| >>> VERSION FRANÇAISE |
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Women Speakers
of national parliaments |
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History and the present
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| BEFORE 1945 |
- Austria was the only State to have elected a woman to the presidency of one of the Parliament's Chambers (the Bundesrat) before the Second World War.
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| FROM 1945 TO 1997 |
- Only 42 of the 186 States with a legislative institution have, at one time or another in recent history, selected a woman to preside over Parliament or a House of Parliament: this has occurred 78 times in all.
- Those concerned are 18 European countries, 19 countries of the Americas, 3 African countries, 1 Asian country and 1 country in the Pacific.
- 24 of the States concerned had a bicameral Parliament, and the presidency was entrusted to a woman a little more often in the Senate than in the lower House.
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| AT PRESENT: SITUATION AS OF 1 OCTOBER 2020 |
- Only 56 women preside over one of the Houses of the 192 Parliaments, 79 of which are bicameral. Women therefore occupy only 20.1% of the total number of 278 posts of Presiding Officers of Parliament or of one of its Houses. The posts are comprised as follows:
- 266 parliamentary chambers with one presiding officer each;
- Three chambers with two presiding officers each (San Marino's single chamber, the US Senate and the Liberian Senate);
- Two chambers with three presiding officers each (Bosnia-Herzegovina's lower and upper chambers).
- The countries concerned are:
Andorra (General Council);
Antigua and Barbuda (Senate);
Argentina (Senate);
Austria (Federal Council);
Azerbaijan (National Assembly);
Bahrain (Council of Representatives);
Bangladesh (Jatiya Sangsad);
Belarus (Council of Republic);
Belgium (Senate);
Belize (House of Representatives);
Bolivia (Chamber of Senators);
Bosnia and Herzegovina (House of representatives);
Bulgaria (National Assembly);
Chile (Senate);
Democratic Republic of the Congo (National Assembly);
Equatorial Guinea (Senado);
Eswatini (Senate);
Finland (Eduskunta);
Gabon (Senate);
Gambia (the) (National Assembly);
Indonesia (House of Representatives);
Italy (Senate);
Jamaica (House of Representatives);
Japan (House of Concillors);
Kiribati (House of Assembly);
Lao People's Democratic Republic (Saphs Heng Xat);
Latvia (Saeima);
Lesotho (Senate);
Liberia (Senate);
Madagascar (National Assembly);
Malawi (National Assembly);
Mexico (Chamber of Deputies);
Mozambique (Assembleia da Republica);
Netherlands (Eerste Kamer der Staten Generaal);
Norway (Stortinget);
Poland (Sjem);
Republic of Moldova (Parliament);
Russian Federation (Soviet Federatsii);
Rwanda (Chamber of Deputies);
Saint Lucia (Senate);
Serbia (Narodna skupstina);
South Africa (National Assembly);
Spain (Congress of Deputies and Senate);
Switzerland (National Council);
Togo (National Assembly);
Trinidad and Tobago (House of representatives and Senate);
Turkmenistan (Mejlis);
Uganda (Parliament);
United States of America (House of Representatives);
Uruguay (Senate);
Uzbekistan (Senate);
Viet Nam (National Assembly);
Zimbabwe (Senate).
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| CHRONOLOGY |
Date at which, for the first time in the country's parliamentary history,
a woman became Presiding Officer of Parliament or of one of its Houses. |
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* In 1993, Ms. Leticia Ramos-Shahani was elected first woman President pro tempore of the Senate.
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