Female Supremacy Articles - Page 20

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"The numbers are definitely on the increase," said Laura Liswood, secretary-general of the Washington-based Council of Women World Leaders, "and women are increasingly moving intothose key jobs that are the springboard to the top ranks."

The council was formed a decade ago as a networking group for current and former female heads of government. Membership now totals 34.

Already this year, four women on four continents have become either president or prime minister: President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia, Africa's first female elected head of state; Chilean President Michelle Bachelet; Jamaican Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller; and South Korean Prime Minister Han Myung-sook.

The 12 female chief executives now serving is one short of the record set briefly in July 2002, when Latvia, Finland, New Zealand, Ireland, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Indonesia, Panama, Bangladesh, Senegal, Sao Tome and Principe, and South Korea all boasted a woman in one of the top slots.

Miss Liswood said that about one-third of the women who have achieved ultimate political power are "legacy leaders" -- women who came to office through their fathers, husbands or their ties to a powerful family. A number of South Asian female leaders -- from former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto to Bangladeshi Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia and Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo -- originally came to power this way.