Boosting the number of female leaders and government ministers will help build a stronger post-pandemic world, the head of U.N. Women, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, said on Monday as data showed women may wait 130 years to see equality at the top.
Here are some key facts about women in leadership positions:
- There are 22 countries with elected female heads of state or government. Recent additions to the list include Peru, Lithuania and Moldova.*
- On Jan. 25, Estonia became the only country with a female president and female prime minister.
- A total of 119 countries have never had a woman leader.
- At the current rate of progress, gender parity at the highest positions of power will not be reached for 130 years.
- Parity will not be achieved in national legislative bodies before 2063 and in ministerial positions before 2077.
- Worldwide, the number of women parliamentarians has more than doubled since 1995 to 25%.
- In early 2020, just 14 countries had cabinets with 50% or more positions held by women.
- Women hold more than 30% of parliamentary seats in Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe and North America. But in the Pacific island states they hold just 6% of seats.
- Barriers to women's participation in public life include political parties' reluctance to support them, lack of funding, public perceptions that men make better leaders, and violence and intimidation, including cyber-abuse.
- More than 80% of women parliamentarians surveyed globally have experienced psychological violence.
- One in four have suffered physical violence and one in five sexual violence.
* This figure does not include Taiwan or countries with female monarchs.