Meet Francia Márquez, the gritty environmental activist making political history in Colombia, and other stories
#WomenLead (Issue 101): Your weekly round-up on women in politics
Hello, and welcome to Issue 101!
One of our favorite internet projects - the International Knowledge Network of Women in Politics (iKNOW Politics) - recently put out the list of women who are currently heads of state/government around the world.
2️⃣8️⃣
That’s the [meagre] number of women PMs/Presidents globally. While it is an all-time high, it represents only 8 percent of all heads! The 28 are not equally spread out - nearly half (13) are in Europe, Africa has five, the Americas and Asia have four each, and Oceania has two.
The 🌐 really has too many miles to cover!
In this week’s edition, we bring you updates from Australia and Liberia, and the spotlight is on Colombia, where a determined and valiant environmental activist is on the brink of creating political history. In case you missed last week’s edition, you can read it here.
Quick Updates
🔧 MAKING AMENDS: In Australia, the newly elected Labor government led by PM Anthony Albanese has announced a 23-member cabinet, 10 of whom are women. This is a historic high for the country. The cabinet also includes for the first time women from different religious and ethnic backgrounds. Anne Aly becomes the first Muslim woman to hold a ministerial position; Penny Wong, who is of Asian origin, is the country’s new foreign minister; and Linda Burney becomes the first Indigenous woman member of the Cabinet.
👌 DISPLAY OF INTENT: In Liberia, political party Congress for Democratic Change (CDC) recently announced a 40 percent quota for women, which will apply to future parliamentary elections as well as throughout the party’s leadership positions, Front Page Africa reported. The announcement came on the occasion of the party’s 17th anniversary, and is a push to the previous policy that reserved 30 percent of positions for women. Here’s what the CDC press release said: