The Council of Women World Leaders currently has 40 members. When it was first established, there were only 11. The two women who initiated the Council were Vigdis Finnbogadottir who was the President of Iceland between 1980 and 1996 and Laura Liswood. Tarja Halonen, President of Finland, is currently serving as the Council's chair.
Women Heads of State
There are currently 29 female heads of state and government in office around the world. Most have been elected in the last few years. The longest serving heads of state are Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (since 1952), Queen Margrethe 2 of Denmark (since 1972) and Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands (since 1980).
Apart from Mary McAleese who is the current President of Ireland, all the other women heads of state and government have been elected in the first decade of the 21st century. McAleese is the first woman head of state to succeed another woman (Mary Robinson). During the elections campaign of 1997 in Ireland when she was elected, there were five candidates who were female and only one token male candidate who finished in sixth place.
Since 2006 Africa has had its first ever female elected head of state. She is Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and is President of Liberia. Born in 1939, she was elected into office on January 16th, 2006.
The Council of Women World Leaders
The mission of the Council of Women World Leaders is to promote good governance and enhance the experience of democracy globally by increasing the number, effectiveness and visibility of women who lead at the highest levels in their countries. It strives to mobilize women leaders globally for collective action on issues of critical importance to women.
In conjunction with the Aspen Institute, for the past three years the Council of Women World Leaders has been sponsoring a series of round table discussions focusing on women's roles in leadership positions and the achievements they have made on the world stage. In 2007 the series was named the Madeleine K. Albright Women's Voices at the Aspen Institute series in honor of the first American woman Secretary of State.
The Ministerial Initiave, also under the auspices of the Council of Women World Leaders, seeks to promote ministerial-level exchange on global issues, to address the particular challenges facing women in ministerial leadership positions, and to increase their visibility both nationally and internationally. The numerous meetings which the Council has convened among women ministers have become influential in implementing change with a gender perspective.
The White House Project
The White House Project was founded by Marie Wilson in 1998 to enhance the public perception of women as leaders and to help fill leadership positions within the United States with a richly diverse, critical mass of women. Its second and current president is Tiffany Dufu.
Marie Wilson founded The White House Project because she saw the need to build a truly representative democracy where women lead alongside men in all spheres of life. She has been a member of the Des Moines City Council and was a delegate for the United Nations at the UN Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995. She has traveled the country speaking to audiences about women's issues and the need for women in leadership.
It seems that it is only a question of time when there will be a woman in the White House. With the many projects and organizations promoting women into positions of leadership and with a growing number of women leaders worldwide, perhaps the 21st century will be the century when there will be the first ever woman president in the United States.
References:
Wilson, Marie: Closing the Leadership Gap: Why Women Can and Must Help Run the World. Penguin Group. New York: 2004.
Liswood, Laura. The Loudest Duck: Moving Beyond Diversity While Embracing Differences to Achieve Success at Work. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Hoboken, NJ: 2010.
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