For more than four decades, women occupy political leadership positions as head of state / government or opposition leaders. I was part of a one-year graduate student research seminar at the University of Duisburg-Essen where students of social and political sciences analyzed the phenomenon of female political leadership in an international comparison (Latin America, Europe, sub-Saharan Africa, Asia). Our guiding questions were:
- Which types of political recruitment and participation exist on the legislative and executive level?
- How did female top politicians assume leadership positions, i.e. which career paths can be identified?
- What is their political agenda?
- How are they perceived and evaluated by the general public?
