Women Leaders Make Strides Around The Globe
By LISA HOFFMAN, Scripps Howard News Service, January 16, 2006
... The swearing-in of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf as Liberia's new president came just a day after another historic moment for women - the election Sunday of Michelle Bachelet to become Chile's first female president.
And in elections in Finland on Sunday, Tarja Halonen, the first woman president there, took 46 percent of the vote in her re-election bid. She will now face a runoff, but Finnish political experts say she is expected to win handily over two male opponents.
These results cap a remarkable three months for women world leaders, which began in November with the election of Angela Merkel as Germany's first female chancellor. ...
Today, excluding monarchs and other hereditary rulers, women ... 11 out of 193 countries, the United Nations says. (The tally includes Bachelet, who will be inaugurated in March.) That is two less than in 2002, when a record 13 were in charge of countries....
