As election season gets underway in Wyoming, several top women in state politics announced this week they would be launching a nonpartisan political action committee tasked with promoting women seeking elected office.

Voters in Ferguson, Mo., made history Tuesday by electing Ella Jones as the city's first black mayor.

The election took place as protesters filled the streets of many U.S. cities, rallying against systemic racism and police brutality faced by many black communities.

As the nation remained gripped by widespread protests against police brutality and systemic racism, black and Hispanic women won elections in multiple states on Tuesday while Representative Steve King, a nine-term congressman with a long history of racist remarks, was ousted in a Republican primary in Iowa.

Life during the coronavirus lockdown has reinforced gender inequality across Europe with research emphasising that the economic and social consequences of the crisis are far greater for women and threaten to push them back into traditional roles in the home which they will struggle to shake off once it is over.

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms captured the nation’s attention when she addressed the civil unrest occurring in her city after George Floyd’s death.

“I am a mother to four black children in America, one of whom is 18 years old,” Bottoms said Friday in a rousing speech watched and praised across the country. “When I saw the murder of George Floyd, I hurt like a mother.”

Boris Johnson has been reprimanded after laughing when he was asked about a lack of female decision makers in the government’s coronavirus response.

Appearing before the House of Commons liaison committee, the prime minister was told by chair Sir Bernard Jenkin: “It’s not a joking matter.”

The coronavirus pandemic is having a devastating effect on gender equality and could set women back decades, experts have said on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the Equal Pay Act.

In a week during which it was revealed that women are bearing the brunt of extra childcare and housework and are losing jobs in greater numbers than men, campaigners, politicians and work experts said a dearth of female voices at the heart of government also risks putting 50 years of progress into reverse.

The COVID-19 crisis points to female leadership as a marker for healthier and more equal societies that are more receptive to political agendas placing social and environmental wellbeing at the core of national policymaking, according to a new analysis involving Lorenzo Fioramonti from the University of Pretoria and Luca Coscieme from Trinity.