Chix In Politix

Everything you ever wanted to know about the super cool girls and women, past and present, who've staked their claim in the political arena.

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Watch 29-year-old Laura Pidcock’s first speech as a Member of Parliament in the UK. This insightful chick has an interesting take on the exclusivity of power. 

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1984 campaign poster for Geraldine Ferraro, the first female vice presidential candidate in the USA. 

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I can honestly say I was never affected by the question of the success of an undertaking. If I felt it was the right thing to do, I was always for it regardless of the possible outcome.

Golda Meir, the first female Prime Minister of Israel 

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Watch this inspiring short documentary about Chalk Girl, a serious chick in Hong Kong localist politics. 

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In November 2016, Ilhan Omar became the first Somali-American Muslim woman legislator. Forced to flee a civil war in her native Somalia when she was a child, she spent four years as a refugee in Kenya before moving to the United States. Her interest in politics was nurtured by her grandfather, who took her to political events in Minneapolis as his translator. This 35-year-old, hijab-wearing, mother-of-three is one courageous chick, having overcome cynics, doubters and harassers to win her seat. 

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When it came to husbands, Eleanor of Aquitaine knew how to pick them. A twelfth century heiress who inherited a third of France, she had her fair share of suitors. First she married Prince Louis, who went on to become the King of France. Not content with being an idle queen in her castle, Eleanor accompanied her husband on the Second Crusade to the Holy Lands. Unhappy in her marriage, she demanded an annulment. Soon after, she married Count Henry of Anjou, who went on to become the King of England, making Eleanor the only woman in history to be the queen of both France and England. When her sons rebelled against their father, demanding more power and money, she sided with them. For her maternal loyalty, her husband imprisoned her for 16 years. She was released upon her husband’s death and became co-ruler and regent to her son Richard, the new King. This tenacious chick survived into her eighties. Her legacy was her impressive progeny, with children and grandchildren fanned out across Western Europe in positions of power. 

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Jasmina Golubovska finds an ad hoc mirror to apply her lipstick in front of a government building in Macedonia in May 2015. 

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Anti-government march in Seoul, South Korea in April 2015.  

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A woman faces off with Nazi demonstrators in Sweden in May 2015.

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A protest in Santiago, Chile in September 2016 in remembrance of the 1973 military coup. 

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No country can ever truly flourish if it stifles the potential of its women and deprives itself of the contributions of half of its citizens.

Michelle Obama, Former First Lady of the United States

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Protest against police brutality in Louisiana in July 2016

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Protest against labour reform in Paris in June 2016

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26-year-old Yau Wai-ching is a Hong Kong politician. A member of Youngspiration, she fittingly became the youngest woman elected to the Hong Kong legislature in September 2016. Placing herself in the epicenter in the battle with China over Hong Kong’s self-determination, it hasn’t been smooth sailing. At her swearing-in ceremony, she and fellow Youngspiration member Sixtus Leung swore allegiance to the Hong Kong Nation, unfurled a banner saying “Hong Kong is not China” and used an insulting word to refer to China. In the ensuing political meltdown she was disqualified from office. Undeterred, she and her partner in political defiance entered the legislative chambers to retake their oath in April 2017. They were forcibly removed and later arrested for unlawful assembly. When released, this stubborn chick said, “But we will never give up.”  

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Opposition rally in Minsk, Belarus in March 2017

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50 posts!

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Born in 240AD, Zenobia was the queen of Palmyra, a wealthy outpost of the Roman Empire in modern-day Syria. She claimed to be a descendant of Cleopatra. The ultimate ancient tomboy, she was a skilled horse-women who hunted and could drink any man under the table. After the death of her husband the king, she unleashed her inner-Cleopatra. This audacious chick rebelled against the Roman rulers, and carved out her own empire that stretched from Iraq to Turkey and down into Egypt. The tide turned against Zenobia when Aurelian became the Emperor of Rome. Outraged that a woman had taken control of a third of his empire, he marched with his entire army against Zenobia. History is undecided on her fate. Some say she committed suicide. Other claims she was paraded around Rome on a camel, bound in gold chains and suffering under the weight of all the jewels that had once been her pride. Another story claims she was put on trial and acquitted. She lived out her days in a lavish villa as the wife of a nobleman. Whatever the truth, almost two thousand years later, this kick-ass warrior queen still has the ability to ignite passions. In 2015 the Islamic State (ISIS) destroyed a rare sculpture of Zenobia in Palmyra.