WOMEN IN POWER

The story of 4 successful women in a world like that of politics that remains male chauvinist

If you can keep count, it’s not a good sign. One hundred and two — that’s the number of women who have served as a head of state or government since 1946. In the European Union, one-third of the countries have never had a woman in the top job. Just four out of 27 EU countries are now led by women In legislatures, the picture isn’t much prettier. Women make up less than a quarter of MPs in national parliaments around the world. It is certainly undoubted, as certified also by the latest Gender Gap Index report, that the situation of the difference between men and women in economics and politics is still a strongly felt problem. But it is interesting in a framework that still remains strongly biased in favor of men, to analyze some examples of women, who in Europe have been able to establish themselves in a world that continues to maintain a strong masculine imprint with the strength of their ideas and character. The examples we will discuss concern the 4 main European countries, namely Germany, France, Italy and Spain.

The first example that seems obligatory to talk about female power is certainly that of Angela Merkel who has been in power in Germany for fifteen years. Politically Angela Merkel was born under the protective wing of a great politician Helmut Khol, but thanks to her ability and her undisputed leadership she was able to make her way first within the CDU and then at the head of the main European country, which she led mastery and rigor for over fifteen…