On Saturday, Italy's new prime minister, Matteo Renzi, went with his cabinet to the Quirinale for the traditional meeting of the new government with the president of the Republic. Although one of the ministers is obscured by Renzi, something unprecedented in Italian politics is readily apparent in the photo above: the sixteen ministers in Renzi's government are equally divided between women and men.
While women occupy two of the positions traditionally "reserved" for women in gender-inclusive governments (the ministries of health and education), in the Renzi government they also occupy the ministries of foreign affairs and defense. Federica Mogherini replaces Emma Bonino as the only female foreign minister among G8 states while Roberta Pinotti joins Ursula von der Leyen of Germany as the only two female defense ministers in the group.
Mogherini, incidentally, blogs at BlogMog (in Italian, of course).