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Chancellor Angela Merkel—A Sign of Hope or the Exception That Proves the Rule?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2008

Sarah Elise Wiliarty
Sarah Elise Wiliarty
Affiliation:
Wesleyan University
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Extract

Recently there has been an extraordinary increase in female political leaders across the globe. In addition to Chile, Finland, Germany and Liberia—considered in this issue—Ukraine, Argentina, India, and several other countries have recently inaugurated their first female executives. A closer examination, however, reveals that female executives are not exactly poised to take over the world. Most of the new female executives are not running geopolitically powerful countries. In that sense, Angela Merkel is not a typical exemplar of the new female executive. Merkel is the only woman leading a Group of Eight (G8) country. She is also the only female head of state in NATO and the only female head of state in the European Union.

Type
Critical Perspectives on Gender and Politics
Information
Politics & Gender , Volume 4 , Issue 3 , September 2008 , pp. 485 - 496
Copyright
Copyright © The Women and Politics Research Section of the American Political Science Association 2008

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