Photo-Paulo Whitaker/Reuters

SÃO PAULO—This year, for the first time in Brazil’s history, two women—incumbent President Dilma Rousseff and former environment minister Marina Silva—had a serious chance of winning the presidency. Marina, who sought the country’s highest office after the death of her running mate in August, ultimately fell short, coming in third in voting this week behind Dilma and Aécio Neves, who now enter a runoff.

The Deputy General Secretary of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Dr Yaw Baah, has said that the country’s economic problems could be solved when a female is elected as the president.

“If you want Ghana to develop, make a woman the president," he said, adding that “corruption will go down if we have many female ministers.”

Dr Baah made the call during the closing ceremony of a five-day capacity building workshop organised by the TUC for 50 of its staff members from all districts in the Brong Ahafo Region.

Brazil's presidential race will go to a second round after incumbent Dilma Rousseff fell short of an outright victory in Sunday's election.

Once women voters were considered to be a sure thing for Democratic candidates, but the tide appears to be turning, according to last week’s poll by the Wall Street Journal and NBC News. That news has top Democrats out in full force, stumping for the votes that they thought they had in the bag. It comes as no surprise to the PolitiChicks, authors of the bestselling book, What Women Really Want.