Women in politics
The history of world politics was written for centuries almost entirely by men. Women were shut out of the vote, out of public office, and out of the rooms where the decisions that set the course of nations were made. They did not accept it. What followed was one of the most important social struggles of modern history: winning political citizenship.
Today the presence of women in politics has reached levels that would have been unthinkable a century ago, though equality is still far from reality. According to the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), women hold roughly 27 percent of parliamentary seats worldwide and fewer than a third of national ministries. The progress against earlier decades is real, but political representation remains uneven, and barriers persist around discrimination, gender-based political violence, and unequal access to campaign financing.
World politics offers no shortage of women who changed history. In Britain, Margaret Thatcher became the first woman to serve as prime minister of the United Kingdom in 1979. Her leadership over more than a decade redefined the British economy and changed the role of the State in the market. Admired by some and challenged by others, she showed that a woman could hold power in one of the most tradition-bound political systems in the world.
In Germany, Angela Merkel governed for sixteen years and steered Europe’s largest economy through the financial crisis of 2008, the migration crisis, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Her style of leadership, built on caution, consensus and technical rigor, made her one of the most influential political figures of the twenty-first century. In New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern showed a different way of holding political office. Her response to the Christchurch attacks of 2019 and to the pandemic drew wide recognition for combining institutional firmness with genuine empathy toward the public.
Latin America has been a stage for women’s leadership too. Michelle Bachelet, in Chile, was the first woman to lead the country and afterward directed the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, in Nicaragua, led the democratic transition after years of armed conflict, while Laura Chinchilla broke barriers by becoming the first woman president of Costa Rica.
Behind these names sits a long list of women who transformed politics from activism and the defense of civil rights. Eleanor Roosevelt played a decisive part in drafting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Benazir Bhutto, in Pakistan, became the first woman to govern a Muslim-majority country. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, president of Liberia and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, led her country’s democratic reconstruction after years of civil war.
Venezuela: women who have shaped political history
Venezuelan political history has also been shaped by women who chose to challenge structures deeply dominated by men. Among them is María Corina Machado, an industrial engineer and political leader who began her career in civil society as a co-founder of Súmate, an organization devoted to promoting civic participation and election observation. She was later elected to the National Assembly with one of the highest vote totals recorded up to that point, and over the years became one of the principal voices of the Venezuelan democratic opposition. After winning the opposition primary elections of 2023 by a wide margin, she was barred from competing in the 2024 presidential election, becoming a symbol of the defense of the vote and of democratic freedoms for millions of Venezuelans. In 2025 she received the Nobel Peace Prize for her work on behalf of democratic rights and a peaceful transition in Venezuela.
But women’s participation in Venezuelan politics neither begins nor ends with María Corina Machado. Cecilia Sosa Gómez made history as the first woman to preside over the former Supreme Court of Justice, and later ran for the Presidency of the Republic in 1997, opening a path for the generations that followed.
Irene Sáez, a former Miss Universe and mayor of the Chacao municipality, broke into national politics during the 1990s and came to lead the presidential polls, showing that women could compete for the country’s highest office on equal terms. From a different political current, María León has been a prominent figure within the governing movement, active in the National Assembly and promoting initiatives on gender equality and women’s political participation.
These examples show that the presence of women cuts across ideological lines. Democracy grows stronger when women take a full part in public deliberation, whatever their political positions.
More women in politics means more democracy
International research has repeatedly found that greater participation by women in decision-making tends to bring more attention to education, health, social protection, equal opportunity, and the fight against gender-based violence. The point is not that women govern “better” by virtue of being women. It is that more balanced representation widens the range of perspectives and improves the quality of public policy.
The road is still full of obstacles. Women continue to face disinformation campaigns, political violence, hate speech on social media, harassment, and attacks aimed not only at their proposals but at their appearance, their family life, or their gender. These practices exist to discourage participation and to keep traditional structures of power in place.
Political equality is not simply a matter of electing more women. It means guaranteeing that they can compete on equal terms, hold office freely, and take part in building their countries’ future without facing discrimination or violence.
The democracies of the twenty-first century need more talent, more diversity and more leadership. Limiting the political participation of women means giving up the ability, the experience and the vision of half the population. History shows that every right women have won has strengthened democratic institutions.
The challenge today is no longer proving that women can lead. That argument was settled long ago. The real task is to build political systems where women’s leadership stops being an exception and becomes the natural expression of a democracy that is inclusive, plural and representative.