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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
World
Jonathan Yerushalmy and Ashifa Kassam

More people will vote in 2024 than ever before … but where are the female candidates?

Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Mexico's opposition presidential candidate, Xóchitl Gálvez, Mariana Mortágua, leader of Bloco de Esquerda, Republican presidential candidate former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley and Claudia Sheinbaum.
With a combined population of more than two billion, 2024 elections in the world’s biggest democracies – the US, Indonesia and India – have no female frontrunners. Composite: EPA/AFP/Getty Images/Eyepix Group/REX/Shutterstock

With more people set to vote in elections than at any time in history, 2024 is being touted as a test of democracies’ strength around the world, but one thing remains in noticeably short supply – female leadership candidates.

Analysis from the Guardian shows that of the 42 elections – both presidential and parliamentary – in which the country’s leader is being selected and where candidates have been declared, just 18 have women in the running to be leader. In just a handful of countries do women have a reasonable chance of winning – based on polling averages and the historical results of the parties they are running for.

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