The BBC has revealed its list of 100 inspiring and influential women from around the world for 2023.

Among them are attorney and former US First Lady Michelle Obama, human rights lawyer Amal Clooney, Ballon d'Or-winning footballer Aitana Bonmatí, AI expert Timnit Gebru, feminist icon Gloria Steinem, Hollywood star America Ferrera and beauty mogul Huda Kattan.

Dutch voters may be about to get someone very different from the outgoing veteran prime minister Mark Rutte.

A former refugee, Dilan Yeşilgöz, who succeeded Rutte as leader of the VVD party, is now leading the polls ahead of Wednesday’s vote and could become the first female prime minister in Dutch history.

The average Swiss parliament member is male, well-educated and 50 years old. This year’s elections have accentuated an already existing trend.

“The 2023 elections have resulted in less diversity,” says Daniel Höhmann, a political scientist at the University of Basel. “This is a step backwards in terms of the representation of the different segments of the Swiss population.”

Online abuse and hate speech targeting politically active women in Afghanistan has significantly increased since the Taliban took over the country in Aug. 2021, according to a report released Monday by a U.K.-based rights group.

Political parties claim to have met the minimum national quota of 30 percent for female candidates, but a recent report has found that only one party competing in the 2024 legislative election meets the requirement at the district level. For two decades since the enactment of the 2003 Legislative Elections Law, each political party contesting a legislative election has been required to field a cohort of candidates of which at least 30 percent are female.

Large-scale protests that erupted in 2022 across Iran, centering on women’s rights, captured the world’s attention.

Almost every council in Australia has a gallery of “dead men”, says Licia Heath. In the Cairns regional council, the gallery of past mayors – overwhelmingly white and male – is in the civic reception room.