The Romanian parliament has approved Viorica Dancila as the country's first female premier. She steps into the post as the government is passing laws critics say could hinder the fight against corruption.

“The merciful heart of the revolution,” a title given by late President Gamal Abdel Nasser to Hikmat Abu Zaid, the first Egyptian woman to be named a minister when she was appointed as the Minister of Social Affairs in 1962.

Fifty-six years later, Prime Minister Sherif Ismail appointed two new female ministers in the cabinet reshuffle, Rania al-Mashat as Minister of Tourism, and Enas Abdel Dayem as Minister of Culture.

It has been a year of reckoning for women in the United States. It began with hundreds of thousands of women across the country and the rest of the world marching for women's rights. It would close out with powerful men like Hollywood producer 

The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA), together with the Community of Democracies and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), will launch the Inter-Regional Report on Gender Equality and Political Empowerment of Women on 5 December 2017, in Brussels, Belgium.

New Zealand’s new prime minister is one of 13 female heads of government in the world

"I can't believe we just put the biggest crack in that glass ceiling yet... if there are any girls out there that stayed up late to watch - I may become the next woman president, but one of you is next." The words of Hillary Clinton on becoming the Democrat nominee in July 2016.