Politics Archives - Page 53 of 55

Ruby Thoma

Ruby Thoma is a Nauruan politician who became the country’s first woman Member of Parliament when she was elected in 1986. Throughout her career, she was the only woman in the Nauruan Parliament – no other woman was elected until Charmaine Scotty in the 2013 general election.
She had previously unsuccessfully stood as a candidate for the 1983 general election, and was supported by women who believed that voters would benefit from having an educated woman, who would defend the interests of women and children, in Parliament. She encountered resistance, including from female voters who told her that politics should be left to men.
She was appointed Minister for Finance, from December 1986 until the government was brought down upon losing the confidence of Parliament in August 1989. Thoma kept her seat in Parliament in the subsequent general election, but lost in the 1992 election. She founded the People’s Movement Association to oppose what she considered wasteful public spending by President Bernard Dowiyogo’s government. She was re-elected to Parliament in 1995, but her political career ended when she lost her seat in 1997.

Nyimasata Sanneh-Bojang

Nyimasata Sanneh-Bojang was a Gambian politician and activist. She became the first woman to be elected to the Gambian National Assembly when she won the seat of Northern Kombo for the People’s Progressive Party in 1982.

Jemimah Gecaga

Jemimah Gecaga was the first woman to serve in the legislature of Kenya. In 1952, she founded Maendeleo Ya Wanawake, an organisation that continues to advocate for women’s rights and gender equity in Kenya to this day. In 1958, she was nominated to the Legislative Council in Kenya and became the first woman to serve in the country’s parliament of the country, serving until 1962. She later served as President of the YWCA in Kenya, lectured in home economics at Jeanes School (The Kenya School of Government) and worked as a director at Skyline Advertising. In 1969, she was again nominated as a member of parliament in 1969, serving until 1974.

Alba Roballo

Alba Roballo was a prominent Afro-Uruguayan lawyer, poet and politician, who was Uruguay’s first woman Cabinet member, first woman Culture Minister, and first woman elected to the (then collective) Municipal Council of Montevideo, Uruguay.

Tawakkol Karman

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Tawakkol Karman is a Yemeni journalist, politician, and human rights activist.

Zinaida Greceanîi

Zinaida Greceanîi is a Moldovan politician who was the country’s first female prime minister (31 March 2008 to 14 September 2009) and later became Speaker of the Parliament on 8 June 2019. She is the leader of the Party of Socialists of the Republic of Moldova (PSRM) and was previously a member of the Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova (PCRM). She was also the second female Communist head of government in Europe, the firstbeing Premier Milka Planinc of Yugoslavia, and has been referred to by her collogues in PSRM as the “Moldovan Margaret Thatcher”. While prime minister, Greceanîi increased the number of women ministers in her Cabinet from 2 to 5 and followed up on laws of gender equality, but resigned after only a year and a half, saying she coudl not hold the posts of prime minister and member of parliament at the same time.

Yennenga

A legendary figure in West Africa, Yennenga has come to symbolise the epitome of the female warrior, a free and independent woman.

Zhang

Empress Zhang was the second wife of Emperor Suzong during China’s Tang Dynasty. Through intrigue and plotting, she gained significant power during his reign, thanks in part to her alliance with a eunuch named Li Fuguo. Emperor Suzong elevated her to the status of empress in spring 758. Eventually she and Li Fuguo turned against each other late in the emperor’s reign, as he grew gravely ill. Zhang tried to have Li Fuguo put to death, but instead was captured and killed by her former ally and was posthumously demoted to commoner rank by Emperor Daizong, the stepson whom she had tried to depose as heir and also tried to have killed before he could take the throne.

Agrippina the Younger

Julia Agrippina was a powerful Roman empress and one of the most prominent and effective women in the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Ancient sources describe Agrippina as ruthless, ambitious, violent and domineering, as well as beautiful.
She was a major figure in succession intrigues and served as a behind-the-scenes advisor in affairs of state, as the sister of Caligula, wife of Claudius, and ally of statesmen Seneca the Younger and Sextus Afranius Burrus. She maneuvered Nero, her son by a previous marriage, into the line of succession. Her husband Claudius became aware of her plotting, but died in 54 (possibly poisoned by Agrippina, as she was accused by ancient historians), and Nero took the throne. Agrippina exerted a commanding influence in the early years of his reign, but in 59 he had her killed, ending skillful machinations and her political influence once and for all.

Thung Sin Nio

Betsy Thung Sin Nio was an Indonesian-Dutch women’s rights activist, medical doctor, economist and politician. As the daughter of a wealthy and progressive Peranakan family of the Cabang Atas gentry in Batavia, she was encouraged to pursue education, which was unusual for Indonesian women at the time. After completing high school, she earned her qualifications as a bookkeeper, but became a teacher instead because social norms prevented women from doing office work. In 1924 Thung enrolled at the Netherlands School of Business in Rotterdam to study economics, then went on to earn a master’s degree and a doctorate in economics. She enrolled at the University of Amsterdam in 1932 to pursue her medical studies.
During that time, Thung met Dutch physician and suffragist Aletta Jacobs, who encouraged her to become involved in the Dutch women’s movement and the Association for Women’s Interests and Equal Citizenship. Thung became an activist for improving the socio-economic and civil status of women, writing articles for feminist journals in both the Netherlands and the Dutch East Indies. After completing her medical degree in 1938, Thung returned to Batavia and opened a medical practice focusing on the health of women and children. She continued her feminist activism and fought for women’s suffrage; when the government proposed that only European women be given the rights to vote and stand in elections, Thung successfully campaigned for voting rights for educated women regardless of their race.
During World War II, she maintained her private practice, volunteered at a local public hospital and opened a private hospital to treat European patients. After the war ended, she became a medical officer for the Jakarta school system and entered local politics. She was elected as the first woman member of the Municipal Council of Jakarta in 1949, representing the Persatuan Tionghoa. From 1949 to 1965, she traveled abroad on numerous occasions on behalf of her country, including serving as a translator for trade delegations and as an economist on fact-finding missions to Russia and China. Following Indonesia’s 1965 coup d’état and the shift away from communism, she was released from government work. In 1968, when assimilationist policies were introduced to force Chinese citizens to take Indonesian names, Thung permanently immigrated to the Netherlands, where she continued to work as a physician.