Farida Jalalzai

Virginia Tech | VT · Department of Political Science

Women in Central and Eastern Europe have made gains as presidents and prime ministers. A notable exception to this is Belarus, where President Alyaksandr Lukashenka, the longest dictator in Europe, has tightly clung to power since 1994. Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya surprised many when she threw her hat in the ring for the 2020 presidential election. Th...

At a time of pandemics, international economic downturns, and increasing environmental threats due to climate change, countries around the world are facing numerous crises. What impact might we expect these crises to have on the already common perception that executive leadership is a masculine domain? For years, women executives’ ability to lead h...

As COVID‐19 cases and deaths mounted globally in the spring of 2020, the news media presented a narrative that women heads of government were more successful at handling the pandemic, sparking a scholarly debate. We take an in‐depth look at two of the headline women‐led cases (New Zealand and Iceland) to identify critical junctures and crucial acto...

Dilma Rousseff's presidency ended in controversial form. The first woman elected to the position in Brazil, Rousseff's 2016 impeachment was seen as a coup by her supporters and as a necessary step for democracy by her detractors. With the Brazilian economy facing its worst recession in history and the Car Wash corruption scandal ravaging the politi...

This article investigates tensions related to stereotypes of women in politics expressed in the fictional and humorous character Dilma Bolada on Facebook. We observe the personal traits associated with gender stereotypes related to this character that is inspired by the first female president of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff. We analyse posts during the p...

Has the Pakistani Parliament achieved its promised goal of normalizing women’s political participation through the adoption of reserved seat quotas? Based on original surveys and interviews conducted with 95 women who have been elected to reserved and non-reserved seats in the Pakistani Parliament between 2002 and 2013, our findings demonstrate tha...

This article focuses on trends in women’s inclusion in executive cabinet positions. It discusses the factors facilitating women’s selection to these positions, the quality of portfolios held, and the benefits that gender diversity offers in the cabinet. The percentage of women cabinet ministers has increased worldwide since the 1990s. Moreover, wom...

This article analyzes the relevance of family ties for the recruitment of chief executives - presidents or prime ministers - with special emphasis on gender. Based on a cross-national data-set examining political chief executives from 2000-2017 in five world regions (Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, Asia, Europe, and North America), we test sever...

This article assesses how Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential loss conforms to established findings within the gender and politics literature about the difficulties women face in running for presidential office. In many ways, Clinton’s loss was predictable, though at times she defied the conventional wisdom. The presidential glass ceiling remains f...

This article examines whether the presence of a woman head of state or government is associated with enhanced symbolic empowerment. We assess this through gauging support for female leaders and increased political engagement among citizens, both women and men. Working with the most recent public opinion data available, covering the years from 2010...

This chapter returns to the definition of women’s political empowerment and the questions that motivated this volume. We assess the contributions of the chapters herein. We offer key takeaway points from these and call for greater connections to the established literature, particularly in development studies and advanced by international organizati...

This chapter first provides a rationale for focusing more on women presidents and prime ministers given the current state of the gender and politics literature. It then presents trends related to women’s executive office holding such as the quantities of women leaders, paths and positions. An assessment of the potential impacts women presidents and...

This chapter establishes definitions of key concepts such as women’s political empowerment and establishes the theoretical and empirical goals of this volume. We identify the complexities in defining women’s global political empowerment, critically review prior research on elites and masses to develop definitional and measurement goals, and tie wom...

This volume brings together leading gender and politics scholars to assess how women’s political empowerment can best be conceptualized and measured on a global scale. It argues that women’s political empowerment is a fundamental process of transformation for benchmarking and understanding all political empowerment gains across the globe. Chapters...

This article explores the first female president of South Korea, Park Geun-Hye, and her substantive representation of women. Though Park is one of many women executives from Asia taking the family route to power, her presidency still may lead to the implementation of women-friendly policies once elected. Park's government has expanded women-related...

This chapter explores global trends related to women’s attainment of presidencies and prime ministerships. A total of 108 women (through August of 2015) held positions of heads of state or government. Women have governed countries at all stages of development and levels of democracies and contexts where women’s status is low and opportunities are l...

Several countries where women gained prime ministerial or presidential offices at earlier points witnessed the rise of at least one additional woman leader subsequently. Such contexts coexist with others stalled at only one case. Most commonly, countries have yet to be governed by any women, let alone several. What explains these differing patterns...

Although women's access to political power has increased tremendously, nowhere are women equal to men in their influence over and exercise of political authority. Scholarship on women's political empowerment is uneven and incomplete. This article interrogates 'women's political empowerment', considering its definition, measurement, and application....

Women are gaining ground as presidents of Latin America. Women leaders in presidential systems (particularly women directly elected by the public) were generally limited to daughters and wives of male executives or opposition leaders. With the election of Michelle Bachelet in Chile, these traditional patterns appeared to be shifting. This book asks...

Women are making important strides as presidents in Latin America as of late. This trend became evident in 2006 when Michelle Bachelet gained the Chilean presidency. Cristina Fernández followed shortly thereafter in Argentina. In 2010, Dilma Rousseff (popularly referred to as Dilma) joined this small yet growing group of women when she was elected...

To what extent have women made progress in attaining presidential and prime ministerial positions in Europe? We might expect women in this region to have made significant strides in executive office holding, given the more favorable political, cultural, and social conditions women face. At the same time, Europe is not monolithic. The diversity with...

This chapter explores Dilma Rousseff’s rise from a competent bureaucrat to becoming the president of one of the world’s most influential countries. It examines two key interrelated aspects of Dilma’s 2010 presidential campaign: the creation of the “Mother of Brazil” persona and the way the Worker’s Party (PT) used this persona to consolidate the el...

The extensive congressional politics literature on House member retirement has yet to consider an important and unique subgroup of members - congressional widows. Using a semi-parametric Cox Model, this paper examines the duration of widows' careers in the United States House of Representatives. Of particular concern are the relationships between y...

Liberal democratic theory centers on the rule of law, the protection of civil liberties and basic human rights, freedoms such as speech, religion, petition and assembly, and a high degree of public participation in the decision-making process. Most definitions of democracy also include an element of accountability as well: public officials are held...

Applying a typology of political systems and executive power, this article focuses on German Chancellor Angela Merkel's powers and autonomy in relation to other female executives worldwide. Like most women leaders, Merkel operates within a dual executive system and is subject to a vote of no confidence. Powers are exercised within a cabinet, sugges...

In the U.S. and Canada, women have made great strides in attaining cabinet positions, especially since the 1990s. This paper provides a comprehensive overview of women’s participation in the American and Canadian executive branches since the middle of the 20th Century. Women continue to comprise a minority of executive officials, serve at lower cab...

Utilizing both quantitative and qualitative analysis, this article assesses discrimination and anxiety among Muslims in the post-September 11, 2001 United States. Substantial portions of Muslim-Americans are indeed anxious and report personal and group discrimination. However, this is guided by many factors including religious salience, age, educat...

This article examines the paths and powers of women who have occupied presidential positions around the world from 1974 through 2008. While women have had less success in obtaining presidential posts compared to prime ministerial offices, there have been recent notable gains. Developing a typology of presidential positions, I find that presidential...

Women have recently made dramatic gains in electoral politics, winning a number of high profile positions of national leadership and a record number of seats in parliaments around the world. This article surveys and analyzes these developments, seeking to understand why women’s representation has increased in some countries but not in others, as we...

This article analyzes political participation and the attitudes of Muslim-Americans. Assessing national patterns, the first part highlights several regression models, discerning the impact of race/ethnicity, gender, foreign born status, age, and education on political activity and attitudes. I also compare changes in voting patterns among responden...

This paper examines nearly all women prime ministers and presidents coming to power from 1960 through 2009. Of particular importance is assessing their backgrounds prior to their ascensions, including age, educational attainment and prior political experience. Similar information on male leaders whom women succeed is also presented to see whether w...

One of the earliest paths to power for women in the United States Congress was through political widowhood. In fact, this route to office still exists today. While literature on widows primarily explores factors associated with their entrances into Congress, this article examines their actions once in office by comparing their behavior to that of t...

“When we inaugurate a President of the United States we give a man the powers of our highest office.”Richard Neustadt, preface to the first edition of Presidential Power and the Modern Presidents, 1960 Using qualitative and quantitative techniques, this article compares nearly all cases of women presidents and prime ministers in power between 1960...

Studies examining newspaper coverage of gubernatorial and senatorial candidates running in the 1980s found women to be at a disadvantage compared to men. Although women are still underrepresented as senators and governors, they have increased their numbers in more recent years. With greater representation, has press coverage become more gender neut...

This research updates, revises, and extends a forecasting equation of the presidential vote in the states. The original equation was composed of sixteen predictors available well before the election and estimated with data from 531 state elections from 1948 to 1988. The equation was empirically strong, based on objective predictors, and more parsim...

This article thoroughly examines women prime ministers and presidents (also referred to as women executives) rigorously comparing nearly all cases of women executives from 1960 through 2002. The numbers of women executives, countries they have led, and the types of governmental systems in which they came to power are analyzed. A main focus is their...

This article thoroughly examines women prime ministers and presidents (also referred to as women executives) rigorously comparing nearly all cases of women executives from 1960 through 2002. The numbers of women executives, countries they have led, and the types of governmental systems in which they came to power are analyzed. A main focus is their...