Spain's socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has given 11 of his 17 cabinet posts to women, a higher proportion than anywhere else in Europe.
Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez after announcing his new cabinet members at La Moncloa palace in Madrid on June 6, 2018. Photo: AFP
Mr Sánchez's choice was in marked contrast to the male-dominated executives of ex-PM Mariano Rajoy, ousted last week.
Women are to do some of the biggest jobs including defence, economy, finance and education portfolios.
Ex-astronaut Pedro Duque is to be the science minister.
Mr Sánchez's mix of party colleagues and experienced figures from outside politics is being described in Spain as a "feminist cabinet". In a televised statement, he said his new government was made up of people who "shared the same vision of a progressive society that was both modernising and pro-European".
He spoke of Europe as "our new homeland" and said he saw his cabinet as a faithful reflection of a change in Spain that had emerged on 8 March through a feminist movement. An estimated five million women across the country staged a "feminist strike" on that day against wage inequality and gender violence.
Mr Sánchez's said it marked "a before and an after" in Spanish society.
Who's who in the Sánchez government?
- Carmen Calvo, a socialist, becomes deputy prime minister and in charge of a reinstated equality ministry
- María Jesús Montero, a former Andalusia councillor, will be finance minister
- Nadia Calviño, the chief of budget at the EU Commission, will be economy minister
- Dolores Delgado, a prosecutor specialising in anti-terrorism, will be justice minister
- Margarita Robles, a close aide to the prime minister, gets the defence ministry
- Isabel Celáa, a Socialist with long-standing experience in education becomes education minister
- Josep Borrell, the former European Parliament president, will be foreign minister
- Fernando Grande Marlaska, an openly gay magistrate and former high-court judge, becomes interior minister
Spain's new government of 18, including Pedro Sánchez himself, is 61.1 percent women - the highest proportion in the country's history. Only a handful of countries have governments where at least 50 percent of ministers are women, including France, Sweden and Canada.
New Zealand has 46 women in parliament. At 38.4 percent of its 120 - the highest proportion in its history and up 7 percent on the previous parliament.
- BBC
