On Thursday, the complete lineup of Montenegro’s second PSD/CDS-PP executive was announced. It will have 20 women among 60 members (33%), compared to 23 women in 59 officials in his first executive (40.6%).
Regarding female ministers heading into 2024, the government will have one less (six) as well as one less ministry (16). The State Secretaries will total 43 (two more than in Montenegro’s first executive), with only 14 occupied by women (compared to 17 in 2024).
According to the Commission for Citizenship and Gender Equality (CIG), women’s participation in various executives has generally increased since 1976, with significant growth during the PSD/CDS-PP governments led by Pedro Passos Coelho, reaching a peak of 18.5% in the short-lived XX Constitutional Government, and the PS governments under António Costa, where it never fell below 35%.
In the XXI Constitutional Government (the first led by Costa), women accounted for 35.6%, rising to 37.1% in the XXII, and reaching 37.5% in the XXIII and last, which notably was the first executive in Portuguese democratic history to have more female ministers than male, with nine out of a total of 17.
The first Government of Luís Montenegro, with a female representation of 40.6% among ministers and secretaries of state, surpassed Costa’s figures in terms of parity, a point emphasized several times throughout the electoral campaign.
However, this second executive marks a decline in female representation to levels before those of various governments since 2015, albeit still significantly higher than all others before that date.
The Parity Law, which does not apply to government compositions, mandates that candidate lists submitted for the Assembly of the Republic, the European Parliament, and local elective bodies must ensure a minimum representation of 40% of each gender.
