How women fare...

London – Boosting the number of female leaders and government ministers will help build a stronger post-pandemic world, the head of UN Women, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, said on Monday as data showed women may wait 130 years to see equality at the top.

Some key facts about women in leadership positions:

There are 22 countries with elected female heads of state or government. Recent additions include Peru, Lithuania and Moldova.*

On 25 January, Estonia became the only country with a female president and female prime minister.

A total of 119 countries have never had a woman leader.

Worldwide, the number of women parliamentarians has more than doubled since 1995 to 25%.

In early 2020, just 14 countries had cabinets with 50% or more positions held by women.

Women hold more than 30% of parliamentary seats in Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe and North America. But in the Pacific island states they hold just 6%.

Barriers to women’s participation in public life include political parties’ reluctance to support them, lack of funding, public perceptions that men make better leaders, and violence and intimidation, including cyber-abuse.

More than 80% of women parliamentarians surveyed globally have experienced psychological violence.

One in four have suffered physical violence and one in five sexual violence. * This figure does not include Taiwan or countries with female monarchs.

Reuters