In Thailand, new party promising to “build future” is launched with barely any women, and other stories
#WomenLead (Issue 82): Your weekly round-up on women in politics
Hello, and welcome to Issue 82!
It’s been a sun-less damp day here in Delhi, and we’ve had a little too many of them this winter in addition to an infectious covid-19 wave. We hope you all are keeping safe and warm wherever you are🌞.
In today’s edition, we have an update about one more country that will get a representative cabinet - we feel quite elated every time we get to include such a development in the newsletter! What makes today’s addition happier is that this is outside of the European region, and we hope many more governments follow.
We bring you updates from Barbados, Chile, Colombia, the EU, USA and the spotlight is on Thailand this week. In case you missed last week’s edition, you can catch up right here.
Quick Updates
🎉 REPRESENTATION GOALS: In Chile, President-elect Gabriel Boric named a cabinet made up of 14 women and ten men, the first time a woman-majority cabinet has been appointed in the entire American region.
💯 PM POPULI: In Barbados, PM Mia Mottley is back in power for a second consecutive term after winning a recent snap election by a landslide margin. Her party, the Barbados Labour Party, has won all 30 seats of the National Assembly, a repeat of her party’s performance from 2018. The share of women MPs has also improved - from 20 percent in the previous polls to 26 percent now.
🇪🇺 NEW LEADER: On Tuesday, Roberta Metsola was elected the President of the European Parliament. The 43-year-old Maltese politician becomes the youngest President of the regional Parliament, and the third woman elected to the post. She will continue to serve in the position till 2024. However, Metsola’s conservative politics, especially her anti-abortion ideology, has kept reactions to her election mixed. In her first press conference after her election, she acknowledged that the European Parliament’s position on the matter was clear and unambiguous (against her own views), and said: “My position is that of the European Parliament.”