Currently, only 13 of the 193 United Nations member states have women as heads of government. This includes Mexico, where President Claudia Sheinbaum was sworn in this week as the country’s first female executive.
Mexico is one of nine countries with its first female head of state, according to a Pew Research Center analysis.
Overall, 60 UN member states (31%) have had a woman serve as head of government. The first was Sri Lanka, then known as Ceylon, where Sirimavo Bandaranaike began his first term as Prime Minister in 1960. Two other countries, India in 1966 and Israel in 1969, had their first female leaders in this decade.
This Pew Research Center analysis looked at the number of women heads of government in United Nations member states after World War II. Data for this analysis comes primarily from the Council on Foreign Relations’ Women’s Power Index, which was last updated on August 20, 2024. The center updated these figures to October 1, 2024, using independent sources and filtering to include only female heads. of a country’s political system or government as defined by its constitution.
In some countries, “head of government” can mean the president or the prime minister, but not both. In limited cases, this leader may not be the most powerful person in the current government. Heads of state, monarchs, co-presidents, co-heads of state, and interim leaders are excluded from this analysis. In countries with a collective government head, this analysis recognizes the chair member.
Globally, the number of countries with female leaders has steadily increased since 1990. The largest single-year increase was in 2010, when five countries were led by women: Australia, Costa Rica, Kyrgyzstan, Slovakia, and Trinidad and Tobago. first time.
60 countries have had female leaders so far
When the first female head of government of each country takes office
Note: Numbers are through October 1, 2024. Data is limited to heads of government of the 193 United Nations member states.
Source: Pew Research Center analysis of data from the Council on Foreign Relations and independent sources.
Barbados’ Prime Minister Mia Mottley is currently the longest-serving female Prime Minister. Mr Mottley has been in power for more than six years.
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The title of longest-serving female leader in modern history is held by former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Hasina was in power for a total of more than 20 years, but resigned and fled Bangladesh earlier this year when mass protests against the quota system for government jobs turned into a more violent campaign against her government. . (She was also the oldest female leader, according to a separate Pew Research Center analysis.)
Several prominent women leaders are not included in this analysis. For example, Kosovo currently has a female president (Vijosa Osmani), but is excluded because it is not a member of the United Nations. San Marino has ruled out Francesca Chiberchia, one of the small European country’s two “captain regents” who were appointed earlier this week. This is because the position is jointly held.
Former female leaders such as Taiwan’s Tsai Ing-wen and Myanmar’s (formerly Burma) Aung San Suu Kyi were also excluded for similar reasons: lack of UN membership and lack of clear government control, respectively. For detailed methodology, see How we did this.
Note: This is an update of a post originally published on July 30, 2015.
