A picture speaks more than a thousand words.
The leaders of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) began on Thursday in Brussels an emergency summit to discuss the situation of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
The main theme of the three-day meeting is the security of member states, in the context of Moscow’s threats to use chemical and nuclear weapons in the Eastern European country.
But what caught the attention of many was the group photo that the participants took of the summit and in which the 30 rulers of the countries that make up the security treaty appear.
Of the world leaders present, only four are women, something that Wake up questions about inequality in international organizations, but also in the domestic politics of some of the most powerful countries in the world.
Who are the women at the NATO table?
Mette Frederiksen – Prime Minister of Denmark
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Frederiksen took power in 2019. A member of his country’s Social Democratic Party, he held several important positions in the Danish government since 2014. She was Minister of Justice and also of Employment.
With a degree in Social Sciences and a Master’s degree in African Studies, she was also a parliamentarian in the European country.
Frederiksen recently announced that a referendum will be held in his country next June, to decide whether Denmark joins the European Union’s common defence efforts.
On two previous occasions, the population rejected similar consultations.
“The world has changed in the last ten days. There is a Europe before and a Europe after February 24,” Frederiksen said at the time.
He also said his government will increase its defense budget to meet NATO’s 2 percent of GDP target for military spending by 2033.
Katrín Jakobsdóttir – Prime Minister of Iceland
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The former MP and former education minister became the second woman to take over as Iceland’s president in 2017.
She is the leader of her country’s Green Party, and was born in 1976 into the nucleus of a family of poets, academics and politicians.
Jakobsdóttir holds a Master’s degree in Literature, a degree he obtained with a thesis on the Icelandic writer Arnaldur Indriðason.
When she was elected prime minister, her country was going through a political crisis and three early elections had been held in four years.
Kaja Kallas – Prime Minister of Estonia
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He has led Estonia since January this year. Kallas, who was born in 1977, has a law degree and is part of his country’s Reform Party.
Upon taking office, she became the first woman to be prime minister in the history of Estonia.
She was previously a European parliamentarian and a member of the local Congress.
Estonia, a country bordering Russia to the east, will be one of the territories where NATO security will be strengthened.
Zuzana Čaputová – President of Slovakia
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He assumed the presidency of his country in 2019, after working in non-governmental organizations that care for children who suffered physical and sexual abuse.
Although he does not currently belong to any political formation, he was in principle a member of the Progressive Slovakia party.
He was born in 1973 and studied law. According to her official biography, she decided to start in politics after the murder of her fiancé in February 2018.
