Women in autocracies

As highlighted in previous articles of the Journal (see here and here), women’s access to power is increasing, though it is still far from reaching equality and, quite surprisingly, non democratic states respond positively to this trend too. 

Figure 1. The loop, E. Keremoglu and J. Beiser-McGrath

As this graph¹ shows, the average percentage of women among ministers has increased sharply in both democracies and autocracies, with little difference between the two. However, in 2020, only Papua New Guinea had a woman in ministerial posts among democratic nations. By contrast, in the same year, eight autocratic countries had at least 20% women ministers. The countries with the best record in terms of women’s political representation were Rwanda (61%), Cuba and Bolivia (53%), UAE (50%) and Nicaragua (48%).²

When women do have portfolios, they tend to be relegated to more low-prestige ones, such as gender or tourism. Their access to medium and high-prestige portfolios is lower, with an estimated 16-10% in autocracies and 26-18% in democracies. Consequently, the role of feminist movements for inclusion and civic rights is not to underestimate.

Although genderwashing strategies can be extremely useful for undemocratic leaders seeking to gain respectability worldwide,³ not every autocratic regime uses them, as the examples of Djibouti and Afghanistan show. In looking at these systems, we also need to take into consideration that autocrats tend to relate more to people that can ensure their own survival.⁴ They tend to rule in accordance with the elite, so women need to be part of the bureaucracy to be considered, which is particularly difficult in countries that have experienced a violent turn toward undemocracy where women’s rights are targeted.⁵ 

In times of crisis, females are the most ignored – and in the countries where the power is in the hands of the military, this is particularly true.⁶ There are some African/Middle Eastern countries that use women’s rights to mobilize their votes against extremist Islamist tendencies, so these organizations reveal themselves as a tool to control women.⁷ This trend has been evident since the mid-1990s, as evidenced by research and interviews conducted in Uganda, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, Mauritania, Morocco, Namibia and Botswana.⁸

To better explain this interesting, although dangerous, trait, there will be examined the cases of Nicaragua and Bangladesh. Please note that these countries have been chosen to provide a diverse point of view, while genderwashing is being used by several nations, also closer to Europe.

Nicaraguais one of the global leaders in terms of women’s political representation, with 60% in the National Assembly and 75% in (vice)ministerial positions.⁹ What seems to have helped the country the most is a 50/50 policy, through which gender parity is mandated  at all levels of government and the gender gap has been reduced by 81%.¹⁰ This is particularly striking because the country is considered a totalitarian state, under the absolute control of President Daniel Ortega and wife co-President Rosario Murillo (1951) since January 2017.

Image 1. Credits: Afp, 2021

Murillo comes from a wealthy family that allowed her to study in Europe and become a language professor between 1967 and 1969. She later dedicated herself entirely to politics with the FSLN (Sandinista National Liberation Front) first in Costa Rica¹¹ and later in Nicaragua.

She started to gain political power in 1998, after defending her husband from accusation of sexual abuse by his stepdaughter, Zoilamerica Narvaez Murrillo.¹² 

The European Union introduced its first sanctions regime in 2019, after repeatedly expressing concerns about the deteriorating human rights situation in the country since April 2018, when mass protests demanding their resignation were crushed, leaving more than 300 killed. ¹³

A UN group of human rights experts on Nicaragua revealed “a deliberate state policy to silence dissent and consolidate absolute power” through violence, fear, enforced disappearances, systematic erosion of rights and rule of law. Some of these documented violations have been documented as crimes against humanity and are believed to be expanding beyond the country’s borders. The country has also recently withdrawn from five UN agencies.¹⁴ 

Bangladesh is another iconic example of female political leadership. Since 1991, it has had female Prime Ministers and is doing better in the gender equality index than all other South Asian countries (71st among 146).¹⁵ Despite the importance of such strong female participation in a mostly-Muslim country, the society still operates within patriarchal and neoliberal logics.¹⁶ 
Sheikh Hasina (born in 1947)¹⁷ is the longest serving female Prime Minister in the world, having been in power for 15 consecutive years, from 2009 to 2024 for the Awami league party AL, a pro-liberation war party whose main leader was her father.

Image 2. Credits: Rafiqur Rahman, 1997

In the summer of 2024, peaceful mass uprisings against her corrupted regime were shut down by the law enforcement officials, who beat and killed innocent students, among them civilians and children for a total of 650 people.¹⁸

They continued protesting until Hasina was forced to resign and leave the country on 5th August. In November, the International Crimes Tribunal found her guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced her to death in absentia.¹⁹

Another popular leader in the country was Khaleda Zia (1945-2025),²⁰ part of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party BNP, founded by her husband. She served as Prime Minister for two terms, from 1991 to 1996 and again from 2001 to 2006, characterized by corruption and extra-judicial killings.²¹ 

With the exile of the former and the death of the latter, a country divided by the rivalry between two women, who both obtained power through a man, came to an end. 

Tarique Rahman, the son of Khaleda Zia and former President Ziaur Rahman, is Bangladesh’s first male Prime Minister in 35 years.²²

In conclusion, this article tried to demonstrate that gender parity is a hollow victory when it serves as a handmaiden to autocracy. When female representation is weaponized to validate a regime rather than to protect the vulnerable, it ceases to be a triumph of progress. To measure a nation’s progress solely by the gender of its dictator is to ignore the very women whose rights are traded for the regime’s survival.

1.  The loop ECPR, “autocracies are giving more women political power, but that isn’t necessarily good news for democracy”, Eda Keremoglu and Janina Beiser-McGrath, 7 October 2024, https://theloop.ecpr.eu/autocracies-are-giving-more-women-political-power-but-that-isnt-necessarily-good-news-for-democracy/ ↩︎
2.  Inter-Parliamentary union, “Women in parliament 1995-2000”, 2020, https://www.ft.dk/samling/20191/almdel/IPU/bilag/8/2159552/index.htm ↩︎
3.  Daniela Donno and Anne-Kathrin Kreft, “authoritarian institutions and women’s rights”, Comparative political studies 52 (5), September 2018, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0010414018797954 ↩︎
4.  Cambridge, “consolidating progress: the selection of female ministers in autocracies and democracies”, Jacop Nyrup Hikaru Yamagishi and Stuart Bramwell, 20 July 2023, https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-political-science-review/article/consolidating-progress-the-selection-of-female-ministers-in-autocracies-and-democracies/8891F41832B79188093172A8D7D40ACA ↩︎
5.  Leonardo D. Arriola and Martha C. Johnson, “ethnic politics and women’s empowerment in Africa: ministerial appointments to executive cabinets”, American Journal of Political Science 58(2), April 2014, https://escholarship.org/content/qt7n95n74m/qt7n95n74m_noSplash_bdadac36b0fe693893ae36ae71303639.pdf ↩︎
6.  Lars Pelke, “inclusionary regimes, party institutionalization and redistribution under authoritarianism”, democratization 27(7), 7 January 2020, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13510347.2020.1786683 ↩︎
7.  Aili Mari Tripp, “women and democracy: the new political activism in Africa”, Journal of democracy 12(3), July 2001, https://www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/women-and-democracy-the-new-political-activism-in-africa/ ↩︎
8.  Aili Mari Tripp, “why African autocracies promote women as leaders”, Oxford University press, 13 October 2025 ↩︎
9.  NSCAG, “Nicaragua ranks highest in gender equity in the Americas and 6 globally, so why US sanctions?”, 19 March 2025, https://nscag.org.uk/nicaragua-ranks-highest-in-gender-equity-in-the-americas-and-6-globally-according-to-the-world-economic-forum-so-why-are-they-under-sanctions/#:~:text=●,third%20of%20Nicaragua’s%20national%20territory ↩︎
10.  Casa Benjamin Linder, “we’re not fighting for space anymore: women in power in Nicaragua”, Beca Renk, 9 March 2023, https://www.casabenjaminlinder.org/navigatingnicaragua/werenotfightingforspace ↩︎
11.  The observer, “inside Nicaragua’s assassination network”, Thomas Graham, 31 October 2025, https://observer.co.uk/news/international/article/nicaraguan-exiles-fear-the-long-hand-of-ortega-after-killings-in-costa-rica ↩︎
12.  Inter-American commission on human rights, report no 131/09, case 12.230, decision to archive Zoilameric Narvaez Murillo, Nicaragua, 12 November 2009, https://www.cidh.oas.org/annualrep/2009eng/Nicaragua12230eng.htm ↩︎
13.  Open sanctions, “Rosario Maria Murillo de Ortega”, 15 Febraru 2026, https://www.opensanctions.org/entities/Q3034382/ ↩︎
14.  Group of human rights experts on Nicaragua, “Nicaragua: persecution beyond borders – exile and transnational human rights violations”, 23 September 2025, https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/hrbodies/hrcouncil/grhe-nicaragua/2025-09-23-ghren-transnational-violations-en.pdf ↩︎
15.  Gender Campus, “the end of Sheikh Hasina’s era: is women leadership in Bangladesh at risk?”, Jinat Hossain, September 2024, https://www.gendercampus.ch/en/blog/post/the-end-of-sheikh-hasinas-era-is-women-leadership-in-bangladesh-at-risk ↩︎
16.  Gender Campus, “the end of Sheikh Hasina’s era: does the rise of islamists threaten gender equality in BD?”, Jinat Hossain and Nooha Sabata Maula, November 2024, https://www.gendercampus.ch/de/blog/post/rise-of-islamists-and-threat-on-gender-equality-and-rights-of-minorities-in-bangladesh  ↩︎
17.  Britannica, Sheikh Hasina Wazed, 17 February 2026, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sheikh-Hasina-Wazed ↩︎
18.  UN, “OHCHR fact-finding report: human rights violations and abuses related to the protests of July and August 2024 in Bangladesh”, 12 February 2025, https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/country-reports/ohchr-fact-finding-report-human-rights-violations-and-abuses-related ↩︎
19.  Human Rights Watch, “Bangladesh: Hasina found guilty of crimes against humanity”, 17 November 2025, https://www.hrw.org/news/2025/11/17/bangladesh-hasina-found-guilty-of-crimes-against-humanity ↩︎
20.  Britannica, Khaleda Zia, 22 February 2026, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Khaleda-Zia ↩︎
21.  DW, “rise and fall of Khlaeda Zia, Bangladesh’s firm female PM”, Arafatul Islam, 30 December 2025, https://www.dw.com/en/bangladeshs-first-female-pm-khaleda-zia-dies-at-80/a-75337536 ↩︎
22.  Tarique Rahman, https://www.tariquerahman.info/tag/biography/ ↩︎