Number of Portugal’s female politicians ‘above average’
6/3/2010

The number of women carrying out roles in the Portuguese Parliament is above the global average as well as being superior to the numbers from the majority of developed G8 countries, an international study has revealed.

The ‘Women in Politics 2010’ study, published by the Inter-parliamentary Union and Division for the Promotion of Women in the Untied Nations, showed that Portugal’s Parliament was made up of 27.4 percent women.

This is significantly higher than the 18.8 percent world average, surpassed only by Nordic countries, where women represent up to 42.1 percent of parliamentary politicians.

Regarding Ministries, Portugal has 31.3 percent of Ministers who are female, being ahead of countries such as Japan (where 11.8 percent of its Ministries are headed by a woman), Russia (16.7 percent), Italy (21.7 percent), the UK (22.6 percent), France (26.3 percent) and Canada (29.7 percent); Portugal is however behind the USA and Germany, whose governments both have 33.3 percent of female Ministers.

Interestingly, regarding female Ministers, Portugal is on equal footing with Gambia, Greece and Guiana.

Countries with the largest female representation in politics this year include Ruanda, Sweden, South Africa, Cuba, Iceland, Holland, Finland, Norway, Mozambique and Angola.

Finland has the highest number of female ministers, followed by Cape Verde, Spain, Norway, Chile/Iceland, Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark, Liechtenstein, Austria/Nicaragua, and São Tomé and Príncipe.

Saudi Arabia is the only nation in the world to not have one single woman in Parliament or in the Government.

Edition: 1051

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