Nordic and Baltic European countries have historically been leaders in women's political participation, and in the Balkans, women are increasingly taking top positions, too, but most of the leaders are still men.
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Kamala Harris will formally accept the presidential nomination at the Democratic National Convention this week and, if she wins the election in November, will become the first female president in US history.
What about in Europe when it comes to female leaders? Well, across the continent, female leaders are still a minority.
Of the 50 countries, only 15 have a female prime minister or head of state, excluding the monarch.
There are only seven women in the EU, but three of the EU's top jobs are held by women: Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, Roberta Mezzola, president of the European Parliament, and Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank.
The Balkans has recently seen an increase in the number of women in senior positions, and Slovenia, Kosovo, North Macedonia and Greece now have female presidents.
The prime minister of Bosnia and Herzegovina is also a woman, but there are only four female prime ministers in Europe: Giorgia Meloni of Italy, Mette Frederiksen of Denmark, Evica Širinja of Latvia and Ingrida Šimonite of Lithuania.
What do they have in common?
Most of these women have experience in legal studies or the legal profession.
Slovenia's President Natasa Pilz Musar is a lawyer and has previously represented Melania Trump in lawsuits over the use of her image on cake, shoe and lingerie products.
North Macedonia's President Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova is a law professor, Kosovo's President Vjosa Osmani is a jurist, and Greece's President Katerina Sakellaropoulou is a judge. Bosnian Prime Minister Borjana Kristo also has a law degree, and Latvian Prime Minister Evica Sirinja previously worked as a lawyer.
Only three people do not have a legal background: Mette Frederiksen from Denmark, Giorgia Meloni from Italy and Ingrida Simonytė from Lithuania.
However, all of them, except for Giorgia Meloni, received advanced degrees.
Which European countries have produced at least one female leader?
Though not the majority, there have been several women who have served as prime ministers or heads of state in European history, and most European countries have had female leaders at some point in the past. This remains true even excluding monarchs.
Only 15 European countries have never elected a female leader as prime minister or head of state: Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, Montenegro, Netherlands, Russia, Spain and the Vatican.
Four of these countries (Cyprus, Czech Republic, Netherlands and Spain) are EU member states.
What is the proportion of women in the European Parliament?
In 1907, Finland became the first European country to elect women to parliament, followed by Norway, Estonia, Russia and Ukraine, and most recently San Marino (1974), Andorra (1984) and Liechtenstein (1986).
Despite this, the proportion of women remains low in European countries, except for Andorra, where the female to male ratio is 50/50.
Scandinavia is the region with the highest proportion of female parliamentarians, with Iceland, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Norway all ranking highly.
Spain has the highest level of equality for women in parliament among Europe's top five countries, followed by the UK, where the recent general election saw the number and proportion of female MPs reach the highest in the country's history.
