Justice Paula-Mae Weekes has been elected president of island nation Trinidad and Tobago. This makes her the first woman to lead the twin sovereign island in the southernmost part of the Caribbean.

She was nominated by the government and endorsed by the country’s opposition leader, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, to serve as the country’s next head of state.

Young women are being given the chance to shadow an assembly member for the day in an effort to boost female participation in politics.

The February event includes a Senedd tour, a question and answer session and a debate about the role of women.

Helen Bradley from equalities charity Chwarae Teg said it wanted to show young women they could "play an important role in shaping the future".

Campaigners warn it could be months before proposals are finalised, which could leave party whips with too much power.

Proposals to tackle sexual harassment and assault in Westminster have been criticised by campaigners and MPs for being “too vague” and leaving “too much power” with the party whips.

It has been a year of reckoning for women in the United States. It began with hundreds of thousands of women across the country and the rest of the world marching for women's rights. It would close out with powerful men like Hollywood producer 

EAST LANSING, Mich. — At a time when nearly every aspect of politics feels suffused by issues involving gender, the leading Democratic contender for Michigan governor makes a point of rarely mentioning hers.

“I talk about jobs,” former state Senate minority leader Gretchen Whitmer says. “I talk about education. I talk about making government work for people. That’s really the dinner-table issues that I hear from Michiganders in every part of our state.”

BLANTYRE, MALAWI — In Malawi, the push for more women members of parliament was dealt a blow when the government said it would not consider a proposal to create 28 automatic seats for women. Malawi ranks among the countries within the South African Development Community and world where women are underrepresented in government.

'Women are discouraged from seeking leadership roles because of that kind of attention'

Hair, hemlines and husbands — media coverage of women running for federal political leadership in Canada has, historically, been quite different from their male counterparts.