Women currently serve as the head of government in just 13 of the 193 member states of the United Nations. And fewer than a third of UN countries have ever had a woman leader, according to a Pew Research Center analysis.
Women currently serve as the head of government in just 13 of the 193 member states of the United Nations. And fewer than a third of UN countries have ever had a woman leader, according to a Pew Research Center analysis.
In nine of the 13 UN member countries that are currently led by women, the current leader is the country’s first woman head of government. This includes three women who have taken office in the last year: Peru’s Dina Boluarte, Italy’s Giorgia Meloni and Bosnia-Herzegovina’s Borjana Krišto. Roughly half of all current women leaders (seven of 13) are in Europe.
Overall, 59 UN member states have ever had a woman leader. The first was Sri Lanka, where Sirimavo Bandaranaike served her first term as prime minister for nearly five years starting in 1960.
Worldwide, the number of countries that have had women heads of government has risen steadily since 1990. The biggest single-year increase occurred in 2010, when five countries – Australia, Costa Rica, Kyrgyzstan, Slovakia and Trinidad and Tobago – saw their first women leaders.
Women have rarely led for a long time
While the number of countries that have ever had a woman leader continues to grow, the number of women who are actively in power in any given year is increasing at a much slower rate. In fact, no more than 18 countries have had women leaders in the same calendar year, though 2023 is already close to matching that record. So far this year, 15 countries have had women leaders, including the 13 current ones, plus former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who resigned on Jan. 25, and former Moldova Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilița, who resigned on Feb. 16.
Even when women have made it to power, they’ve rarely led for a long time. Women have held their position as heads of government for a median of 2.5 years.
At the country level, Bangladesh has had the most years of leadership by women since 1945, at 29 years. Sri Lanka, Norway, New Zealand, Germany, India and the Philippines were each led by women for at least 15 years. Only five other countries have had a decade or more of leadership by women.
Source: Pew Research