Han Myeong Sook grips the gavel

Yesterday, Korea's new Prime Minister, Han Myeong Sook, presided over her first cabinet meeting. She is the first woman Prime Minister of Korea, otherwise an absurdly male society. There is 1,3 men to every Korean woman, a result of the practice to abort female foetuses, especially if you don't have a son already. In the government, like in most powerful groups, the proportions are much worse.
Women are oppressed all over the world, but especially in Korea. The new Prime Minister is no stranger to that, having spent two years 1979-1981 in prison, accused of reading the wrong books and listening to the wrong radio stations. She later became one of the founding mothers of the Korean Womens Associations. Hopefully women's rights issues are high on her agenda.
OK, for the blogging nitpickers: President Kim Dae Jung appointed a woman as prime minister in the summer of 2002, but she was rejected by the Korean Parliament, so she doesn't really count. Han Myeong Sook is the first woman leading the government of Korea.
Prime Minister Han Myeong Sook joins a small but growing group of new women leaders that comprise the new presidents of Liberia, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, and Chile, Michelle Bachelet Jeria, as well as the new leaders of Germany and Jamaica. Way to go, girls!
Among the nations that never had women heads of state or government are the U.S., Russia (and former USSR), China, Japan, Italy, Spain and Australia.
Sweden? Well, we'll probably get a queen before we get a woman prime minister. There we're lagging behind our dear neighbours Finland, Denmark, Norway and Iceland: all countries with at least a recent history of female leadership.
However, male politicians in the Nordic countries learned a lesson from what happened when Iceland elected Vigdis as president 1980 (she became the first woman president in Europe). Now most ballots have a 50/50 gender balance. But usually the men hold on to the gavel themselves – also in Sweden.
Read more about Prime Minister Han here!