As depicted below, the Women in Politics 2019 Map[1], created by the Inter-Parliamentary Union and UN Women, shows weak representation of women in the highest position of State, with only 10 women as heads of state or government worldwide, accounting for 6.6 percent of all heads of state and 5.2 percent of all heads of government.

Regarding women’s participation in government cabinets, there are only nine countries where women hold at least half of ministerial portfolios, including Spain (64.7 percent), Nicaragua (55.6 percent), Sweden (54.5 percent), Albania (53.3 percent), Colombia (52.9 percent), Costa Rica (51.9 percent), Rwanda (51.9 percent), Canada (50 percent) and France (50 percent). The most common portfolios held by women ministers mainly comprise social affairs, family/children/youth/elderly/disabled and environment/natural resources/energy, among others.[2]

As regards women’s presence in public administration, there is no comprehensive global baseline, but available data suggests that they are under-represented overall in top levels of public administration. According to a study carried out by UNDP in 2014[3], levels of representation for women in public administration are highly variable, ranging from 75 percent in Ukraine to 12 percent in India and other countries. Although in many countries women represent at least 30 percent of public administration, they cannot be usually found in high-level positions or across all sectors uniformly.