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Map of the world color coded based on the amount of female leaders they have had.
Graphic Truth: Where women are winning the political game
The United States has never had a female president, but since World War II, 121 women have been elected or appointed as head of state or government in 80 countries around the world.
The top country should be no surprise: Finland has elected four women president or prime minister, most recently Sanna Marin. Of the 11 countries that have been led by three or more women in pinnacle positions, seven are in Europe, and of the 29 women currently in office, 15 are in Europe.
For women leaders with real lasting power, look to South Asia. Sri Lanka’s Sirimavo Bandaranaike became the first woman ever elected Prime Minister of any country in 1960, and went on to lead the island nation for over 17 years in total. Even Germany’s Angela Merkel only managed 16. During Bandaranaike’s last term, her counterpart in the presidency was Chandrika Kumaratunga, who held office for over 11 years.
An impressive record, but in Bangladesh, a generation has grown up under female leadership. Current Prime Minister Sheik Hasina is in her 20th year in power and counting, and her archrival Khaleda Zia led the country for 10.
The Iron Lady of India, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, was cut down by an assassin in her 16th year in power, but India has twice elected women presidents, including the incumbent Droupadi Murmu.
And when Pakistan elected Benazir Bhutto in 1988, she became the first female elected leader of any Muslim country. She served a little over four years between two terms, but we grade on a scale in Islamabad: No PM has ever completed a full term in office.
Feminist protestors holding signs on International Women's Day.
On International Women’s Day, Ireland amends sexism in its constitution
Just in time for International Women’s Day, the Republic of Ireland will vote today on whether to change a clause in its constitution that says "the State shall ... endeavor to ensure that mothers shall not be obliged by economic necessity to engage in labor to the neglect of their duties in the home."
In addition to cutting the antiquated language, the country is considering replacing it with a clause about supporting caregivers of any gender and expanding the definition of family to include unmarried couples and single parents.
Supporters say the proposition is the next step for the traditionally Catholic country after it became the first in the world to vote for same-sex marriage in 2015 and overturned its constitutional ban on abortion in 2018.
Critics argue that a constitutional amendment is no substitute for structural changes needed to value unpaid care work, tackle gender inequality in the labor market, and drive deep societal shifts that lead to more male participation in caregiving and housework.
The referendum is expected to pass, but this is not the first time the holiday has coincided with a groundbreaking moment in a country’s history.
International Women’s Day originated in New York City in 1909, when the socialist and suffragist women’s movements met for a joint demonstration. The struggle of working-class women to form trade unions and the upper-class fight for women’s franchises had rarely intersected before. The movement spread to Europe, where it continued to be celebrated through World War I, even as other social movements fizzled.
The movement sparked the Russian Revolution. On March 8, 1917, Russian feminist Alexandra Kollontai brought the holiday to Czarist Russia by calling for a massive demonstration over peace and bread shortages. The protests spread from factory to factory until they sparked the Russian Revolution and led to the abdication of Czar Nicholas II.
Vladimir Lenin declared that International Women’s Day would forever be celebrated on March 8. The start of the Cold War confined it to Communist countries, and the West largely denounced it until the United Nations recognized it as International Women’s Day in 1975.
GZERO celebrates International Women's Day
On International Women's Day, we’re proud to showcase just a few of the exceptional women we’ve interviewed on “GZERO World with Ian Bremmer,” our weekly program on US public television. The accomplishments of these remarkable women have made them role models globally. Click to watch our interviews with:
- Masih Alinejad, an Iranian journalist and women's rights activist, known for her campaign against the Iranian government
- Jennifer Granholm, the former Governor of Michigan and current US Secretary of Energy
- Alina Polyakova, a political scientist and foreign policy expert
- Nikole Hannah-Jones, a journalist and author who led the 1619 Project
- Jean Lee, a journalist who extensively covered North Korea and currently serves as the director of the Korea Program at the Wilson Center
- Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, a Belarusian politician and human rights activist who challenged the authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko in the 2020 presidential election.
- Phumzile Mlambo Ngcuka, a South African politician and women's rights advocate and former Executive Director of UN Women
- Nancy Mace, the first woman to graduate from The Citadel military college and a Republican congresswoman from South Carolina
- Christine Lagarde, a French lawyer and politician who is currently serving as the President of the European Central Bank
- Maria Ressa, a Filipino-American journalist and CEO of the news website Rappler, known for her coverage of press freedom and the Philippine government's war on drugs
- Kaja Kallas, Estonia's popular centre-right prime minister, who won a sweeping election victory, receiving more personal votes than any politician in the country's history
What is feminist foreign policy?
Alles liebe zum Frauentag! To mark International Women's Day we delve into feminist foreign policy. Which countries have adopted the gender-focused framework that shapes how they interact with other states, and how does the policy play out in practice?
Germany made headlines this week when Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock unveiled a new feminist foreign policy framework, outlining Berlin's efforts to boost female participation in international affairs. It directs an additional 12 billion euros in development funds to further global gender equality and says that Berlin will work to ensure that European foreign policy focuses more on the needs of women worldwide.
But what is a feminist foreign policy, and what do proponents and critics of the framework have to say about it?
First, some background. In 1995, then-first lady Hillary Clinton declared in Beijing that “women’s rights are human rights,” publicly advocating that gender equality be a core principle in international politics.
Since then, a growing number of political influencers have pushed for a radical overhaul of how states interact with each other, arguing that the pursuit of gender equality should be at the heart of all international politics.
While there is no uniform approach to its implementation – countries have interpreted the framework differently – there are areas of overlap, including the idea that increasing the number of women working in foreign policy reduces conflict and enhances peaceful outcomes. A look at the impact of having women negotiators, mediators, and witnesses involved in 182 peace agreements from 1989-2011, for example, shows that those deals involving females were 35% more likely to survive at least 15 years, according to a report by the International Peace Institute.
There’s broad agreement that gender equality at home, including increased female participation in the workforce, at the negotiating table, and in policy-making, boosts security at home and abroad. As a result, there's been an uptick in female participation in legislatures around the globe in many countries, while some institutions have introduced gender quotas in politics. The European Union, for instance, started calling for a minimum of 50% women in all its decision-making positions back in 2020 – and a whopping 85% of women in decisions about development aid.
The Wallström effect. Sweden was the first country to adopt a feminist foreign policy in 2014, when former Foreign Minister Margot Wallström, a no-nonsense stalwart of the left-wing Social Democratic Party, argued that gender issues should govern how Stockholm doles out aid and conducts trade negotiations. While Wallström’s plan was initially met with skepticism, including amongst the diplomatic corps, she also applied this approach to the private sector, pushing for gender quotas on company boards.
Crucially, for Sweden, adopting the term feminist was not only an ideological play but also a strategic one: A 2020 report by PwC found that if the female employment rate across OECD states matched Sweden’s, the group’s collective gross domestic product could be boosted by $6 trillion.
The trend has since caught on, with comparable policies adopted by Canada, Mexico, Spain, Luxembourg, Chile and France. Mexico has mandated that an equal number of men and women work within the foreign ministry, for example, and pushed for “gender equality in all policies to combat climate change” in international forums.
Meanwhile, under former Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland, Canada in 2017 committed to directing 95% of its foreign aid budget over five years toward programs in which gender equality was the primary or significant objective (the latter caveat, however, has been criticized for vagueness).
How do these policies play out in practice? Like with many lofty foreign policy objectives, it’s hard to measure what constitutes success. For instance, how much of Sweden’s economic growth over the past decade can be attributed to this gender-first policy as opposed to external economic factors? (Crucially, Sweden’s new center-right government ditched the policy in Dec. 2022, saying that “labels on things have a tendency to cover up the content.”)
What’s more, critics argue that feminist foreign policies can be preachy and abstract. Berlin, for its part, says that it will be more “gender sensitive” in doling out money and that it will cultivate a “feminist reflex” within the foreign ministry – neither of which are particularly measurable. Many have also accused Mexico of extreme inconsistencies, arguing that it has done little to address rampant gender-based violence and femicide at home.
Even the most gung-ho proponents of feminist foreign policy acknowledge that it can be an abstract concept that’s difficult to implement. “Many countries use it as a virtue-signaling branding exercise,” says Marissa Conway, CEO of the United Nations Association in the UK and feminist foreign policy expert.
When I asked Conway about Germany’s approach, she hesitated. “In some ways it’s impressive, but it is also very aspirational,” she says, adding that “it strikes me as very hollow,” referring to the fact that Berlin has voiced support for militarism which is at odds with traditional feminism.
But how then do proponents of the approach reconcile this non-militaristic stance with the need to help democracies – like Ukraine – protect themselves from authoritarianism? “Feminist foreign policy is not some magic wand that we can wave over everything and it will make conflicts and wars stop,” Conway says.
Instead, “it is a path to a very long-term goal in shaping how states interact with each other.”
Hundreds of vehicles drive toward the US capital to protest COVID-related mandates and other issues.
Hard Numbers: Truckers circle DC, Sri Lankan bakers flame out, we mark grim COVID milestone, Colombia kills rebels, world celebrates International Women’s Day
2,000: Washington, DC officials estimate that the “People’s Convoy” of truckers protesting vaccine mandates could rise to about 2,000 trucks in the coming days. So far about 1,000 vehicles are driving around the outskirts of the US capital, but they have not yet driven into town.
1,000: Amid a broader shortage of fuel and energy, nearly 1,000 bakeries in Sri Lanka have recently closed because they’ve run out of cooking gas. The South Asian island nation is currently mired in a financial and debt crisis that has crimped its ability to pay for fuel imports.
6 million: While the pandemic is receding in parts of the West, China is currently seeing its worst outbreak since 2019, and the global death toll has hit a grim milestone, topping 6 million on Monday (though experts point out that this is certainly an undercount, owing to poor record-keeping by some countries).
23: Colombian forces have reportedly killed 23 fighters who were part of a dissident faction of the FARC, the former guerrilla group that signed a peace accord with the government in 2016. The operation took place in the department of Arauca, where various armed groups, including the former FARC fighters, have recently been fighting over narco-trafficking routes.
108: One-hundred and eight years ago on Tuesday, International Women’s Day was first celebrated on March 8, 1914. It wasn’t until 1977 when the United Nations officially began observing the day, and this year it seems fitting to recognize the brave women of Ukraine who are fighting for their freedom.
The day women around the world flooded the streets
A global look at the celebrations, protests, and riots spurred by International Women's Day, March 8, 2021. It was a day that millions of women across the world took to the streets to demand that their voices be heard.
Watch the GZERO World with Ian Bremmer episode: Why the pandemic has been worse for women: UN Women's Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka
Women’s movements to watch right now
This Monday, March 8, is International Women's Day, a holiday with roots in a protest led by the Russian feminist Alexandra Kollontai that helped topple the czar of Russia in 1917. More than a hundred years later, amid a global pandemic that has affected women with particular fury, there are dozens of women-led protests and social movements reshaping politics around the globe. Here we take a look at a few key ones to watch this year.
Mexico. Latin America's second most populous country heads into March 8 embroiled in a major #MeToo political scandal, as President Andrés Manuel López Obrador defends a powerful member of his party accused of sexual harrassment and rape. That alone is fueling what are likely to be sizable protests this weekend, but there are two other big issues that have spurred the women of Mexico to action in recent years. The first is a growing crisis of femicide — in Mexico last year, a woman was killed every 8 hours (Spanish). The numbers got worse during the pandemic, when quarantine rules forced many women to stay at home with abusive partners or family members. The second is the growing movement to change Mexico's restrictive abortion laws, which strictly limit the procedure in most places outside the capital city. While public opinion is divided on the issue, feminist leaders in Mexico are looking to the recent success of the abortion-legalization movement in Argentina — part of a broader "Green Tide" of feminist organization and power across Latin America.
Poland. Earlier this year, the Polish government approved a draconian new abortion law — now among the strictest in the EU — that all but eliminates women's right to terminate pregnancies legally. Throughout the pandemic, protest groups led by women have hit the streets in opposition to the measure, which is supported by the ruling rightwing Law and Justice Party, but opposed by a majority of Poles. And while protests have died down since the law was passed, it will be a fresh focus this weekend. More broadly, the debate over abortion has become a totem of the wider cultural and political clash in Poland, which pits a conservative national government with strong ties to the Catholic Church and a largely rural political base against an increasingly liberal opposition in the country's big cities. Polish pro-choice activists face an uphill battle, but again — so too did those in Argentina, where the campaign lasted some 15 years.
India. By now you've doubtless heard about the massive farmers protests roiling New Delhi. (If not, see here.) But you've probably heard less about the sizable role that women are playing in the movement, as participants, speakers, and organizers. It's not hard to see why. Consider that 80 percent of working women in India are employed in the farming sector, and half of India's self-employed farmers are women. That means the government's new agriculture liberalization laws — which farmers worry will put them at the mercy of conglomerates — will have a huge impact on India's hundreds of millions of rural women. This issue has become the single biggest political crisis of otherwise-popular Prime Minister Narendra Modi's tenure.
Australia. In Australia, a rape allegation made by a former staffer for the ruling Liberal party has dominated the country's politics in recent weeks, causing a stream of women to come forward with stories of sexual harrasment and assault in Australia's Parliament House, including a separate decades-old allegation of rape against the current Attorney General. Brittany Higgins, an alleged victim who has become the face of the growing movement, says she felt silenced by the government after coming forward in 2019, prompting Prime Minister Scott Morrison to call for an inquiry into the parliament's "workplace culture." A slew of female politicians — from parties across the spectrum — have left politics in recent years because of what many say is the pervasive misogyny of Canberra's old boys' club. (You may recall former Prime Minister Julia Gillard's now-famous misogyny speech from parliament in 2012.)
Japan. Around the globe, women have suffered disproportionately from COVID's social and economic aftershocks. In Japan — where biases that disadvantage women are deeply ingrained — that toll has been especially pronounced: about 7,000 Japanese women committed suicide in 2020, a 15 percent annual increase (the number of Japenes men who committed suicide decreased from the previous year). While the subjugation of Japanese women is not new — Japan currently ranks 121st out of 153 countries on the World Economic Forum's annual Gender Gap list — the way that women in particular are responding to the issue is new. More assertive women's right advocates and groups have begun mobilizing to shine light on the conditions that lead to Japanese women's experiences of alienation, helplessness, and depression. One particular focus in recent years has been the push for reforms to the country's archaic rape laws, which critics say place an unreasonably high burden of proof on alleged victims (victims need to prove that they "fought back" during an assault).
Bottom line: International Women's Day can sometimes fall prey to a kind of cultural kitsch, with lazy appeals to "girl power" and cringey hashtags. But for many women around the world, it's a day to celebrate how far societies have come in the fight for equality, and to reflect on how far we still have to go.