There are few universal truths, but one thing is for certain: women around the globe are still governed by leaders who think less of them. You would guess that lawmakers would be more educated about half of the world’s population, or, at the very least, set their biases aside while leading.
That is not the case.
As women around the world strike in solidarity in honor of International Women’s Day, here is a glimpse of some of the ridiculous, misogynistic comments that presidents and other influential legislators have openly made about women in the past year (in no particular order):
President Donald Trump, USA
We don’t even need to talk about THAT video from 2005. There is plenty of recent material to choose from.
There was that time he called Hillary Clinton a “nasty woman,” and that time he said nobody would vote for Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina because of her face, or that other time he slut-shamed and commented on Miss Universe contestant Alicia Machado’s weight. We’ll just go with this:
President Jacob Zuma, South Africa
Zuma has a long history of public sexism. Back in 2006, he said Zulu women accuse men who try to leave them of rape. In 2012, he said daughters who don’t get married “in itself is a problem in society.” But one year ago, he had some especially interesting words for a group of female reporters.
According to Zuma, his bodyguards liked the way the journalists looked but couldn’t say so without backlash. “But when men compliment you innocently, you say it’s harassment. You will miss out on good men and marriage,” he said.
A spokeswoman for Sonke Gender Justice immediately pointed out why Zuma’s statement about harassment is particularly problematic in the country he leads: there is an astronomical rate of sexual violence there.
“We are rated the highest in the world in terms of sexual violence against women and children so I think he would be a bit sensitive… I feel that he really ignored and undermined the situation women are in,” said Nonhlanhla Skosana.
President Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela
Venezuela has been in an economic crisis for quite some time now, and the country’s energy infrastructure is in serious danger. The solution, the president argued, is for women to stop blow-drying their hair unless they are doing so for “special occasions.” He prefers that aesthetic, anyway.
“I always think a woman looks better when she just runs her fingers through her hair and lets it dry naturally. It’s just an idea I have.”
President Rodrigo Duterte, Philippines
Duterte is known for many things, most recently his draconian war on drugs. But he’s also known to say — or do — some pretty sexist things on the job. When he was running for president last April, he was filmed joking about the rape and murder of an Australian woman in 1989. “I was angry she was raped, yes that was one thing. But she was so beautiful, I think the mayor should have been first. What a waste,” he said. He did not apologize, calling it “gutter language.”
After a female senator launched an investigation into the killings of 3,000 people, which may have been tied to Duterte’s war on drugs, he said she was “not only screwing her driver, she was screwing the nation.”
Also, yes, the president did really catcall a female journalist during a press conference last year.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkey
The Turkish president hasn’t disappointed. In 2014, he dropped this bomb: “You cannot put women and men on an equal footing.” He went on to say that motherhood is important in Islam, and “Feminists don’t understand that, they reject motherhood.”
Here are some other gems from his speech at the Turkey’s Women’s and Democracy Association in 2016:
- “Rejecting motherhood means giving up on humanity.”
- “I would recommend having at least three children.”
- “A woman who says ‘because I am working I will not be a mother’ is actually denying her femininity.”
- “A woman who rejects motherhood, who refrains from being around the house, however successful her working life is, is deficient, is incomplete.”
MEP Janusz Korwin-Mikke, Poland
A far right member of the European Parliament recently made headlines for arguing that women deserve less money than men. You have to see it to believe it.
He was immediately shut down by MEP Iratxe Garcia-Perez of Spain. He was even scorned by notoriously sexist Piers Morgan.
Defence Minister Khawaja Asif, Pakistan
As a general rule of thumb, it’s best not to insult a female colleague about her appearance. Asif, like Trump, missed that memo.
During a National Assembly meeting last June, he compared Shireen Mazari, another member of the lawmaking body, to a vehicle. “Someone make this tractor trolley keep quiet.”
“It will be better if you first transform your masculine voice into a more feminine one,” Asif continued. Mazari asked for an apology during the assembly, but he refused to give one.
President Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria
In October, Buhari had some choice (very public) words for his wife, who had said she may not vote for her husband again. Making matters worse, he was doing a press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the time.
“I don’t know which party my wife belongs to, but she belongs to my kitchen and my living room and the other rooms,” he said, at which point Merkel reportedly glared at him. He went on to say that he possessed “superior knowledge” compared to his wife.
Parliamentarian Sharad Yadav, India
In 2015, Yadav came under heavy fire for racist and sexist remarks about women’s bodies. “The women of the south are dark but they are as beautiful as their bodies…We don’t see it here. They know dance,” he said.
You think he may have learned something, for all the criticism he received. He did not.
In January, he urged people to vote by comparing it to violating a “daughter’s honor.”
“It is very important to educate people in a big way about how the ballot paper works. The honor of being able to cast a vote is a much bigger honor than your daughter’s honor,” he said. “If a daughter’s honor is violated, her neighborhood and her village lose their honor, but if a vote is sold, it is the country’s honor that goes. All our dreams for the future evaporate.”