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  • Thursday, January 26, 2006

    First ladies

    One topic on which I've started blog entries several times -- but never quite managed to finish -- is the number of women who have been elected as a head of state around the world. I have wanted to write something about this for a while, and even now, I wish I had more time to write more, think more, do more reading and research on it...

    But something is better than nothing, so here's a little something.

    With the recent election in Chile of Michelle Bachelet as president and Liberia (Liberia!) electing Africa's first female head of state, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (she just took office a week or so ago), it just makes me wonder when the heck will this country be progressive enough to seriously consider the possibility of a woman at the top of a major party's ticket?

    No surprise that some of the more left-leaning countries have had a woman at the helm: Canada (Kim Campbell), Norway (Gro Harlem Brundtland), New Zealand (Jenny Shipley and Helen Clark), Iceland (Vigdís Finnbogadóttir) and so on. More surprising (to me at least) is that the first female head of state was in 1953. Where? Brace yourself... It was Suhbaataryn Yanjmaa of Mongolia. And then, the list of countries which are not exactly known for their progressive politics but which have already seen a female head of state/head of government... well, it's impressive. Below is a non-exhaustive list of countries that have seen a woman running the show, not including monarchs:

    Argentina, Bangladesh, Bolivia , Burundi, Canada, Chile, Ecuador, Finland, Georgia, German Democratic Republic, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Latvia, Liberia, Malta, Mongolia, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Pakistan, Panama, the Philippines, San Marino, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Turkey, the U.K....(I'm sure I missed many)
    [Check here for a list of female presidents (they use the term as the country did -- so no guarantee that a democratic election was involved) and here for women elected or appointed heads of state/government.]

    I have to admit that the list was longer than I had expected and certainly than I knew. It's painful to note that the United States has only come sorta close -- but even that was such a landslide defeat that I don't know if it counts as close by any measure. I know we can do better. There are so many smart, ambitious women who could do the job.

    This whole blog isn't meant to be an editorial pushing for a female presidential candidate or anything, but wouldn't it be nice if the US could be as progressive as, say, Bangladesh or Pakistan or Turkey or Indonesia?

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