Abstract
Nowadays, women are increasingly annexing high political positions in State office. Recently, three women reached the status of ?Head of State' in different countries. They were Michelle Bachelet in Chile, Ellen Johnson from Sirlead in Liberia and Tarja Halonen in Finland. Moreover, women play more crucial roles on the political scene than before, as it is in the case of France with the ambitious Ségolène Royal who is currently working very hard to become a possible presidential candidate and to overcome the male scoffing. Nonetheless, progress in the inclusion of women's voices in politics and government ventures has proved difficult. Despite some well-known world leaders, such as Margaret Thatcher, Gro Harlem Bruntland and Golda Meir, only thirty-nine countries have ever elected a woman President or Prime Minister. According to a UN report, women comprise less than one-tenth of the world's cabinet ministers (Inglehart and Norris, 2003). Indeed, the gender variability is often used in political studies to explain political phenomena, in confronting men and women behaviors, even if other elements (like age, profession, social status) are available to grasp striking individual differences in reference politics. However, it is important to introduce qualifications concerning the relevance of a gender approach because women do not always constitute a homogeneous group.
