Male Champions

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — Ethiopia's new Cabinet is now a record 50 percent female, including the country's first woman defense minister, after lawmakers on Tuesday unanimously approved the nominations put forward by reformist Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.

"Our women ministers will disprove the old adage that women can't lead," Abiy said while presenting his choices. "This decision is the first in the history of Ethiopia and probably in Africa."

Colombia is to get its first female interior minister with women heading other key ministries including justice and energy

By Anastasia Moloney

BOGOTA, July 26 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Half of Colombia's cabinet ministers will be women when the new government takes office next month in a first for the country and a boost for global gender equality.

Spain's new Socialist government announced Wednesday a female-dominated Cabinet, including women appointed to key positions overseeing the national economy, finance and defense.

The new government includes 11 female ministers and five men, as well as Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez who said it is the first time since Spain returned to a democratic system in the late 1970s that there are more women than men in the Cabinet.

Theme: “The Time is Now: Rural and Urban Activists Transforming Women’s Lives”

Women’s movements dominate today’s global conversation. From #MeToo and #TimesUp spotlighting sexual harassment and abuse, to #NiUnaMenos, the not one less movement protesting femicide, women voices demanding equality have crossed the globe, and a palpable feeling of change is in the air.