women in cabinet

Until recently, only utopian Sweden had a cabinet with gender equity. But now that power equity is spreading to countries that aren't known to be blonde andperfectly progressive-but more latin and macho.

This spring Spanish Prime Minsiter Zapatero counted out 9 female members and 8 male ministers. 

French President Sarkozy has seven out of 15; his justice minister has gained worldwide news coverage for her North African heritage.

In 2007, Quebec Premier Jean Charest made half ofhis 18 ministers women.  The Canadian Federal government has a paltry percentage as does the US.

COUNTINGTHE CABINETS

Some one is keeping track; the Women's Environment & Development Organization runs the 50/50 campaign to increase women's participation in government worldwide   They compiled a list of women in cabinets around the world-it averages about 15% worldwide.  http://www.wedo.org/files/women%20in%20cabinets2007.pdf

Chile's woman president has gone beyond seeking equity in cabinet, her goal is to make half of all presidential appointees women.

However, none of these countries has actually legislated quotas for cabinet. And unfortunately, there has been little research done on the effect of having women cabinet members-perhaps this will change with these new women-heavy cabinets in Spain and France.  

QUOTAS

Many countries-around 50-however, have created quotas for women on party lists or parliaments.  Not coincidentally, countries that have had requirements for women in party lists, such as Norway and Sweden have reached much higher equity in representation and cabinets. To see how each country does go to:

 http://www.ipu.org/wmn-e/classif.htm Worldwide, women make up about 16% of all representatives.

There are two other interesting sites you might want to look at:

http://www.iknowpolitics.org/en/

http://www.guide2womenleaders.com