The politics of Vanuatu take place within the framework of a constitutional democracy. The constitution provides for a representative parliamentary system. The head of the Republic is an elected President. The Prime Minister of Vanuatu is the head of government.
Betty Boothroyd, Baroness Boothroyd,, Hon. FSLL, is a British politician, who served as a Labour Member of Parliament (MP) for West Bromwich and West Bromwich West from 1973 to 2000. From 1992 to 2000, she served as Speaker of the House of Commons. She is the only woman to have served as Speaker. Following the death of Michael Martin in 2018, she is the only living former Speaker of the House of Commons. She sits, by tradition, as a Crossbench peer in the House of Lords.
Edward Nipake Natapei Tuta Fanua`araki was a politician from Vanuatu. He was elected Prime Minister of Vanuatu on two separate occasions for two separate terms, and was previously the Minister of Foreign Affairs briefly in 1991, the acting President of Vanuatu from 2 March 1999 to 24 March 1999 and Deputy Prime Minister. He was the President of the Vanua'aku Pati, a socialist, Anglophone political party.
Dame Jennifer Meredith Smith, DBE, JP, DHumL, MP was the Premier of Bermuda from 1998 until 2003, the first premier who was not a member of the United Bermuda Party.
Dame Billie Antoinette Miller, DA, is a Barbadian politician. Miller has been a member of the Barbados Labour Party (BLP).
Michèle Yvette Marie-Thérèse Jeanne Honorine Alliot-Marie, known in France as MAM, is a French politician and Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from France. She is a member of the Republicans, part of the European People's Party. A member of all right-wing governments formed in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, she was the first woman in France to hold the portfolios of Defense (2002–2007), the Interior (2007–2009) and Foreign Affairs (2010–2011).; she has also been in charge of Youth and Sports (1993–1995) and Justice (2009–2010), and was granted the honorary rank of Minister of State in her last two offices.
Susan Maree Ryan is an Australian public servant and former politician who has been the Age Discrimination Commissioner since 2011, within the Australian Human Rights Commission. She previously served as a Senator for the Australian Capital Territory between 1975 and 1987, representing the Labor Party. Ryan became the first female Labor minister and served in several ministerial roles in the Hawke Government – most notably as the inaugural Minister assisting the Prime Minister for the Status of Women. She was involved in the creation of the Sex Discrimination Act, 1984 (Cth) and the Affirmative Action Act 1986 (Cth).
Sarah Flood Beaubrun is a Saint Lucian lawyer and politician. She is married with two children.
Gender representation has been a significant issue in Canadian politics.
Dame Carol Anne Kidu, also known as Carol, Lady Kidu, DBE, is an Australian-born Papua New Guinean politician.
Grace Mera Molisa was a ni-Vanuatu politician, poet and campaigner for women's equality in politics. The Australian described her as "a vanguard for Melanesian culture and a voice of the ni-Vanuatu, especially women". She has also been described as one of the Pacific's "leading public intellectuals and activists".
Ngamau Mere Munokoa OBE, also known as "Aunty Mau", was a Cook Islands politician and former Cabinet Minister. She was the third woman elected to the Cook Islands Parliament and the first to hold the post of Cook Islands Deputy Prime Minister. She is a member of the Cook Islands Democratic Party.
Helen Elizabeth Clark is a New Zealand politician who served as the 37th Prime Minister of New Zealand from 1999 to 2008, and was the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme from 2009 to 2017. She was New Zealand's fifth-longest-serving prime minister, and the second woman to hold that office.
Pavithra Wanniarachchi is a politician and lawyer by profession. In 1990 Hon. Pavithra Wanniarachchi entered politics on the invitation of the then Prime Minister Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranayake who was the world’s first woman Prime Minister. In 1991 she was appointed as the chief organizer for Kalawana. She then became a member of the Sabaragamuwa Provincial Council in 1993 and in 1994 she entered Parliament as an MP representing the Ratnapura District.
Esmon Saimon, also referred to as Esmon Sae, is a Ni-Vanuatu politician. Since 11 February 2016 he has been Speaker of the Parliament of Vanuatu, and from 17 June 2017 to 6 July 2017 served as the Acting President of Vanuatu upon the death of Baldwin Lonsdale.
Juliana O'Connor-Connolly is a Caymanian politician, former Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of the Cayman Islands and Premier of the Cayman Islands. O'Connor-Connolly served as Premier of the Cayman Islands from 19 December 2012 until 29 May 2013 O'Connor-Connolly currently serves as the Elected Member for the district of Cayman Brac and Little Cayman, serving her sixth term in the Legislative Assembly of the Cayman Islands.
Charlot Salwai Tabimasmas is a ni-Vanuatu politician and former accountant and political advisor. He is the Prime Minister of Vanuatu, having been elected on 11 February 2016. He is the leader of the Reunification of Movements for Change (RMC), which is part of the Unity for Change bloc. Salwai is a Francophone from Pentecost Island.
Havo Molisale was a Vanuatuan politician. Molisale was first elected to the Parliament of Vanuatu in 2008 from the Malo/Aore Constituency in Sanma Province. He won re-election to Parliament in the 2012 and January 2016 general elections. He was a member of the Nagriamel political party.
Maria Crowby is a politician from Vanuatu. She was the country's first female member of parliament from the UMP party. She was elected in 1987 for the electorate of Port Vila, in the same election as Motarilavoa Hilda Lini; the two women were the first women members of parliament elected in Vanuatu. Crowby lost the seat in 1988.
