Trump’s America: Leader or Laggard?

The weekly quiz is provided by the Globalist, a daily online feature service that covers issues and trends in globalization. The nonpartisan organization provides commercial services and nonprofit educational features.

QUESTION

Women make up 49.55 percent of the world’s population. But when it comes to their representation in government, the percentages are often significantly much lower. We wonder: Which of the following major countries or regions has the lowest percentage of women in its Cabinet?

A. France is not correct.

In France, nine of the 18 ministers in the Cabinet of new French Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve are women (50 percent). The German government, led by Chancellor Angela Merkel, Europe’s most prominent female leader, is 37.5 percent female (6 of 16, including Merkel herself). In Britain, which in mid-2016 underwent a change in prime minister after the Brexit referendum, Theresa May’s new cabinet is 36.4 percent female (8 of 22 ministers). Like France and Britain, Italy also saw a change in leadership and a Cabinet reshuffle in 2016, which improved the gender representation to six women of 20 seats in the Council of Ministers of new Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni (30 percent). Spain’s prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, was re-elected in 2016 and his Cabinet currently has 5 women out of 14 senior ministers including the prime minister (35.7 percent).

B. European Union is not correct.

In general, Europe’s leading countries tend to perform better than many other leading countries on gender representation in government. But how does the European Union as a whole compare at its supranational government level? The European Commission — which consists of the president and 27 commissioners from the other member states — is responsible for conducting the EU’s day-to-day affairs, acting as its executive Cabinet. It proposes legislation to the European Parliament and upholds the EU’s treaties. As of mid-December 2016, the European Commission includes nine women — a third of the 27 commissioners. The highest profile woman serving in the Commission is Italy’s Federica Mogherini, the EU’s foreign policy chief.

C. India is correct.

In India, the second most populous country in the world, 5 of the 27 ministerial-level individuals (or 18.5 percent) in the Union Cabinet led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi are women. Brazil’s new leader, President Michel Temer, was elevated to power in May 2016 after impeachment proceedings against Dilma Rousseff — Brazil’s first female president. Temer’s new Cabinet originally included nine fewer ministries and initially consisted only of men — a first in Brazil’s post-dictatorship era. In September 2016, he appointed one woman (out of 22 ministers, equal to 4.5 percent) in response to global and national criticism. By contrast, Rousseff’s Cabinet had included 7 women out of 31 ministers (22.6 percent).

D. United States is correct.

Donald Trump has formally announced nominees for all 15 Cabinet secretaries. At the moment, only two women are included — former President George W. Bush’s Labor Secretary Elaine Chao for Transportation and Betsy DeVos for Education — which represents 13.3 percent of the department heads. (Women were named to non-department-level Cabinet agencies, which are excluded here for purposes of global comparison.) At the close of his second term in office, President Barack Obama has four women in the 15 secretarylevel cabinet positions, accounting for 26.7 percent. At the beginning of Obama’s first term in 2009, women also held four secretary-level positions, including, most prominently, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The last president to begin his administration with fewer than three women as Cabinet secretaries was President George H. W. Bush in 1989, with one out of then-14 departments.

ANSWER

A. France B. European Union C. India D. United States