government.
Ms. Livni informed Israel’s President that she was unable to form a workable government and asked that the Knesset be dissolved and elections be scheduled to take place in 90 days. The President complied with the Prime Minister’s request, as is customary in most Parliamentary Republics.
The logo of the centrist Kadima Party, which Ms. Livni heads.
Originally Kadima (Ms. Livni’s party), anticipated losing ground to the right-wing Likud Party (led by yet another former Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu) if an election were called. But two polls released on Monday indicated that Ms. Livni’s party would gain a very narrow victory over Likud, with Labor polling last amont the three major parties.
Sha’as may regret having forced the election by not accepting Kadima’s government offer as both polls indicated that they will lose seats in the election.
The Green Party, the sixth-largest party in Canada, was included for the first time in the Canadian Party Leaders’ Debates. For those of you unfamiliar with Canadian politics, the Leaders’ Debates are the Canadian equivalent to the US Presidential Debates, where the leaders of all the parties in Parliament debate one another prior to a national election. In Canada, the leader of the largest party in Parliament after an election becomes the Prime Minister. Thus, inclusion in the debates is a key step in being recognized as a national contender for votes.
Elizabeth May addressing Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper during the 2008 French Leaders' Debate
Elizabeth May, the leader of the Green Party, became the third female included in the Canadian Leaders’ Debate. She is currently the only female leader of a major Canadian political party.
The Canadian Election was held on Tuesday, October 14th. The Green Party received 6.8% of the vote nationally, doubling their previous percentage of the vote, but won no seats.
American-born Elizabeth May became the leader of the Green Party in 2006 after serving as the leader of the Sierra Club of Canada. She was made an officer of the Order of Canada in 2005 and has served as the Senior Policy Advisor to a former Environment Minister.
Yulia Tymoschenko, elected in early 2005, defeated in late 2005, and elected once again in 2007, is Ukraine’s first female Prime Minister. One of the key leaders of Ukraine’s “Orange Revolution” which lead to the distancing of ties with Russia, Ms. Tymoschenko has been dubbed Ukraine’s “Joan of Arc.”
Yulia Tymoschenko is considered to be the most influential politician in Ukraine and has helped to forge a much closer relationship with the United States. She is considered to be a very serious contender as a candidate for Ukraine’s powerful presidency in 2010.
Before entering politics, Ms. Tymoschenko made a fortune off of the gas industry as a result of the liberalization of the economy at the end of the Soviet Union.
In 2007, Forbes Magazine listed Tymoschenko as one of the 100 most powerful women on Earth.
Among the various regions of the world, there is great variation in the degree to which women are included in the decision-making processes. Among the world’s worst regions in terms of female civic and political participation is the Middle East.
Below is the map of the Middle East. Each nation is shaded according to the percentage of women whom are members of government.
RED= 0% women legislators or Cabinet members, ORANGE= under 10%, YELLOW= 10-25%
Iraq, Afghanistan, and Morocco have some of the highest female representation in the region. Iraq and Afghanistan have equality policies in place in which a certain proportion of their Parliament’s members must be women.
Neither Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, nor Bahrain have a single woman as a member of the legislature or government. In Saudi Arabia, this can be attributed to strict laws prohibiting the participation of women in public life. Women are not allowed to go out in public without a male relative, vote, or drive in Saudi Arabia.
The situation is not much better in many of the nations shaded orange. Kuwait, for example, only hase 2 female members of the legislature, both of which were appointed.
Cristina Fernández de Kirchner may not be the first female President of Argentina (Eva Peron was President for a short time after the death of her husband, Military leader Juan Peron), but she is the first to be elected.
Ms. Kirchner’s political history is an untraditional one. Her husband, Nestor Kirchner, has also served as President. After serving one term with massive support among the people, Mr. Kirchner shocked the nation by announcing that he was not going to seek a second term. Instead his wife announced that she would be running in his place. Making obvious reference to another famous power couple, Ms. Kirchner announced her candidacy before a huge poster of Hillary and Bill Clinton.
The Argentinean Constitution forbids a President from serving two consecutive terms; there is nothing that forbids serving two non-consecutive terms, however. Thus, the power couple could theoretically trade places as First Husband/Wife and President indefinitely, consolidating their hold on power well into the future.
Cristina Kirchner announced her candidacy in front of an enormous banner of Hillary Clinton
Cristina (as she is affectionately known) won the 2007 presidential election in a landslide, defeating her nearest opponent by 27 percentage points. Her popularity has declined slightly after a public battle with farmers over agriculture prices. Nonetheless, she still remains largely popular.
Cristina Kirchner was mentioned in TIME Magazine’s 100 most influential people in 2007.
Pres. Cristina Kirchner with her husband, the First Gentleman and Fmr. Pres. Nestor Kirchner
Ms. Kirchner's approval rating since she took office.
Warning: Contains sexually-explicit images that were used in attempts to degrade female politicians.
The Degradation of Female Politicians Online. The advent of the Internet as a political tool has brought with it the ability to anonymously attack famous political figures using images. While normally of good-natured humor for men, the use of images to attack female politicians more often than not crosses a line by attacking not only the personal characteristics of the candidate, but also the candidate’s gender.
By using sexually explicit images or images that exaggerate feminine characteristics with a negative connotation, the attacks have the subtext of saying that all women, not just the particular woman candidate that they are attacking (which would be a much more valid argument to make), are unsuited for public office or will be lambasted for attempting to seek public office.
Let me restate that: it is perfectly reasonable and legitimate to disagree with a particular candidate that
happens to be a woman and to use the internet as a medium to express one’s disapproval or approval. It is another thing entirely, however, to use that person’s gender to attack them.
Below are some examples of the type of attacks of which I have been discussing above. All of the images below exaggerate feminine characteristics such as digitally enlarging the breasts or photoshopping images of a candidate’s face onto a sexually explicit image.
All of these images are widely-circulated. All of these images are common enough to be found on the first page of a Google Image search containing nothing but the name of the candidate.
The first image that appears when querying “Ségolène Royal” on a Google Image search:
Both of these images are on the first page of images that appear when querying “Hillary Clinton” on a Google Image search:
The first image that appears when querying “Angela Merkel”” on a Google Image search:
Other Locations:
President Bush back massaging Chancellor Merkel during the 2007 G8 Conference:
Tzipi Livni, the Israeli Foreign Minister, claimed victory today in the leadership contest of her party, the centrist Kadima, which currently is the largest party in the ruling coalition in the Israeli Parliament (known as the Knesset). Livni has been serving as Acting Prime Minister and Acting Party Leader while Ehud Olmert, the current Prime Minister, is under investigation for corruption and major ethics violations. Official results are expected to be received within hours of now. Livni will have to receive at least 40% of her party’s members’ votes in order to be declared the winner and to avoid a runoff contest with the next-highest vote-winner. Olmert is likely to remain as the official Prime Minister until a new coalition can be formed among political parties in the Knesset or until a new election is held. Polls indicate that if an election were held today, the right wing Likud Party (of which former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was a member prior to forming Kadima) would win handily, largely because of the public backlash against the largely unsuccessful government of Prime Minister Olmert. Livni could turn the party’s prospects around, however. She has publically criticized Prime Minister Olmert on a number of occasions and is seen positively among many Israelis.
Forefront: Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. Background: Israeli Prime Minister (for now) Ehud Olmert
Personally, I am excited to hear the news that Tzipi Livni will most likely become the head of the Kadima Party. Her nomination as leader gives Kadima a significantly better shot at winning any future elections that may take place (and there likely will be elections soon after the new leader of Kadima takes over). While I fundamentally disagree with some of her policies in regards to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, she is much more pragmatic and much less hard-line than many of her predecessors have been and than the opposition party Likud would be if it were to win the next elections. I would prefer to see the election of the left wing party Meretz-Yachad, but I prefer Kadima be in power than Likud. I am also excited about the prospect of another potential woman head of government. Women are sorely underrepresented in government around the world. Since 2000, only thirteen women have been elected or appointed as either the President or Prime Minister of their respective nations. The current number of women world leaders is even more pitiful, only six nations currently have women as heads of government. This is utterly pathetic. Seeing any nation select a woman to a leadership position is always something that I passionately welcome.
President Michelle Bachelet of Chile, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, Prime Minister Helen Clark of New Zealand, President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner of Argentina, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo of The Philippines, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoschenko of Ukraine, and President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia
Angela Merkel is the first woman to serve as Chancellor of the German Federation, the most powerful political and governmental position in the country. Because Germany has the largest population in Europe and the third largest economy in the world, this makes her not only one of the most influential people in Europe but also one of the most powerful people in the world.
In addition to this influential position, Ms. Merkel has also served as President of the European Council, the most influential position in the European Union, and as the Chair of the G8, which is the annual meeting of the world’s eight richest nations. She is only the second woman to have chaired the G8, after former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
TIME Magazine has named Ms. Merkel as one of their 100 most influential people in 2006, 2007, and 2008. In 2008, Forbes Magazine named Ms. Merkel as the most powerful women in the world for the third year in a row, listing her before Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Condoleeza Rice, The Queen of England, Laura Bush, and the female CEO’s of Pepsi, the FDIC, and Wellspoint, among others.
Ms. Merkel was elected to the position after an incredibly close election in 2005 against CDU’s main rival, the Social Democratic Party (SPD). She currently serves as Chancellor in a coalition government with the SPD.
Ms. Merkel has a Ph.D in Physics and is married with no children.
Past Offices Held: Minister of the Environment, Minister for Youth and Children
Current Offices: President of the Poitou-Charentes Region, Regional Deputy
Party: Parti Socialiste (Socialist Party)
Ségolène Royal, born in Sénégal, is currently a key contender for the leadership of the French Socialist Party. After narrowly losing the 2007 French Presidential election, she is considered a major contender for the Socialist Party Presidential nomination in 2012, when French President Nicolas Sarkozy is up for re-election.
She is one of the primary leaders of the French Socialist Party. Her former partner, François Hollande, is the current leader of the Socialist Party.
2007 French Presidential Candidates Segolene Royal (Top) and Nicolas Sarkozy (Bottom)
2007 French Presidential Election
In 2007, Ségolène Royal became the first woman in France to be nominated for president by one of the two major parties (there have been women nominated by several of the much smaller parties). Her opponent was former Minister of the Interior Nicolas Sarkozy.
Ms. Royal narrowly lost the election to Mr. Sarkozy, having won more votes than any female candidate for president in French history.
Campaign Posters from the 2007 French Presidential Election.
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:
Argentina
Cuba
Finland
Rwanda
Sweden
The following nine nations have no women in their national legislature(s):
Belize
Micronesia
Nauru
Oman
Palau
Qatar
Saudi Arabia
Solomon Islands
Tuvalu
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 alsocannot 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.
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
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.
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.
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
