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Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras (fourth from the left) leads the first cabinet meeting of his government Jan. 28 in Athens. He's been criticized for selecting no women for senior positions. Petros Giannakouris/AP hide caption

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras (fourth from the left) leads the first cabinet meeting of his government Jan. 28 in Athens. He's been criticized for selecting no women for senior positions.

Anastasia Giamali is a young, well-educated and ambitious woman. She's a regional politician for Syriza, the leftist party now running Greece, and a high-profile journalist with the party-affiliated newspaper.

She also agrees with Amparo Rubiales, the Spanish feminist who criticized Syriza for appointing only men to the new cabinet. She says no one in Greece commented on the single-gender leadership, a reflection of how the nation clings to its traditional, patriarchal roots.

"It's still a male-dominated society," Giamali says. "It's hard for a woman to be involved in high-end politics, because a woman must be a mother, must be working, must take care of the whole family more than a man would in Greece.

Greece ranks near the bottom in the European Union in the number of women participating in politics, and never has had a female prime minister. Men still dominate parliament.

A group of young women at an Athenian cafe say they joined Syriza because, compared to the other parties, it has more women in its ranks and more elected women in parliament. Still, says Lina Theodorou, a 25-year-old lawyer, most party leaders are men.

"Men are accepted with all of their flaws, but women are not," she says. "Women are often categorized as being too shy or too loud or whatever for some big post. It's a problem in Greece, and it's a problem in our party."

The idea that Greek men are born leaders is even taught in school, says Natasa Spanoudi, a 25-year-old teacher.

"In history books about the Greek revolution, for instance, we're taught that the men with the big mustaches and giant muscles are the ones that saved us," she says. "Not the women, who fought too and just as bravely."

The rest is here:
Even As Progressives Take Lead In Greece, Women Remain Out Of Power