monde étaient des femmes. Il faudrait, selon les spécialistes, que ce chifre atteigne 30% pour qu’elles exer cent une influence réelle sur la gestion des af faires parlementaires. Et les pays les mieux dotés ne sont pas ceux qu’on attend. C’est en effet le Rwanda qui, selon cette enquête, arrive en tête au plan mondial avec 49% des sièges de sa Chambr e Basse dévolus à des femmes. Les pays occidentaux, ber - ceaux de la démocratie, ne comptent pas par mi les plus progressistes. En France, nous n’avons eu qu’une femme Premier Ministre, Edith Cresson, et jamais de femme présidente. Quant aux États-Unis, ils ne se sont pas encor e résolus à êtr e dirigés par des femmes. Même si Hillar y Clinton et, avant elle, Condoleezza Rice, ont occupé le poste clé de Secrétaire d’Etat, elles n’ont pas pu accéder jusqu’à présent à la Maison Blanche autr ement que comme First Ladies, femmes de Président. Selon les enquêteurs de l’UPI, les femmes sont freinées dans leur ascension par « leurs responsabilités domestiques ». Toujours selon l’UPI, les femmes au pouvoir témoignent d’une fibre sociale plus rare chez les hommes. Réduction de la pauvreté et protection des plus démunis leur tiennent par ticulièrement à cœur. Longtemps victimes du pouvoir machiste, elles se sentent natur ellement en phase avec ceux -/MORE AND MORE WOMEN NOW WIELD POLITICAL OR ECONOMIC POWER. SIGN OF THE TIMES : NOT CONTENT WITH HAVING INFLUENCE, THEY'RE INCREASINGLY CHIC AND STUNNING. -/Question : can a woman have power, occupy positions traditionally reserved for men, without star ting to r esemble them ? For a long time that seemeddebatable. Cer tain radical feminists of the 1960s-70s deliberately went for the virile look : short hair, masculine gait, no make-up, natural skin and complexion, proudly donning men's suits to say nothing of uniforms, dungarees and overalls. MY BOSS IS A WOMAN Obviously excessive, but then excessis often inevitable in the early days of any protest movement. Thirty years later the feminists, hardline or not, radical or reformist, reasonable or fanatical, have notchedup points in every field. Thus there are more and more women at the head of big corporations. Fr om Anne Lauvergeon, Areva's very classy CEO, through Indra K Nooyi, PepsiCo's CEO since 2006, to Zoe C ruz, w ho also i n 2 006 « became the Morgan Stanley bank's n°2, women are now working in the highest spher es of economic power. And they'r e Certaines arrivent même successful : Indra K Nooyi, for à accéder à des responsabilités suprêmes, huge boost by achieving a 21% example, has given PepsiCo a comme Angela Merkel increase in net return ! In politics en Allemagne, Michelle too their pr ogressis conclusive since we're seeing more and Bachelet au Chili, more women in parliaments and Pratibha Patil en Inde governmental and public institutions, with some even attaining ou Tarja Halonen en Finlande. » the highest positions of national responsibility : Angela M erkel i n Germany, Michelle Bachelet in Chile, Pratibha Patil in India, Tarja Halonen in Finland. And this is happening all over the world, no continent is being spared by the feminine push. Nevertheless, there's stilla long way to go to complete equality as a r ecent survey by the Geneva-based Inter -Parliamentary Union (IPU) demonstrated : in 2008 just over 18% of law-makers worldwide wer e women. The specialists say that figur e needs to reach 30% before women will exercise real influence over the way governmental affairs are managed. And the countries with the most female politicians ar e not the ones you might expect : accor ding to the survey, Rwanda has the most with 49% of the seats in its lower house being held by women. Countries in the West, the cradle of democracy, are not the most pr ogressive. In France we've had only one woman prime minister, Edith Cr esson, and no female pr esident. Neither does the United States appear ready yet to be run by women. Even though Hillary Clinton and before her Condoleezza Rice have held the key post of secr etary of state, women so far haven't made it to the White House except as first ladies. Accor ding to IPU, women are held back in their careers by "their domestic responsibilities". mars 2010 www.cotemagazine.com AMAZONS AMAZONES 35