How Far We’ve Come- Politics
The actual list of women in global politics is longer, but here are some highlights:
1920- That's the year we (American women) got to vote. 89 years ago.
1966- India - Indira Gandhi is the first Prime Minister of India
1969- Israel- Golda Meir becomes the first female Prime Minister
1974- Argentina- Maria Estela Martinez de Peron becomes first woman President of Argentina and first female head of state in the Americas
1979- Bolivia- Lidia Geiler first woman elected President
1988- Pakistan - Benazir Bhutto first woman elected Prime Minister (first woman elected to lead a Muslim country)
1990- Ireland- Mary Robinson first woman elected President
1990- Haiti- Ertha Pascal-Trouillot first woman elected president
1991- France- Edith Cresson is the first woman Prime Minister
1993- Rwanda- Agathe Uwilingiyimana first woman Prime Minister (for 18 days-assassinated in 1994 during Rawandan Genocide)
1999- Latvia- Vaira Vike-Freiberga elected President- first woman to be a president of a Eastern European country of the former Soviet Union
2003- Peru- Beatriz Merion Prime Minister [dismissed after 6 months on speculation that she was a lesbian, despite her 60% approval rating]
2004- Mozambique - Luisa Diogo elected Prime Minister
2007- USA- Hilary Clinton one of the first women ever to be considered for US Presidency
2007- India- Pratibha Patil elected president
Women's history in politics fits on less than one page of word-processed print. Men's history fits into that stupid 400-page history book I lug around school all day that will probably be identified as the cause of my back problems in later life. It's true that women have come a long way, but every time that I hear women have a great presence in politics I get really angry-mostly because of this list. Not even every country has had ONE woman in upper ranking politics. I'm sure it's true that there are a lot of women in politics generally- just because they're not prime ministers or whatever doesn't mean they're not there. And that's fine, and I do hope that's true. But compare this list to the list of MEN who have been prime ministers in those countries, then consider that they are only about 50% of the population - 49% last I heard.
That's not right.
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