Diplomacy Remains Male-Dominated: Only a Few Female Foreign Ministers Worldwide

Currently, three of Austria's seven neighboring countries (Germany, Slovenia, and Liechtenstein) and five EU partners have a female foreign minister. The diplomacy of Canada, Australia, and North Korea is also currently under female leadership. Comparatively, there are many female foreign ministers, namely eight, in Africa at present.

At the meetings of the EU foreign ministers, Meinl-Reisinger will meet with five female colleagues. These include the outgoing German Green Annalena Baerbock, the Nordic conservatives Maria Malmer Stenergard (Sweden), Elina Valtonen (Finland), and Baiba Braže (Latvia), as well as the Slovenian social democrat Tanja Fajon.

Other European countries with female foreign ministers are Kosovo (Donika Gërvalla-Schwarz), Iceland (Þorgerður Katrín Gunnarsdóttir), and Georgia (Maka Botschorischwili), as well as the three small states Liechtenstein (Dominique Hasler), Monaco (Isabelle Berro-Amadeï), and Andorra (Imma Tor Faus). The Danish territory Greenland, which was targeted by US President Donald Trump, also has a female foreign minister, Vivian Motzfeld.

Female Foreign Ministers: Canadian and Australian Most Influential

The most internationally influential female foreign ministers are currently the Canadian liberal Mélanie Joly and the Australian social democrat Penny Wong. The North Korean chief diplomat Choe Sun-hui has a connection to Austria, as she reportedly studied in the Alpine republic according to media reports.

Noteworthy is the comparatively high number of female foreign ministers in African countries. These include the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner), Eswatini (Pholie Shakantu), Liberia (Sara Beysolo Nyanti), Madagascar (Rasata Rafaravavitafika), Malawi (Nancy Tembo), Mozambique (Maria Manuela Dos Santos Lucas), Senegal (Yassine Fall), and the Central African Republic (Sylvie Baïpo-Temon).

In the most populous continent, Asia, currently only North Korea, Nepal (Arzu Rana Deuba), and Mongolia (Battsetseg Batmunkh) have female foreign ministers. In Latin America, Bolivia (Celina Sosa Lunda), Ecuador (Gabriela Sommerfeld), and El Salvador (Alexandra Hill Tinoco) are part of this group. In the Caribbean, there is one female foreign minister, the Jamaican Kamina Johnson Smith, and none in Oceania.

(APA/Red)

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