In a feature published by L’Orient Le Jour daily, the AFP journalist Sylvie Groult, wrote a feature on women in power focusing on prominent figures in global politics, and concluding that despite the growing numbers of influential women, yet they remain a minority in a macho male-dominant world. Naming a few, Groult mentioned the former US Secretary of State and presidential candidate, Hilary Clinton, the current British Prime Minister, Theresa May, and the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel. Other names include, Yuriko Koike, the first woman governor of Tokyo, and Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, besides, past leaders, like Indira Gandhi of India and Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan. The feature also cited a survey by UN Women indicating that women in Rwanda, South Africa and Cape Verde represented more than 30% of ministers. And while Groult hailed the newly elected women mayors of Rome and Turin, Virginia Raggi and Chiara Appendino, Sofia Ventura, professor of political and social sciences at the University of Bologna, maintained that their election cannot yet be defined as a clear step forward and definitely not a turning point to a country like Italy which is still considered a macho state. And according to Columbia University political science professor, Esther Fuchs, women face bigger challenges in senior positions worldwide. (As Safir, L’Orient Le Jour, August 10, 11, 2016)
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