This comprehensive, up-to-date work examines the political status of women in the world's governments and challenges the view that women in the United States and other countries are breaking through traditional barriers to achieve unprecedented political power. It is based upon a study funded by the Ford Foundation and directed by Bella Abzug and Mim Kelber. Using interviews with female political leaders and data from the Inter-Parliamentary Union, the United Nations, and other sources, the study notes that although women have made great progress in some areas, in the majority of male-led governments the environment remains either indifferent or hostile to sharing power with women. The book describes the historical and ideological basis for women's exclusion from leadership, the official and unofficial efforts being made to overcome this disparity, the diverse experiences of women in developing and industrialized nations seeking entry to male political strongholds, and the particular problems they face in electoral or appointive office.