In a society of transition, the role of women is also in transition in Bhutan, but the farsighted leadership of Their Majesties the Kings has helped Bhutanese women progress. This message came out strongly as three Bhutanese women, who worked closely with women, talked about their experience as important leaders and trailblazers for the Friedrich Naumann Foundation in Germany on the night of December 16.

A game of political one-upmanship is being witnessed among the major political parties ever since Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra promised 40% party tickets to women candidates and made some populist announcements for them ahead of the 2022 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections.

Despite its apparent liberalism, Lebanon scores low in gender equality, especially in politics. According to the Gender Gap index, Lebanon ranks third last in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, with only Syria and Yemen, both plagued by war, scoring lower.

According to Reliefweb, since 2010, Lebanon has witnessed a consistent decline in its relative gender gap score – reaching close to zero in terms of political empowerment.

Civil society activists have demanded political parties to award tickets to women aspirants for the local government elections to bring them into the national mainstream.

“If women are not given a leadership role, we cannot expect economic change in our lives and status,” Yasmin Bibi, a former tehsil councillor, told a women-only gathering organised by the Saibaan Development Organisation in Balakot on Friday.

Lorraine Grillo was named as first deputy mayor; Anne Williams-Isom as deputy mayor for health and human services; Meera Joshi as deputy mayor for operations; Maria Torres-Springer as deputy mayor for economic and workforce development; and Sheena Wright as deputy mayor for strategic initiatives.

Forty. That's the number of countries around the world that have chosen a woman to lead since Julia Gillard was ousted on June 27, 2013. In the past year alone, Sweden, Tunisia, Samoa and Estonia all elected their first female prime ministers while Tanzania, Honduras and Barbados chose women as their presidents.

This month, Germany's Angela Merkel handed over the reins after four consecutive terms as chancellor — 16 years and 16 days to be precise, just 10 days shy of a record.