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Other countries in Europe where women hold high-ranking positions of power include Moldova, Estonia, France, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Kosovo, Lithuania and Serbia.
Given the achievements of Margaret Thatcher, the late British prime minister who served for 11 years, and Angela Merkel of Germany, who retired from the post last year after 16 years, it may not be surprising that Europe is seeing an increase in female leaders.
Women at the helm
However, while half of them serve as ceremonial leaders with limited powers, it is the first time that many countries have elected a woman as their head of state. These include Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou, Hungarian President Katarin Novak, Slovakia’s Zuzana Caputova and Moldova’s Maia Sandu, the latter of which is unusual in that both its head of state and its head of government are women.
Women who hold real power as heads of government include Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen of Denmark, Prime Minister Kaja Kallas of Estonia, Prime Minister Sanna Marin of Finland, Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir of Iceland, Prime Minister Ana Brnabic of Serbia, and Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson of Sweden. The latter two are particularly noteworthy: Prime Minister Brnabic is Serbia’s first female and openly gay prime minister, and Prime Minister Andersson is Sweden’s first female prime minister.
In January 2021, Estonia became the first country to have a female elected head of state and a female head of government, but that changed in October last year when biologist and politician Aral Kallis was sworn in as president, replacing the country’s youngest head of state, Kersti Kaljulaid.
Read also: The four Nordic female prime ministers with whom Prime Minister Modi interacted during his time in Europe are all pioneers in tackling climate change.
What is causing this increase?
According to Umm Baba, professor and Jean Monnet Chair at the Centre for European Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), the rise of women leaders is due to factors including progressive politics, greater representation through EU programmes and the rise of a younger generation.
“Angela Merkel and a few others set a good example of the female leaders we see in Europe today. But I think the recent rise in female leaders is a combination of factors. First, there is a general improvement in status in Europe as a result of years of welfare and progressive politics. Many EU programs have also helped to promote greater political representation for women, and this may be a reflection of that,” Baba said.
She noted that most female leaders, such as Finland’s Sanna Marin, are quite young for their positions: “These young people are thinking differently about politics and representation.”
Of the 13 European female leaders, the women with executive powers are aged between 36 and 55, while those in ceremonial positions are aged between 40 and 65, according to ThePrint’s analysis.
But having women in power is no guarantee that democratic ideals will be upheld. In March, Hungary elected its first female president, Katalin Novak. Novak, a close ally of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, was criticized for assuming the presidency purely for partisan reasons. She described her election as a “victory for women” and a progressive step for the country, but critics have called her “socially conservative” for her anti-LGBTQ policies and other ideological stigmas.
“Hungary has seen a decline in democracy in recent years, which has created tensions with the EU, and Orban is also a supporter of Putin. Therefore, Novak becoming Hungary’s first female president could be seen as a strategic move and a way around the EU’s attempts to harshly criticize Hungary for straying from the democratic path,” Baba said.
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Right Edge
In Europe, it has been observed that many of the women in the highest positions of power, even as party leaders, are from the right wing of the political spectrum. Prime Minister Thatcher and, more recently, Prime Minister Theresa May, were from the British Conservative Party. In France, Marine Le Pen, who faced President Emmanuel Macron in the recent French elections, is from the far-right National Rally party and has increased her vote share since the 2017 presidential election. The Secretary-General of the European Union, Ursula von der Leyen, is also from the centre-right European People’s Party grouping.
Costanza Hermanin, a research fellow in the Department of Transnational Governance at the European University Institute, examines this trend in the report. Euronews. “Why does the political left, which is supposed to care more about gender equality, have such a hard time representing women leaders?”
While there is no definitive explanation, she added that there could be a number of reasons, including that conservative women often play the traditional mother figure championed by the right.
Ishani Naskar, a professor of international relations at Kolkata’s Jadavpur University, said right-wing women are seen as having stronger “family values” and are therefore “more trustworthy”.
“Leaders like Thatcher and Merkel had strong traditional family values and when they not only took power but were able to keep it, people’s trust grew. But leading a country is still seen as a ‘masculine’ role in Europe and women continue to be seen that way even when they become heads of state or government,” Nasker said.
Special points
Women are also leading the way in the nations that make up the UK: Nicola Sturgeon is Scotland’s First Minister, and Michelle O’Neill is expected to be named First Minister in Northern Ireland, where elections were held on May 5, although the executive has yet to be formed.
We should also mention Switzerland: it is unique in that it does not have a president or prime minister in power – instead, a seven-member Federal Parliament acts as joint head of state and government.
The seven council members are the heads of various government departments and the position of council president, currently held by Ignazio Cassis, rotates annually. There are currently three women on the council: Viola Amheld, head of defence, civil protection and sport; Karin Keller-Sutter, head of justice and police; and Simonetta Sommaruga, head of environment, transport, energy and communications.
Georgia was excluded from ThePrint’s list of 45 European countries because it is a transcontinental country (straddling Europe and Asia) with the majority of its population living in Asia. That said, Georgia elected its first female head of state, President Salome Zourabishvili, in 2018.
Read also: Women’s underrepresentation in politics is a narrative problem. It’s time to rethink our language
History of European women leaders
While female leaders are not uncommon in Europe, the first woman to lead a government was in Asia, when Sirimavo Bandaranaike became prime minister of Sri Lanka in 1960. In the Indian subcontinent, female prime ministers such as the late Indira Gandhi and Benazir Bhutto transformed the political landscape.
Bangladesh’s current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Taiwan’s current President Tsai Ing-wen also prove that female leaders are not uncommon in Asia.
European countries began electing women to heads of state and government in the late 1970s. Many were adept at staying in power: Thatcher was British prime minister from 1979 to 1990, and Merkel was German chancellor from 2005 to 2021. Mirka Plancink was prime minister of the former Yugoslavia from 1982 to 1986.
In the 2010s, many countries began to elect their second or third female leaders, such as Prime Minister Theresa May in the UK and Ewa Kopacz in Poland.
Political analysts, historians and women’s rights activists say the current prominence of female leaders in Europe does not represent a turning point: “Much more needs to be done before women in leadership roles at the forefront become the unquestioned norm,” Baba said.
(Edited by Prashant)
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