Women in parliaments

For a long time, Sweden was the leader of the Inter-Parliamentary Union's ranking of women in parliament. But, in the latest survey of June 2004, Sweden no longer boasts the highest percentage of female MPs. At 45.3%, Sweden still ranks first among highly-industrialized nations. It is followed by its fellow Nordic states: Denmark 38%), and (37.5%), the Netherlands 36.7%) and Norway (36.4%). Although many people would automatically point to the United States as the leading country in terms of historic achievements for women's liberalization, it lags behind in electing women to political office. With 62 women holding legislative seats in the 435-member House of Representatives, the United States ties for 58th place with Andorra at 14.3%. Cuba just misses a top-five ranking by a narrow margin. It boasts 36% of women in Parliament, while Norway ranks just above with 36.4%. Still, Cuba has the highest percentage of women in legislative seats among the countries in the entire Americas region. Costa Rica (35.1%) and Argentina (34%) follow Cuba as the next countries from the Americas with the highest percentages. With 219 women in a Lower House seat out of 609, Cuba also boasts the highest total number of women in parliament behind China. There, women claim 604 out of a total of 2,985 seats. Women are also numerous in the parliaments of sib-Saharan Africa RH: These figures are surprising. That the number of women representatives is high in Scandinavian countries and low in Muslim countries was to be expected, but what about the high number in China, Cuba and black Africa?