Only nine women are heads of state among the world's 151 elected national leaders in 2010, up from eight women five years ago, the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) said in a survey published Wednesday, dpa reported. But the nine female heads of state will be reduced by one when Chile's President Michelle Bachelet will step down next week, to be replaced by a man. The eight countries headed by women are Argentina, Finland, Ireland, India, Liberia, Lithuania, the Philippines and Switzerland. Women fared a little better in parliaments around the world. The United Nations had called for 30 per cent of seats for women in legislatures. IPU said women parliamentarians now average 18.8 per cent, compared to 11.3 per cent in 1995, when an international conference on women in Beijing called for gender balance in executive and legislative bodies. There are now parliaments in 38 countries in which 30 per cent of seats are occupied by women. Only seven countries reached that goal in 1995.
