Editing Woman (section)

== Government and politics ==
{{main|Timeline of women's suffrage|List of elected and appointed female heads of state and government}}

[[File:Map3.8Government Participation by Women compressed.jpg|thumb|A world map showing female governmental participation by country, 2010|alt=A world map showing female governmental participation by country, 2010.]]Women are underrepresented in government in most countries. In January 2019, the global average of women in national assemblies was 24.3%.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ipu.org/wmn-e/world.htm |title=Women in Parliaments: World and Regional Averages |publisher=Ipu.org |date=2011-02-14 |access-date=2014-04-19}}</ref> 
[[File:Sirimavo Bandaranaike, Prime Minister of Ceylon 1960.PNG|left|thumb|[[Sirimavo Bandaranaike]] was the first female [[prime minister]]; she was democratically elected in [[Sri Lanka]] in 1960.]]
[[Suffrage]] is the civil right to vote, and [[women's suffrage]] movements have a long [[Timeline of women's suffrage|historic timeline]]. For example, [[women's suffrage in the United States]] was achieved gradually, first at state and local levels in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, then in 1920 when women in the US received universal suffrage with the passage of the [[Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution]]. Some Western countries were slow to allow women to vote, notably Switzerland, where women gained the right to vote in federal elections in 1971, and in the canton of [[Appenzell Innerrhoden]] women were granted the right to vote on local issues only in 1991, when the canton was forced to do so by the [[Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland]];<ref>{{cite web|url=http://history-switzerland.geschichte-schweiz.ch/chronology-womens-right-vote-switzerland.html |title=The Long Way to Women's Right to Vote in Switzerland: a Chronology |publisher=History-switzerland.geschichte-schweiz.ch |access-date=2014-04-19}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2003/WOM1373.doc.htm |title=Experts In Women'S Anti-Discrimination Committee Raise Questions Concerning Reports Of Switzerland On Compliance With Convention |publisher=Un.org |access-date=2014-04-19}}</ref> and [[Liechtenstein]], in 1984, through [[Liechtenstein women's suffrage referendum, 1984|a women's suffrage referendum]].