From Laggard to Leader: Central and Eastern Europe's (CEE) Women Presidents and Prime Ministers

This article analyzes women executives (presidents and prime ministers) in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Specific questions posed include: How successful have CEE countries been in promoting women to executive positions? What conditions facilitate women's executive presence in the region? We offer some preliminary assessments regarding implications of patterns identified. Juxtaposing patterns identified in CEE against global trends reveals encouraging developments but also persistent barriers to women's full inclusion.

• Publication year

  2025

• Venue

  Politics & Policy

• Publication date

  2025-02-01

• Fields of study

  Not labeled

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1111/polp.70011
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

• The Long Shadow Cast by Communism over Women’s Political Representation

  2024cited by this paper
• President and Assemblies—25 Years After Shugart and Carey’s Book: Introduction to Special Issue

  2020cited by this paper
• The Substantive Representation of Women in Poland

  2019influential reference
• Women presidents and prime ministers in post-transition democracies, edited by Verónica Montecinos

  2019cited by this paper
• Evaluating the Representation and Responsiveness of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) to Diverse Women Populations Worldwide

  2019cited by this paper
• Women's Substantive Representation in Decline: The Case of Democratic Failure in Hungary

  2019cited by this paper
• Women Leaders in National Politics

  2019influential reference
• Unravelling semi-presidentialism: democracy and government performance in four distinct regime types

  2018cited by this paper
• Defending the Realm: The Appointment of Female Defense Ministers Worldwide

  2018cited by this paper
• Empowered by Design: Decentralization and the Gender Policy Trifecta, by Meg Rincker

  2018influential reference
• Crossed my mind, but ruled it out: Political ambition and gender in the Pakistani Lawyers’ Movement 2007–2009

  2017cited by this paper
• Gender, Institutions and Political Representation: Reproducing Male Dominance in Europe’s New Democracies

  2017cited by this paper
• Institutional Design In Post Communist Societies Rebuilding The Ship At Sea

  2016cited by this paper
• Gender, presidencies, and prime ministerships in Europe: Are women gaining ground?

  2014cited by this paper
• Accessing Power in New Democracies

  2014cited by this paper
• Shattered, Cracked, or Firmly Intact?: Women and the Executive Glass Ceiling Worldwide

  2013influential reference
• DOES PARITY EXIST IN THE ‘MACHO’ WORLD? PARTY REGULATION AND GENDER REPRESENTATION IN THE BALKANS

  2013cited by this paper
• Semi-presidentialism in Central and Eastern Europe

  2012cited by this paper
• Masculinized or Marginalized: Decentralization and Women's Status in Regional Polish Institutions

  2009cited by this paper
• Delegative Democracy

  2008cited by this paper
• Solidarity's Secret: The Women Who Defeated Communism in Poland

  2005cited by this paper
• Women in Post-Communist politics: Explaining under-representation in the Hungarian and Romanian Parliaments

  2005cited by this paper
• Women's Access to Political Power in Post-Communist Europe

  2004influential reference
• Smiling Women and Fighting Men

  2002cited by this paper
• Are All Semipresidential Regimes the Same? A Comparison of Premier-Presidential Regimes

  2002influential reference
• Cinderella Goes to Market: Citizenship, Gender and Women s Movements in East Central Europe

  2002cited by this paper
• One step forward, two steps back: women in the post-Communist states.

  2001cited by this paper
• Presidents versus Prime Ministers: Shaping Executive Authority in Eastern Europe

  1996cited by this paper
• Women and Democratization Conceptualizing Gender Relations in Transition Politics

  1994cited by this paper
• Presidentialism in Latin America

  1990cited by this paper
• A NEW POLITICAL SYSTEM MODEL: SEMI‐PRESIDENTIAL GOVERNMENT

  1980cited by this paper

• Gender and the Reelection of Democratic Leaders

  2026cites this paper