BEFORE 1945 Austria was the only State to have elected a woman to the presidency of one of the Parliament's Chambers (the Bundesrat) before the Second World War FROM 1945 TO 1997 Only 42 of the 186 States with a legislative institution have, at one time or another in recent history, selected a woman to preside over Parliament or a House of Parliament: this has occurred 78 times in all. Those concerned are 18 European countries, 19 countries of the Americas, 3 African countries, 1 Asian country and 1 country in the Pacific. 24 of the States concerned had a bicameral Parliament, and the presidency was entrusted to a woman a little more often in the Senate than in the lower House. AT PRESENT: SITUATION AS OF 31 DECEMBER 2009   Only 36 women preside over one of the Houses of the 187 existing Parliaments, 76 of which are bicameral. The countries concerned are: Albania (Poeople's Assembly); Antigua and Barbuda (House of Representatives and Senate); Austria (Nationalrat); Bahamas (Senate); Belize (Senate); Bosnia and Herzegovina (House of Peoples); Botswana (National Assembly); Bulgaria (Naradno Schranie); Dominica (House of Assembly); Estonia (Riigikogu); Gabon (Senate); Gambia (National Assembly); Ghana (Parliament); Grenada (Senate); Iceland (Althingi); India (Lok Sabha); Lesotho (National Assembly); Lithuania (Seimas); Netherlands (Twede Kamer der Staten Generaal); Pakistan (National Assembly); Romania (Chamber of Deputies); Rwanda (Chamber of Deputies); Saint Kitts and Nevis (National Assembly); Saint Lucia (House of Assembly and Senate); Serbia (Narodna Skupstina); Swaziland (Senate); Switzerland (National Council and Council of States); Turkmenistan (Mejlis); United Kingdom (House of Lords); United States of America (House of Representatives); Uzbekistan (Legislative chamber); Venezuela (Asamblea Nacional); Zimbabwe (Senate). Women therefore occupy only 13.4% of the total number of 269 * posts of Presiding Officers of Parliament or of one of its Houses.