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of national parliaments
Since November 2020, this page is no longer being updated.
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https://data.ipu.org/compare?field=country::Afirst_woman_speaker_exists#map
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History and the present 
 
  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 1 OCTOBER 2020
  • Only 56 women preside over one of the Houses of the 192 Parliaments, 79 of which are bicameral. Women therefore occupy only 20.1% of the total number of 278 posts of Presiding Officers of Parliament or of one of its Houses. The posts are comprised as follows:
    • 266 parliamentary chambers with one presiding officer each;
    • Three chambers with two presiding officers each (San Marino's single chamber, the US Senate and the Liberian Senate);
    • Two chambers with three presiding officers each (Bosnia-Herzegovina's lower and upper chambers).
  • The countries concerned are: Andorra (General Council); Antigua and Barbuda (Senate); Argentina (Senate); Austria (Federal Council); Azerbaijan (National Assembly); Bahrain (Council of Representatives); Bangladesh (Jatiya Sangsad); Belarus (Council of Republic); Belgium (Senate); Belize (House of Representatives); Bolivia (Chamber of Senators); Bosnia and Herzegovina (House of representatives); Bulgaria (National Assembly); Chile (Senate); Democratic Republic of the Congo (National Assembly); Equatorial Guinea (Senado); Eswatini (Senate); Finland (Eduskunta); Gabon (Senate); Gambia (the) (National Assembly); Indonesia (House of Representatives); Italy (Senate); Jamaica (House of Representatives); Japan (House of Concillors); Kiribati (House of Assembly); Lao People's Democratic Republic (Saphs Heng Xat); Latvia (Saeima); Lesotho (Senate); Liberia (Senate); Madagascar (National Assembly); Malawi (National Assembly); Mexico (Chamber of Deputies); Mozambique (Assembleia da Republica); Netherlands (Eerste Kamer der Staten Generaal); Norway (Stortinget); Poland (Sjem); Republic of Moldova (Parliament); Russian Federation (Soviet Federatsii); Rwanda (Chamber of Deputies); Saint Lucia (Senate); Serbia (Narodna skupstina); South Africa (National Assembly); Spain (Congress of Deputies and Senate); Switzerland (National Council); Togo (National Assembly); Trinidad and Tobago (House of representatives and Senate); Turkmenistan (Mejlis); Uganda (Parliament); United States of America (House of Representatives); Uruguay (Senate); Uzbekistan (Senate); Viet Nam (National Assembly); Zimbabwe (Senate).
  CHRONOLOGY
 
Date at which, for the first time in the country's parliamentary history,
a woman became Presiding Officer of Parliament or of one of its Houses.
  • Austria: 1927
  • Denmark: 1950
  • Hungary: 1963
  • Uruguay: 1963
  • Germany: 1972
  • Canada: 1972
  • Argentina: 1973
  • Iceland: 1974
  • Switzerland: 1977
  • Bolivia: 1979
  • Italy: 1979
  • Dominica: 1980
  • Sao Tome and Principe: 1980
  • San Marino: 1981
  • Ireland: 1982
  • Belize: 1984
  • Jamaica: 1984
  • Costa Rica: 1986
  • Australia: 1987
  • Luxembourg: 1989
  • Grenada: 1990
  • Nicaragua: 1990
  • Finland: 1991
  • Guatemala: 1991
  • Sweden: 1991
  • Trinidad and Tobago: 1991
  • United Kingdom: 1992
  • Croatia: 1993
  • Japan: 1993
  • Norway: 1993
  • South Africa: 1994
  • Antigua and Barbuda: 1994
  • El Salvador: 1994
  • Mexico: 1994
  • Panama: 1994
  • Ethiopia: 1995
  • Latvia: 1995
  • Peru: 1995
  • Malta: 1996
  • Poland: 1997
  • Bahamas: 1997
  • Suriname: 1997
  • Netherlands: 1998
  • Czech Republic: 1998
  • Venezuela: 1998
  • Spain: 1999
  • Dominican Republic: 1999
  • Lesotho: 2000
  • Republic of Moldova: 2001
  • Georgia: 2001
  • Chile: 2002
  • Liberia: 2003
  • Estonia: 2003
  • Greece: 2004
  • Belgium: 2004
  • Saint Kitts and Nevis: 2004
  • New Zealand: 2005
  • Burundi: 2005
  • Albania: 2005
  • Zimbabwe: 2005
  • Gambia: 2006
  • Israel: 2006
  • Swaziland: 2006
  • Turkmenistan: 2006
  • Saint Lucia: 2007
  • United States of America: 2007
  • Nigeria: 2007
  • Uzbekistan: 2008
  • Pakistan: 2008
  • Serbia: 2008
  • Rwanda: 2008
  • Romania: 2008
  • Gabon: 2009
  • Bosnia and Herzegovina: 2009
  • Ghana: 2009
  • India: 2009
  • Bulgaria: 2009
  • Lithuania: 2009
  • Botswana: 2009
  • Mozambique: 2010
  • United Republic of Tanzania: 2010
  • Lao People's Democratic Republic: 2011
  • Uganda: 2011
  • Portugal: 2011
  • Russian Federation: 2011
  • Barbados: 2012
  • Singapore: 2013
  • Bangladesh: 2013
  • Equatorial Guinea: 2013
  • Madagascar: 2013
  • Ecuador: 2013
  • Fiji: 2014
  • Mauritius: 2014
  • Nepal : 2015
  • United Arab Emirates: 2015
  • Namibia: 2015
  • Viet Nam: 2016
  • Syrian Arab Republic: 2016
  • Philippines*: 2018
  • Bahrain: 2018
  • Togo: 2019
  • Kazakhstan: 2019
  • Democratic Republic of the Congo: 2019
  • Andorra: 2019
  • Malawi: 2019
  • Indonesia: 2019
  • Belarus: 2019
  • Azerbaijan: 2020
  • Kiribati: 2020

* In 1993, Ms. Leticia Ramos-Shahani was elected first woman President pro tempore of the Senate.