Women in Baltic Politics and Political Leadership
By Ausra Park - Women's participation and leadership in Baltic politics have profoundly shifted over the past four years.
Significant and, arguably, profound changes took place in Baltic high politics over the past four years. The peak pandemic years — 2020 and 2021 — proved quite pivotal for both Lithuania and Estonia, as both saw the emergence of the first most gender-balanced cabinets in the history of these countries, with Latvia following in 2022. The Estonian parliament elected the first woman prime minister, Kaja Kallas, whose cabinet had the largest number of women ministers. For almost a year, Estonia’s top political positions — the presidency and prime ministership — were held by two women, making Estonia the only parliamentary democracy ruled by elected women. Meanwhile, the Lithuanian prime minister, Ingrida Šimonytė, was the second woman to hold this position. Unlike her predecessor, Danutė Prunskienė, who served as the first woman prime minister of Lithuania more than 30 years ago (1990-1991) and was the only woman in her all-male cabinet, Šimonytė’s cabinet was the most gender-balanced in the modern history of the country. With the election of Evika Siliņa in September 2023 as Latvia’s prime minister, all three Baltic prime ministerships were held by women for about ten months — a historical first in the Baltic states’ politics.
With the election of Evika Siliņa in September 2023 as Latvia’s prime minister, all three Baltic prime ministerships were held by women for about ten months — a historical first in the Baltic states’ politics.
Parliamentary Representation
For decades, the extent of women’s representation in politics largely focused on legislative bodies. With the first democratic elections in the 1990s, women’s numerical representation in parliaments dropped to single digits (see chart). Although the next two decades saw some representational growth, it was with the Baltic countries’ accession to the EU in 2004 that a significant increase in the number of women elected into parliaments became noticeable, especially in Lithuania and Estonia, with Latvia showing only a minor increase. It must be noted that — in contrast to other post-communist European countries — neither Estonia, Latvia, nor Lithuania have adopted mandatory gender quotas in parliament or political party leadership positions.
The exogenous shock produced by the 2008-2009 global financial crisis had deleterious gendered consequences in the Baltics and globally, as women lost ground in numerical representation in politics in the immediate aftermath. Empirical data on women’s representation in the EU and globally suggests that the impact of the global financial crisis continues to persist and was, most recently, compounded by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the Baltic states appear to be an exception to this continuing trend.
Women’s numerical representation in Baltic parliaments has not yet achieved gender parity (see chart). However, post-pandemic data suggests that women’s representation in the Baltic states’ legislatures continues to be higher than global averages in legislatures from around the world, which currently stands at 26.9% and, in the case of Latvia, in 2020 it was even higher than the 30.1% European average.
Another important feature that makes the Baltic countries stand out in terms of women’s political leadership is that the three states have had women chairs or speakers of parliament — not just once, but multiple times. Latvia was the first to elect a woman speaker in 1995 (Ilga Kreituse), followed by four more women, including the current incumbent (Daiga Mieriņa). The Estonian parliament elected its first woman speaker in 2003 (Ene Ergma); Ergma was reelected to the same position between 2007-2014. Lithuania’s first woman speaker was elected in 2009 (Irena Degutienė) and since then there have been two more women speakers. Worth noting, Viktoria Čmilytė-Nielsen was the first woman to serve as Lithuania’s parliament chair for an entire legislative term (2020-2024). Among the three Baltic countries, Latvia has had the most women in the parliamentary speaker’s role (five), followed by Lithuania (three), with Estonia coming last (with the same woman serving twice).
Despite impressive legislative “glass ceiling” breakthroughs, Baltic legislatures reflect persistent gender inequality. More in-depth ethnographic research on Latvia’s parliament has shown that regardless of women’s advancement into the highest positions, political power and debates continue to be dominated by men. Women tend to speak less frequently, and, when they do, they are interrupted more often than their male counterparts. Ultimately, women are silenced after experiencing numerous repetitive interruptions with occasional misogynistic comments. Baltic parliaments remain gendered spaces in which informal sexist practices continue to linger.
Executive Leadership
Scholarly focus on women’s representation in the executive branch has been largely absent since the end of the Cold War, as so few women have been part of executive cabinets. Even though women’s ascension into the highest executive positions — prime ministership and high-prestige “power” ministries — remain important indicators of gender parity. Small cabinets, consisting of 12-15 ministerial portfolios, mean increased visibility for women politicians; as women ministers exercise executive powers, they gain opportunities to have more impact on people’s lives, compared to the legislature.
Although government structures are powerful institutions, astonishingly, basic data collection on which ministerial portfolios women hold in executive structures is still lacking.
Although government structures are powerful institutions, astonishingly, basic data collection on which ministerial portfolios women hold in executive structures — and analyses of why those portfolios and not others — is still lacking. A stipulation that the patterns of women’s representation in parliaments can provide predictions and indicate trends in cabinet appointments among new European democracies is not reflected in political realities on the ground. Baltic countries — and the post-communist European region in general — have shown a much steeper and faster growth of women’s appointments to government positions, compared to those in parliaments (see charts). In the past two decades, Estonia’s government led by Taavi Roivas (2014-2015) had women in 46% of cabinet positions. When Estonia’s first woman prime minister, Kaja Kallas, took over the executive, she set new records with 46.7% (2021-2022) and 53.3% (2022-2023) of cabinet positions held by women. Since politics continues to be viewed as a primarily male domain, it is truly remarkable how fast and extensive the change has been thus far.
Breaking political “glass ceilings” is both a significant and symbolic achievement, but securing prestigious ministerial portfolios in the executive branch has unquestionably been a major challenge, especially during the 1990s. Since the 2000s, as women’s representation in the executive branch grew, research focuses shifted to which cabinet portfolios women hold in the executive and whether a pattern of typically gendered assignment of ministerial positions emerges — that is, women heading “feminine” ministries (i.e., social affairs, education, labor, culture, welfare, health, etc.) with little to no presence in “masculine” ministries (i.e., defense, foreign affairs, interior, finance, etc.).
Over the past two decades, a slow yet profound change has been visible, with more women chosen to head highly prestigious, previously male-dominated ministries.
Over the past two decades, a slow yet profound change has been visible, with more women chosen to head highly prestigious, previously male-dominated ministries. These cabinet appointments to top ministerial posts occurred not just once, but multiple times (although often the same women politicians held either the same or different ministerial portfolios). Thus, women have been in charge of such high-status ministries as Foreign Affairs (five times in Estonia and once in Latvia); Defense (twice in Latvia and once in Lithuania); Economy (five times in Estonia, four times in Latvia, and twice in Lithuania), Interior (three times in Latvia, twice in Lithuania and Estonia), Finance (five times in Lithuania; three times in Estonia, and twice in Latvia), and Justice (seven times in Latvia and twice in Lithuania and Estonia).
Several factors account for women’s appointment to increasingly highly prestigious executive positions in the Baltic states. There has been a growing supply of women ministers because of women’s greater involvement and participation in the labor force, including politics, as well as women’s willingness to serve in public offices. Both left-wing and right-wing political parties seeking to portray themselves as modern, democratic, and gender-inclusive tended to promote skilled and competent women to leadership positions. The election of women presidents in all three states who formally and informally signaled their personal preferences to have more gender-balanced executive cabinets also altered the “traditional” preference to nominate and select mostly men for ministerial positions. Equally important were the changing transnational norms, societal expectations, and external pressures for equality — principally coming from the EU — that were highly effective and noticeable during the pre-2004 accession stages. Although initially such EU gender parity “incentivized” pressures served as tokenism, nevertheless, there is compelling empirical evidence showing that once applied at “critical junctures,” these pressures mattered and had long-lasting, indirect effects: Political parties voluntarily promoted more women into the upper ranks; some of the women agreed to be nominated for various ministerial positions; and, others chose politics as a career path.
The most significant change in the executive appears to be correlated with the election of a woman prime minister. It was during the most recent women’s prime ministerships when female representation in the executive reached the highest levels — 35.7% under Latvia’s first woman prime minister Laimdota Straujuma (2014-2016), 46.7% in Ingrida Šimonytė’s (2020-2024) cabinet (Lithuania), with Kaja Kallas’ second cabinet setting a record of 53.3% of Estonia’s ministerial positions held by women.
It is important to note that several ministerial “glass ceilings” remain unbroken. The Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs continues to be a “male bastion,” the same holds for the Estonian Ministry of Defense. Only Latvia can claim to have “cracked” each political glass ceiling, as the country has had women heading every ministerial portfolio.
Female prime ministerships in the Baltics have also produced a pattern suggesting that rather than “shutting the door” to other women in their cabinets, female heads of government actually “let down the ladder,” appointing a record number of women to various ministerial positions. At the same time, there are no guarantees that women prime ministers, while in office, will always achieve gender parity in their cabinets. Although women in ministerial positions increased from the initial 33% to 40% in Latvia under the second female prime minister Evika Siliņa, it was Krišjānis Kariņš’s second government that first reached the record of 40% women’s representation. Meanwhile, when Šimonytė’s cabinet took office in 2020, nearly 47% of ministerial portfolios were held by women, but that dropped to 40% in the outgoing Šimonytė’s cabinet.
Political Party Leadership
Besides breakthroughs in the “highest political ceilings,” women in the three Baltic states have made headway in other political avenues of power — political party leadership. In contrast to many Western democracies where left-wing political parties have historically promoted gender parity, the trend in Baltic countries has been somewhat different. Particularly in recent years, conservative or right-leaning and liberal political parties have been the ones that advanced, supported, or nominated more women to the highest ministerial positions, including to the top leadership positions within their political parties. Until recently, Lithuania had three female-led parties — Liberal, Social Democrats, and Freedom parties — two of which (Liberal and Freedom) were part of the 2020-2024 governing coalition. Estonia’s Reform Party was led by Kaja Kallas, who served as the country’s prime minister until mid-July 2024; and current coalition partner Eesti 200 elected Kristina Kallas as its head on September 1, 2024 (no family relationship to the former prime minister). (There are three other minor political parties in the country headed by women, but none have representation in the current parliament.) In Latvia’s case, just one political party is headed by a woman (Sovereign Power party by Julija Stepaņenko), but this party has no seats in parliament and is not a significant player in the country’s politics.
Disparities Remain
Despite numerous chips and breakthroughs in the political “glass ceilings” in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, gendered disparities prevail, with legislatures, government positions, parliamentary committees, and party leadership still dominated by men. Furthermore, major changes in numerical women’s representation in Baltic politics have produced an anti-gender backlash, which may have a chilling effect on women’s political empowerment in the future. Given the prevalence of social media, prevailing sexist norms have a direct and negative influence on women politicians, particularly since misogynistic attacks have become politically routine worldwide, with Baltic states being no exception. Yet the upcoming generation of aspiring women politicians may reap the benefits of those who fought and broke political glass ceilings before them, as the younger cohort is apt to use new and ever-expanding social media tools to push existing gendered boundaries and challenge remaining patriarchal values.
Dr. Ausra Park is a Professor of International Relations at Siena College. Her research focuses on the political leadership of Baltic states, gender in diplomacy, and women politicians in the executive (i.e., presidents, prime ministers, and ministers) in small post-communist countries.