Most significant country (except the US) to never have a female head of state?

[Oswald Acted Alone, You Kook]

Sort of inspired by a political cartoon I saw that named a lot of countries that had a female head of state, claiming that the US is behind in that manner.

The US has never had a female head of state or government, although several females have tried. But many countries around the world have or had a female at the leading position of power. But there are many countries still where women have a lower place than men. (as you probably know the Saudi family wouldn't let women drive cars until recently!)

The question remains, what is the most significant country in the world today to not have a female head of state or government before, other than the USA?

[The Free North]

Has to be Japan

[dead0man]

Would Russia count?  The PRC?

[brucejoel99]

Would Russia count?  The PRC?

Depends if empresses (Empress Wu, Catherine the Great, etc.) count. If not, then the answer is probably Russia or China.

[dead0man]

I think they should count because Russia 2019 is not the same as Russia 1650...same (but better) argument for the PRC as Russia did exist back then, the PRC did not.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Didn't Jiang Qing effectively usurp power during the cultural Revolution, or am I misremembering?

[Tintrlvr]

Russia, China and Japan have all at least had female monarchs (in some cases, admittedly, in distant history). France, however, has never even had a female monarch. That's my answer.

[Former President tack50]

China obviously. If we only include democracies, going by GDP it would be Japan and by population it would be Nigeria, though going by the Democracy Index Nigeria is a hybrid regime (and closer to authoritarian than to flawed democracy), so for a proper functioning democracy and going by population you'd be looking at Mexico, which narrowly edges out Japan in population.

[Oswald Acted Alone, You Kook]

Would Russia count?  The PRC?

Depends if empresses (Empress Wu, Catherine the Great, etc.) count. If not, then the answer is probably Russia or China.

I'd count them, personally.

[brucejoel99]

Would Russia count?  The PRC?

Depends if empresses (Empress Wu, Catherine the Great, etc.) count. If not, then the answer is probably Russia or China.

I'd count them, personally.

Well, if they count, then Japanese female imperial rulers (such as Okiko & Toshiko) would count as well (as already brought up by Tintrlvr).

In that case, the answer would be France, which has never had a female head of state (though they've had one female head of government: former Prime Minister Édith Cresson).

If we're looking for the most significant non-US country that has never had a female head of state nor head of government, though, then the answer would be Italy, who hasn't had a female PM & whose only queens (going back all the way to the fall of the Roman Empire) were the spouses of the rulers of the Italian peninsula.

So, Italy, final answer.

[urutzizu]

France, Mexico, Canada, Indonesia, Brazil.

What??

[Santander]

France, Mexico, Canada, Indonesia, Brazil.

What??

Bizarre indeed.

[Del Tachi]

France and Japan

[buritobr]

Dilma Rousseff was president of Brazil between 2011 and 2016

[buritobr]

France never had a female head of state. The french head of state is the president. All the french presidents were male. There was a female prime minister. But the prime minister is the head of government.

[morgieb]

France, Mexico, Canada, Indonesia, Brazil.

What??

I will say in Canada's case the Head of State may not be clear to someone who doesn't deeply follow their politics (or Commonwealth countries in general)

Brazil is lol though

[brucejoel99]

France, Mexico, Canada, Indonesia, Brazil.

What??

I will say in Canada's case the Head of State may not be clear to someone who doesn't deeply follow their politics (or Commonwealth countries in general)

Brazil is lol though

Yeah, but Canada has had a female head of government (Kim Campbell) & female heads of state (Victoria & Elizabeth) & governors general (Jeanne Sauvé, Adrienne Clarkson, Michaëlle Jean, & Julie Payette), so there's really no excuse lol

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Indonesia also had Megawati in the early 2000's.

[Tender Branson]

Austria had Queen Maria Theresia and now, 250 years later, Brigitte Bierlein.

Which is still kinda bad, considering the former was installed as Empress just because there was no male successor to the Throne and the latter was installed by President Alexander Van der Bellen as an interim solution ...

And in the Presidential election of 2004, the female candidate Ferrero-Waldner lost by 47-53, because she happened to be from the unpopular government coalition party ...

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Austria had Queen Maria Theresia and now, 250 years later, Brigitte Bierlein.

Austria was an Archduchy then, so Maria Theresia was the Archduchess of Austria. She was the Queen of Bohemia and Hungary, though.

As of her title as Empress, she was an Empress-Consort, not Empress-Regnant, even though she wielded the office in all but name.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Poland had no female head of state since Queen Jadwiga in 1399, though you could consider Anna Jagiellon, who's been a joint ruler with Stephen Batory from 1575 to 1586, though her "rule" was a mere formality.

We did have three female heads of government since 1989, including two in a row.

Many countries had, at one point, a female ruler way back while never being led by a woman in the modern era. France is a notable exception, due to an absolute male primogeniture. As of heads of government Edith Cresson was the Prime Minister from 1991 to 1992, but under the Fifth Republic it was the President who led the government when not in a cohabitation (de Gaulle explicitly instructed his press secretary not to refeer to the Prime Minister as head of government, adding "I'm the head of government").

Interestingly, some countries with absolute primogeniture did allow a woman ruler if there was literally no male eligible left, which is why Luxembourg had two Grand Duchesses.

[morgieb]

France, Mexico, Canada, Indonesia, Brazil.

What??

I will say in Canada's case the Head of State may not be clear to someone who doesn't deeply follow their politics (or Commonwealth countries in general)

Brazil is lol though

Yeah, but Canada has had a female head of government (Kim Campbell) & female heads of state (Victoria & Elizabeth) & governors general (Jeanne Sauvé, Adrienne Clarkson, Michaëlle Jean, & Julie Payette), so there's really no excuse lol

Forgot about Kim Campbell lol

[buritobr]

Answering this question literally, the Federal Republic of Germany never had a female head of state. All the FRG presidents were male. Angela Merkel, the chancellor, is the head of government. But I understood the question. The author of the thread was asking about the most important leaders. And the most important leader of the FRG is the chancellor. The president of the FRG is like the queen of England. German Democratic Republic had a female president, the last president of the country, in 1990.

France had a socialist female prime minister during the presidency of Mitterrand. If she ruled during the cohabitation, it would be possible to say that France was already led by a woman. But when the president and the prime minister of France belong to the same party, the prime minister is just a powerful minister.