Number_of_Spanish_female_regional_presidents

As of March 2021, 13 women have served or are serving as the

president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

of a Spanish Autonomous Community (including two acting presidents) and none have served or are serving as presidents of the autonomous cities. Currently, four women are serving as regional presidents.

History

The first woman to act as regional president was

María Antonia Martínez María Antonia Martínez García (born 18 May 1953) is a Spanish politician and member of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) from the Region of Murcia who served as the third President of the Region of Murcia The President of the Regio ...

, who served as Acting president of Murcia for almost a month after former president

Andrés Hernández Ros Andrés Hernández Ros (July 30, 1948 – June 26, 2016) was a Spanish politician and member of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) from the Region of Murcia. Hernández served as the first President of the Region of Murcia from July 198 ...

was forced to resign. She would be later, in 1993, elected as President of the region after once again another former president, Carlos Collado, was also forced to resign. The first woman to assume office as regional president following a regional election was

Esperanza Aguirre Esperanza Aguirre y Gil de Biedma (; born 3 January 1952) is a Spanish politician. As member of the People's Party (PP), she served as President of the Senate between 1999 and 2002 (becoming the first female politician to have held the post), a ...

, who was elected on November 21, 2003 by the

Assembly of Madrid The Assembly of Madrid or Madrid Assembly ( es, Asamblea de Madrid) is the unicameral autonomous legislature of the Autonomous Community of Madrid since the approval of the Madrid Charter of Autonomy in 1983. It is elected every four years durin ...

, also becoming the first woman to held the position since María Antonia Martínez, and she also became the first woman to resign from her position following a corruption scandal. Since then, apart from the Region of Murcia and the Community of Madrid, seven other Autonomous Communities have elected female regional Presidents after their respective regional elections. To date, no woman has ever changed parties during her presidential term.

Demographics

To date, only nine Autonomous Communities have elected women as regional presidents, and only Navarre has elected women from different political parties to held the position. It was also the first and to date only community where a woman followed another woman as president, and is the first and to date only community to have three women in a row serve as president. The Community of Madrid and Navarre are the communities that have elected the most women to the position, with three each. As of 2021, a total of 9 autonomous communities have never had a woman as president. Those regions are:

Asturias Asturias (, ; ast, Asturies ), officially the Principality of Asturias ( es, Principado de Asturias; ast, Principáu d'Asturies; Galician-Asturian: ''Principao d'Asturias''), is an autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in nor ...

, the Basque Country, the

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; es, Canarias, ), also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish autonomous community and archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, in Macaronesia. At their closest point to the African mainland, they are west of Morocc ...

Cantabria Cantabria (, also , , Cantabrian: ) is an autonomous community in northern Spain with Santander as its capital city. It is called a ''comunidad histórica'', a historic community, in its current Statute of Autonomy. It is bordered on the east ...

Castile and León Castile and León ( es, Castilla y León ; ast-leo, Castiella y Llión ; gl, Castela e León ) is an autonomous community in northwestern Spain. It was created in 1983, eight years after the end of the Francoist regime, by the merging of the ...

Catalonia Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy. Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the north ...

Extremadura Extremadura (; ext, Estremaúra; pt, Estremadura; Fala: ''Extremaúra'') is an autonomous community of Spain. Its capital city is Mérida, and its largest city is Badajoz. Located in the central-western part of the Iberian Peninsula, it ...

, Galicia and the

Valencian Community The Valencian Community ( ca-valencia, Comunitat Valenciana, es, Comunidad Valenciana) is an autonomous community of Spain. It is the fourth most populous Spanish autonomous community after Andalusia, Catalonia and the Community of Madrid with ...

and the two autonomous cities of

Ceuta Ceuta (, , ; ar, سَبْتَة, Sabtah) is a Spanish autonomous city on the north coast of Africa. Bordered by Morocco, it lies along the boundary between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. It is one of several Spanish territorie ...

and

Melilla Melilla ( , ; ; rif, Mřič ; ar, مليلية ) is an autonomous city of Spain located in north Africa. It lies on the eastern side of the Cape Three Forks, bordering Morocco and facing the Mediterranean Sea. It has an area of . It was par ...

. Only one autonomous community (Castile and León) has never seen a major party nominate a woman in a regional election. No women of color have been elected as regional president. Esperanza Aguirre from the Community of Madrid has been the longest-serving female regional president, with a mandate of 8 years and 301 days while María Antonia Martínez from the Region of Murcia has been the shortest-serving female president. From June 25 to July 1, 2015 there was a total of 5 women serving as regional presidents, making this the period with the greatest amount of women serving at the same time.

Histograph

Autonomous Communities

Autonomous cities

Timeline of women serving as presidents

ImageSize = width:900 height:auto barincrement:12 PlotArea = top:10 bottom:30 right:180 left:20 AlignBars = early DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy Period = from:01/01/1990 till:15/10/2022 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:5 start:1990 Colors = id:canvas value:rgb(0.97,0.97,0.97) id:PP value:blue id:PSOE value:red id:UPN value:darkblue id:GBai value:orange Backgroundcolors = canvas:canvas BarData = barset:Governors PlotData= width:5 align:left fontsize:S shift:(5, -4) anchor:till barset:Governors from:03/04/1993 till:04/07/1995 color:PSOE text:"

(1993–1995)" from:21/11/2003 till:17/09/2012 color:PP text:"

(2003–2012)" from:22/06/2011 till:01/07/2015 color:PP text:"

María Dolores de Cospedal María Dolores Cospedal García (born 13 December 1965) is a Spanish politician. A member of the People's Party (PP), she served as President of Castile-La Mancha from 2011 to 2015 and as Minister of Defence of the Government of Spain from 201 ...

(2011–2015)" from:28/06/2011 till:22/07/2015 color:UPN text:" Yolanda Barcina (2011–2015)" from:14/07/2011 till:04/07/2015 color:PP text:"

Luisa Fernanda Rudi Luisa Fernanda Rudi Úbeda (born 14 December 1950) is a Spanish politician currently serving as Senator from Aragón since 2015. She served as the 175th president of the Congress of Deputies, being the first woman to hold the position in Spanis ...

(2011–2015)" from:06/09/2013 till:18/01/2019 color:PSOE text:"

Susana Díaz Susana Díaz Pacheco (; born 18 October 1974, Seville, Spain) is a Spanish politician from Andalusia and a leading figure in the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) as the former leader of the Andalusian PSOE-A. She served as the President ...

(2013–2019)" from:25/06/2015 till:25/04/2018 color:PP text:"

Cristina Cifuentes María Cristina Cifuentes Cuencas (born 1 July 1964) is a former Spanish politician from the People's Party. She was the President of the Community of Madrid from 24 June 2015 to her 25 April 2018 resignation. From 16 January 2012 to 13 April 2 ...

(2015–2018)" from:22/07/2015 till:06/08/2019 color:GBai text:"

Uxue Barkos Uxue may refer to: People * Uxue Barkos, Spanish politician and journalist * Uxue Ezkurdia, Spanish handballer * Uxue Garmendia, Spanish footballer * Uxue Amaya Guereca Parra, Mexican volleyball player * Uxue Iparragirre, Spanish footballer O ...

(2015–2019)" from:02/07/2015 till:10/10/2022 color:PSOE text:"

Francina Armengol Francesca Lluch Armengol i Socias, known as Francina Armengol (born 11 August 1971 in Inca), is a Spanish politician from the Socialist Party of the Balearic Islands. She has been the President of the Balearic Islands The president of the Bal ...

(2015–present)" from:06/08/2019 till:10/10/2022 color:PSOE text:"

María Chivite María Victoria Chivite Navascués (born 5 June 1978) is a Spanish politician who serves as the President of the Government of Navarre. She has been the Secretary-General of the Socialist Party of Navarre (PSN–PSOE) since December 2014. A membe ...

(2019–present)" from:17/08/2019 till:10/10/2022 color:PP text:"

Isabel Díaz Ayuso Isabel Natividad Díaz Ayuso (; born 17 October 1978) is a Spanish politician and journalist serving as the president of the Community of Madrid since 2019. She is the president of the People's Party (Spain), People's Party of Madrid. A member ...

(2019–present)" from:29/08/2019 till:10/10/2022 color:PSOE text:"

Concha Andreu Concepción "Concha" Andreu Rodríguez (born 10 March 1967) is a Spanish oenologist and politician who currently serves as the President of La Rioja. Since 2011 she has been a member of the Parliament of La Rioja. Biography Andreu was born in 1 ...

(2019–present)" barset:skip

Notes

References

{{reflist, 30em Articles which contain graphical timelines Lists of Spanish politicians