Kamala Harris formally accepted her presidential nomination at the Democratic National Convention this week, and success in November’s election would make her the first female US president in history.
How does Europe compare when it comes to female leaders? Well, they’re still a minority across the continent.
Out of 50 countries, only 15 have a female prime minister or head of state — excluding monarchs.
In the EU, there are only seven of them, although three of the bloc’s top jobs are women: European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, European Parliament President Roberta Metsola, and European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde.
The Balkans recently saw a rise of women in top posts, with Slovenia, Kosovo, North Macedonia and Greece all currently having a female president.
The prime minister of Bosnia and Herzegovina is also a woman. However, she only has four fellow female counterparts in Europe: Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, Denmark’s Mette Frederiksen, Latvia’s Evika Siliņa and Lithuania’s Ingrida Šimonytė.
What do they have in common?
Most of these women have a background in law studies or the legal profession.
Slovenia’s President Nataša Pirc Musar is an attorney, who also represented Melania Trump in legal cases involving the usage of her image for cakes, shoes and underwear products.
North Macedonia’s President Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova is a law professor, Kosovo’s President Vjosa Osmani is a legal academic, and Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou is a judge. Bosnia’s PM Borjana Krišto also holds a law degree and Latvia’s PM Evika Siliņa previously worked as a lawyer.
The only ones without such a law background are Denmark’s Mette Frederiksen, Italy’s Giorgia Meloni and Lithuania’s Ingrida Šimonytė.
All of them, however, completed higher degree studies, except Giorgia Meloni.
Which European countries have had at least one female leader?
Although they haven’t been the majority, several women in the history of Europe have become either prime ministers or heads of state, and most European countries have had female leaders at some point in the past — and that’s still the case even when excluding monarchs.
Only 15 countries in Europe have so far never had an elected female leader as either prime minister or head of state: Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Russia, Spain and the Vatican.
Four of these (Cyprus, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands and Spain) are EU countries.
What’s the share of female MPs in European parliaments?
In 1907, Finland was the first European country to elect women MPs, followed by Norway, Estonia, Russia and Ukraine. San Marino (1974), Andorra (1984) and Liechtenstein (1986) were the latest.
Nevertheless, women are still underrepresented in all European countries — except for Andorra, where the ratio is 50/50.
Scandinavia is the region with the highest share of female parliamentarians, with Iceland, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Norway all ranking high in the chart.
Spain has the most equal representation among Europe’s big five, followed by the UK, whose recent general election returned the highest number and proportion of female MPs ever recorded in the country.
