SYDNEY, Australia — Julie Bishop, the popular former Australian foreign minister, said Thursday that she would not run in coming federal elections, adding to the conservative government’s already-bleak image as a place that is inhospitable to women.

Afghan men strongly oppose giving women more freedom — two in three think they have too much already — and young men are even more reluctant than their elders, according to a new survey released this week.

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The Arab world’s first female interior minister has hailed her appointment as a “point of pride for all women”.

Raya al-Hassan is one of four women to take cabinet jobs in the new Lebanese government, a record for the country and three more than in the last government, in which even the minister for women was a man.

In a posh ballroom overlooking Central Park on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, a hushed roomful of state and local elected officials from across the country gathered for a 9 a.m. Sunday session. It was the sort of weekend conference that routinely fills banquet rooms across the country, but it was remarkable for one simple fact: Every single official in attendance was a young woman.