As Theresa May steps down, how the UK stacks up in terms of female world leaders

“The second female prime minister, but certainly not the last,” Theresa May said, shortly after 10am this morning as her resignation speech echoed across the nation’s TVs.

The prime minister made the decision to stand down as Conservative leader after mounting Brexit pressure – parliament has rejected her withdrawal agreement three times.

May is only the UK’s second female prime minister after Margaret Thatcher, who led the country from 1979 to 1990.

Despite only ever having two female prime ministers, the UK has seen a giant leap forward for gender equality in politics in the century since women were given the right to vote. The 2017 election saw a record number of female MPs elected, with 32 per cent of all MPs being women, slightly above the worldwide average of 24 per cent.

Comparatively, most of the world’s nations have never had a female leader – including big players like the United States, Japan, Russia and Spain. According to a 2017 study by the World Economic Forum (WEF), just 56 of the 146 nations studied have had a female head of government. In 31 of these countries, women have led for five years or less, and in 10 countries they have only led for one year.

Yet, while the UK has made strides in terms of equality for women in politics, we still have a long way to go.

Three-fifths of women-led countries are in Europe, and when Theresa May took over from David Cameron in 2016 she became Europe’s seventh female head of state at the time. Europe also has two of the longest-running current female heads of state with Angela Merkel, who has been the Chancellor of Germany since 2005, and Dalia Grybauskaitė who has been the President of Lithuania since 2009.

Nordic countries – besides Sweden which has never had a female head of state – also have a long history of championing women in politics. Iceland has had a female president or prime minister for 22 of the past 50 years, with Katrín Jakobsdóttir being the current prime Minister, and Norway’s prime minister Erna Solberg has been head of state since 2013.

Outside of Europe, Bangladesh – which has the eighth largest population in the world at 168 million – also has some of the longest stretches with female leaders in the past 50 years, according to the WEF research. Current prime minister Sheikh Hasina and political rival Khaleda Zia have collectively ruled for 25 years since 1992 – with both women being elected prime minister two times each. Hasina is the current Prime Minister of Bangladesh and has been since 2009.

With May’s departure this means just 24 countries out of the world’s 195 nations have female heads of state – just eight per cent. While we don’t yet know who the next Conservative Party leader will be – it could well be a woman – May will leave a legacy of a battle fought to the end.

Below are five female world leaders to know.

Jacinda Ardern, Prime Minister of New Zealand

Jacinda Ardern has been making worldwide headlines ever since she was elected in 2017. After being the second-ever world leader to fall pregnant and have a child while in power (Pakistan's Benazir Bhutto was the first in 1990), Ardern’s baby Neve was born in June last year. In March this year, Ardern made headlines again for her emphatic reaction and swift gun law changes after the Christchurch Mosque Attacks rocked the small nation.

New Zealand’s first female prime minister was Jenny Shipley in 1997 and since then, the country has had five prime ministers, three of which have been women.

Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany

Germany’s head of state since 2005, Angela Merkel announced last year she would step down as chancellor in 2021 after a 16-year run – making Merkel the longest continuously-serving female head of state. In 2018, Merkel topped Forbe’s list of the most powerful women in the world for the eighth year running – Theresa May was listed as the second most powerful woman in the world last year.

Katrín Jakobsdóttir, Prime Minister of Iceland

Elected in November 2017, Katrín Jakobsdóttir is Iceland’s second female prime minister after Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir held the office from 2009 to 2013 (Sigurðardóttir was also the world’s first openly gay head of government).

At just 43, Jakobsdóttir is a young head of state and a staunch environmentalist – she has been Chairman of the Left-Green Movement since 2013 and when elected to office, vowed to make Iceland carbon neutral by 2040.

Sheikh Hasina, Prime Minister of Bangladesh

The Bangladeshi prime minister since 2009, this is the second time Sheikh Hasina has been elected as head of state for the country. Hasina also served as prime minister of Bangladesh from 1996 to 2001 and in December last year won a third consecutive term in office.

There are 50 seats reserved for women in the 350-seat Bangladesh parliament and Al Jazeera report that the country has seen a threefold increase in per capita income since Hasina took power in 2009. Hasina has also been tasked with handling one of the world’s biggest refugee crisis - with one million Rohingya taking refuge in Bangladesh after fleeing Myanmar.

Most of Hasina’s family members – her mother, father and three brothers - will killed in a coup in 1975 and Hasina also survived an assassination attempt at a political rally in 2004.

Dalia Grybauskaitė, President of Lithuania

Elected in 2009, Dalia Grybauskaitė is Lithuania’s fifth and current president and the first woman to hold this position. In 2014 Grybauskaitė also became the first president of Lithuania to be elected for a second term.

When Grybauskaitė was initially elected, she only took half of her presidential salary due to the recession. She has also been a critic of Vladmir Putin and made the decision for Lithuania to boycott the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics in Russia.

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