E q u i t a b l e g o v e r n a n c e a n d wome n ’s l e a d e r s h i p i n t h e C ommo nwe a l t h A meeting of the Commonwealth Plan of Action (Gender Equality) Monitoring Group From 2010 to 2013, women leaders were re-elected and/or appointed as Deputy/Vice Presidents in Bangladesh, Dominica, The Gambia, Kiribati, Malawi, Mauritius, Singapore, and Trinidad and Tobago. The top ten countries for female representation within cabinets are Cyprus, Guyana, Lesotho, Mozambique, New Zealand, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda. Nigeria has 6.6 per cent female representation in parliaments but 26 per cent in cabinets. President Goodluck Jonathan has appointed more women into cabinet than his 13 predecessors – both military and civilian. Many women have held ministerial positions beyond gender portfolios, including positions of Minister of Foreign Affairs, Finance, Defence, Environment, Public Service, Energy, etc. – positions traditionally held by men. A number of women were also appointed as Speaker or Deputy Speaker of upper and lower houses of parliament. Currently there are only 39 female speakers out of the 189 parliaments globally, and 16 are from the Commonwealth, as shown in Table 1. Commonwealth Governance Handbook 2013/14 27 Africa region • Botswana (National Assembly) • Mozambique (Assembleia da Republica) • Rwanda (Chamber of Deputies) • Swaziland (Senate) • Uganda (parliament) • United Republic of Tanzania (Bunge) Asia region • Bangladesh (Jatiya Sangsad) • India (Lok Sabha) • Pakistan (National Assembly) • Singapore (parliament) Caribbean region • Antigua and Barbuda (House of Representatives and Senate); • The Bahamas (Senate) • Barbados (Senate) • Dominica (House of Assembly) Europe region • United Kingdom (House of Lords) Pacific region • Australia (House of Representatives) Table 1: Commonwealth women speakers Commonwealth Secretariat
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