women rule

lately i've been reflecting on leadership. the qualities that make a good leader, people whom i respect as leaders, and so forth. this reflection lead me to a query.. how many world leaders are currently females?

well, since its not in my nature to leave a question that goes unanswered, i started poking round and doin some snooping. turns out that there are currently TWELVE female presidents and prime ministers presently in power. that figure was quite unexpected, and yet still left me unsatisfied. i also discovered that the record number of simultaneous female world leaders was 13. this occurred twice, once in July 2002, and once in april 2006.

and here are our current female world leaders:

Chancellor Angela Merkel - Germany

Prime Minister Luisa Diogo - Mozambique

Prime Minister Khaleda Zia - Bangladesh

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo - The Philippines

President Mary McAleese - Ireland

Prime Minister Helen Clark - New Zealand

President Vaira Vike-Freiberga - Republic of Latvia

President Tarja Halonen - Finland

theres also:

President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf - Liberia
President Michelle Bachelet – Chile
Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller – Jamaica
Prime Minister Han Myung-Sook – South Korea

but blogspot is being a pain and won't let me post any more photos for today.. i think they've closed up shop. if you bear with me, i'll persevere..

bursting with girlpower goodness,

tash

p.s miss e, a positively tipsy colleague of mine, became a true advocate of social rights at our christmas party client function last night:

miss e: i support lomens wib!
tash: huh?
miss e: lomens wib!!
tash: what's a wib?
miss e: uh. oh [sheepish] womens lib!