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Measuring Women’s Political Empowerment across the Globe pp 257–282Cite as

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Women Heads of State and Government

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Abstract

This chapter first provides a rationale for focusing more on women presidents and prime ministers given the current state of the gender and politics literature. It then presents trends related to women’s executive office holding such as the quantities of women leaders, paths and positions. An assessment of the potential impacts women presidents and prime ministers exert on women as a group follows. I argue that women executives further women’s political empowerment within the society as a whole and even on a global scale, through mechanisms related to their roles as policy makers, selectors, and symbols. I conclude by highlighting a number of opportunities for future research on measuring the political empowerment hastened by women executives.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Three women have served as prime minister of Peru (unofficial title), which is officially termed the President of the Council of Ministers, but holds substantially less power since Peru is a presidential system where the president acts as chief of state and head of government. I have tended to include this position in my analyses, but their inclusion raises some questions about comparability.

  2. 2.

    Switzerland’s executive structure also appears unique, its president is elected from its seven-person Federal Council to serve a 1-year term. Due to this seemingly unrivaled power of the president, I retain Switzerland as a case. I also analyze interim or acting presidents and prime ministers, though to a lesser extent than women in office serving on a more permanent basis.

  3. 3.

    I do not include women who serve temporarily if they do so in a capacity that does not conform to a traditional executive structure. For example, Ruth Perry of Liberia was part of the Council of State, a six-person collective presidency led by Ruth Perry, governed during a temporary peace agreement. A more recent example is Acting Head of State Doris Bures of Austria who was Head of the Joint Acting Presidency with two vice-presidents between July 2016 and January 2017 after the second round presidential elections needed to be held again when the Constitutional Court annulled the results.

  4. 4.

    Incorporating nonautonomous states’ nontraditional executive positions would noticeably increase the numbers of women executives while integrating military dictatorships/juntas, one-party communist states, and hereditary monarchies would do just the opposite.

  5. 5.

    Of course women like Argentine First Lady Eva Peron lacked formal executive authority, but exerted tremendous influence on politics, particularly women (Weir 2013). Aung Suu Kyi of Myanmar, placed under house arrest throughout two decades, was officially barred from holding the prime ministership upon her release but essentially plays a head of government role. She was disqualified because her deceased husband and their children are foreign citizens, a stipulation specifically adopted to keep her from holding the prime ministership. If we were able to measure the influence of unofficial executive leaders, however, I argue that we would see an even greater entrenchment of men on balance.

  6. 6.

    About 134 presidencies and 118 prime ministerships exist. About 236 men occupied these posts in 2016, while only 16 women did.

  7. 7.

    One could argue, however, that not only do women have to obtain the same credentials as their male counterparts (or more), they usually have to come from important political families to clinch the strongest of executive positions. In this way, the family path can be viewed as an additional burden on women.

  8. 8.

    For example, former Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodrıguez, President François Hollande of France, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada have appointed “parity” cabinets.

  9. 9.

    Actors could include other executives in the case of dual executive systems and institutions include the legislature.

  10. 10.

    Annesley suggests (2015) the pool depends on the particular country. In Germany, only legislators from the lower house are eligible to hold executive portfolios. In the United Kingdom, ministers hail from either the House of Commons or House of Lords (Annesley 2015).

  11. 11.

    According to Annesley (2015), coalitions rarely surface in Westminster parliamentary systems, affording the prime minister greater authority over his or her cabinet choices.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK, USA

    Farida Jalalzai

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  1. Farida Jalalzai
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden

    Amy C. Alexander

  2. University of California, Irvine, California, USA

    Catherine Bolzendahl

  3. Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma, USA

    Farida Jalalzai

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Jalalzai, F. (2018). Women Heads of State and Government. In: Alexander, A., Bolzendahl, C., Jalalzai, F. (eds) Measuring Women’s Political Empowerment across the Globe. Gender and Politics. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64006-8_12

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