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.

Hillary Clinton

Nationality: American

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. 

Nationality:

Position Held: Prime Minister of Ukraine

Party: Yulia Tymoschenko Bloc

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.

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.

Nationality:

Positions Held: President of Argentina

Former Positions: First Lady of Argentina

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.

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:

Watch the event below on video: