ByKim Elsesser,
Senior Contributor.
Sanae Takaichi made history today when she became Japan’s first female prime minister. Her rise leaves the U.S. as one of only a handful of global economic powerhouses that have never had a female leader.
A conservative, Takaichi will be taking over from Shigeru Ishiba, who announced his resignation last month. She is from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), Japan’s long-dominant conservative party, and she was allies with the late former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
With Takaichi’s election, Japan has now broken a gender barrier that the U.S. has yet to break. In fact, the U.S. is now one of only a few economic powerhouse countries to be led exclusively by men. Among the world’s largest economies (G20), only the U.S., China, Russia and Saudi Arabia have been led exclusively by men. Saudi Arabia’s monarchy does not allow for female leaders, China does not hold competitive national elections and Russia’s elections are widely regarded as neither free nor fair. That leaves the U.S. as the only G20 nation with free elections that has not been led by a woman. (To be fair, South Africa, another G20 country, has never elected a woman as president, but women have briefly served in the role in an acting capacity.)
