Half Of Macron's Cabinet Will Consist Of Women

First Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and now French President Emmanuel Macron — it seems like foreign leaders are realising how valuable women really are.

The newly elected president, who defeated alt-right opponent Marine Le Pen earlier this month, rolled out the members of his cabinet on Tuesday, and according to The Huffington Post, 11 out of the 22 people listed are women.

Among the women on the list are Olympian Laura Flessel, who was appointed Minister of Sports, and Murielle Pénicaud, who was tasked with overseeing labour.

Above, Olympic champion Tony Estanguet celebrates Flessel's appointment.

As The Huffington Post notes, Macron also recently unveiled his picks for candidates in France's upcoming parliamentary elections, of which "half of them were women."

Many, including The Huffington Post, are praising the move as a sign that Macron is taking his campaign promises, such as fighting for gender equality in and out of the workplace, seriously.

In January, Macron said, "women currently represent 53 percent of the electoral body, so it's unacceptable that they make up less than 30 percent of those elected to the National Assembly...unlike other political parties, we plan to respect gender parity."

This message seemed to resonate with French women, who showed more support for Macron than for Le Pen at the polls. Despite the desire to see a woman in office, The Washington Post reported that women "were deeply concerned about Le Pen’s anti-immigrant, antiglobalist views and her party’s conservative views on reproductive rights."

Of course, there's still work to be done about gender parity in France. According to the World Economic Forum, the country’s gender gap ranks 17th out of 144 countries, with a parity score of 0.755.

Still, France is doing a marginally better job than the UK, which ranks 20th out of 144 with a 0.752 parity score.

We can only hope that Macron's latest moves are just the beginning for change in the country and that other leaders will follow suit.

Keep it up, Macron. The world is watching.