Talk:List of elected and appointed female heads of state and government

Who should be considered as acting

According to the description of the Acting President list "This list includes women elected or appointed in an acting capacity, wherein they assumed a vacated office on a temporary basis." Since Añez assumed office after Morales resignation, it applies. Hetsre (talk) 20:56, 15 November 2022 (UTC)

Moved Dina Boluarte (Peru) to Acting for the same reason. Hetsre (talk) 20:09, 7 December 2022 (UTC)

@Hetsre: I think you are conflating two different situations. When a clear line of succession has been defined (such as in the case of Dina Boluarte, or the United States presidency), there is no "acting" officeholder. The next person in line becomes the president, which is what happened to Boluarte. When an officeholder serves in an "acting" capacity, they are doing so on a temporary basis and serving only until a permanent replacement has been chosen. They are basically caretakers of the position in order to not leave it vacant. Boluarte is not a caretaker of the Peruvian presidency, she is the full president per succession laws. { [ ( jjj 1238 ) ] }

Thanks for the input! Still, I find the list confusing then: shouldn't Catherine Samba-Panza be considered as not acting then? Furthermore, I am not sure why Vassiliki Thanou is considered acting while Brigitte Bierlein is not. I think a more clear definition is needed.Hetsre (talk)

@Hetsre: This is a very complicated thing and honestly differs a lot depending on the country you're looking at. I'd say that the best way to sum it up is that (speaking generally) acting officeholders serve for short periods of time, hold limited powers, and only serve as a means of keeping a vacated office non-vacant while a proper successor is being chosen, while Samba-Panza and Bierlein did not serve for short periods of time, held full powers, and served as a means of finishing their predecessors' electoral terms, not to just prevent the office from becoming vacant. Samba-Panza and Bierlein could be looked at much more closely to a Dina Boluarte situation, rather than anyone in the acting officeholders list. So yeah, I'd probably say that Samba-Panza should not be acting. Again, different countries will have different definitions of what this all means, but I think that's the easiest way to try to make things more understandable. { [ ( jjj 1238 ) ] } 13:07, 8 December 2022 (UTC)

I wonder if would be better to say interim instead of acting. This could solve the confusion arising from Acting Presidents of the US. Hetsre (talk) 15:07, 8 December 2022 (UTC)

There is a big difference between, say, VP Harris who was acting for an hour, but clearly was standing for other person, and Thanou, or Indzhova, who were leading their own, albeit short-term government, with minister of their own (at least formal) choosing. They should be listed as regular PMs or presidents, while others, who were just acting for a day or a week when PM/President was on vacation or doing a medical procedure, etc, are clearly something else. 95.155.42.103 (talk) 19:32, 22 December 2022 (UTC)

I think that the Queens of the Netherlands should be in this list. Although they are mostly figureheads, Wilhelmina and Juliana certainly had more power at the time of their reign. And also Beatrix and the future Queen in waiting Amalia still were deemed serious enough to be the leading royals and so go against the sexist notion that women are not good enough. For the same reason, I'd like the late Queen of England, Elisabeth II, included, and any other queen who was not just being the wife of a king. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A01:6500:A042:4A4A:5664:2861:7ADB:4D02 (talk) 15:03, 26 April 2023 (UTC)

The article is for non-monarchial heads of state, so no they should not be added. { [ ( jjj 1238 ) ] } 15:38, 27 April 2023 (UTC)

Thank you. Just why is this article just for non-monarchial heads of state? 2A01:6500:A042:4A4A:5664:F09F:DED7:4D02 (talk) 23:55, 29 April 2023 (UTC)

Because it is about women who were elected or appointed as politicians, not women born into royalty. { [ ( jjj 1238 ) ] } 23:57, 29 April 2023 (UTC)

Got you. Thanks. Still unfortunate because these queen can still be role models against sexism. 2A01:6500:A042:4A4A:5664:10B9:D5EB:4D02 (talk) 21:07, 1 May 2023 (UTC)

Graphs from lead (currently nonfunctional)

Keeping them here until they work again. — kwami (talk) 23:45, 3 June 2024 (UTC)

Elected and appointed female heads of state and government

All countries which currently have a woman serving as an elected or appointed head of state or government, as of 13 March 2023.

All countries which have ever had a woman serve as an elected or appointed head of state or government, as of 16 February 2023.   Female head of government   Female head of state   Female combined head of state/government, or female head of government and monarchial head of state with no vice-regal representative   Female head of state and female head of government, in separate offices

Should the US be on the map? what are our criteria?

Kamala Harris was acting president of the US for an hour and a half. I doubt most Americans even remember that happened, so it seems a bit silly to color the US green because of it. But Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri was acting president of South Africa for 14 hours, and we color South Africa green because of that. Similarly Carmen Pereira for 2 days in Guinea-Bissau, etc. etc.

For consistency, I've added the US, Vietnam and Salvador to the map (which hadn't been updated recently).

Should we ignore acting presidents etc, or would that cause worse problems? — kwami (talk) 04:20, 4 June 2024 (UTC)

This edition was made previously and a debate was held. The edit was removed because the position of president was not vacant, the president just stepped aside to undergo medical examinations. Ramsessantos (talk) 23:49, 4 June 2024 (UTC)

That makes sense. I removed the US. By that criterion South Africa should be on the map (as it is), because those 14 hours were an interregnum. — kwami (talk) 05:33, 5 June 2024 (UTC)

should territories and constituent countries be included on map?

French territories are included, British ones are not. Is the PM of the UK not the PM of the Isle of Mann or of Bermuda? AFAIK, the PM of Denmark is PM of the kingdom, not just the country, so should Faroes and Greenland be counted as part of Denmark? For NZ, looks like Tokelau should be counted, but not Niue and the Cooks (which is convenient, as it seems Niue isn't displaying properly). — kwami (talk) 06:01, 5 June 2024 (UTC)