The Americas and the Caribbean

The number of women serving in government posts increased in the past two years in Cuba, where females now hold around 45 percent of the seats in parliament, Communist Party daily Granma said Thursday.

"As a result of the government strategies for promoting women" seven government bodies, including the supreme court and the central bank, have filled between 50 percent and 70 percent of their top and essential positions with women.

Democrats unveiled a slew of female speakers Wednesday for their convention next month, an indication that they will continue to press Republicans on women’s issues as GOP leaders furiously try to distance themselves from Missouri Senate candidate W. Todd Akin’s recent comments on pregnancy and rape.

Lisa François Executive Director of the Women's Collective for Women's Political Participation "Fanm Yo La", while commending the efforts of the Government for the numerous appointments of womens to key positions, expressed concern about the lack of women in the Permanent Electoral Council [whose Gabrielle Hyacinthe is the Director General] and appeal the legislative power, whose representatives are not yet been appointed, to meet the quota in its future designations...

On a cold Monday morning in June, some 50 women from various political backgrounds gathered in this Argentine port city to talk about gender roles inside the home. They conceived of a society in which men and women of all classes share both the responsibility to care for children and the sick and elderly and have the option to work.  

A book covering the careers of women in parliament here was launched at a function at the Dominica House of Assembly on Saturday evening. “Women in Parliament in Dominica: Past and Present” is written by Speaker of the House of Assembly Alix Boyd Knights and historian and anthropologist Lennox Honychurch.

The book is made up of short biographies of all the 30 women who have served as members of the legislature since the first woman was elected in 1940. It includes women Speakers and Clerks of the House.

Across the country, female operatives are leading more campaigns, starting their own political consulting firms, taking the reins of Super PACs and controlling millions in independent expenditure dollars.

“I think it’s pretty easy to say it’s a male-dominated industry,” says Kelly Gibson, a Democratic media consultant with the Hamburger Company. “But there are these sort of little pockets that are just run by women. And probably every big race I’m on now, there’s a female on the consulting team.”