Female political leaders

Until the 20th century, the few women with political ambitions had to operate in the background as the "power behind the throne", backing up their husbands or lovers. As women got the vote in more and more countries, they began to climb the ladder. Many women that have got to the top in politics have been tougher, more decisive, and more practical than male leaders.

## International[edit]

Female political leader  | Dates of office  | Position  | Comments

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Sirimavo Bandaranaike  | 1960-65, 1970–77, 1994-2000  | Prime Minister of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka)  | The first female head of government in modern times. Paved the way for Gandhi, Meir and the "Iron Lady" herself.
Indira Gandhi | 1966-77 & 1980-84  | Prime Minister of India | India's aging power-brokers thought that Nehru's daughter would be a push-over. They got a dreadful shock...
Golda Meir | 1969-74  | Prime Minister of Israel | This strong-willed "grandmother of the Jewish people" won a magnificent victory over Arab aggression.
Isabel Martínez de Perón  | 1974-76  | President of Argentina |
Elisabeth Domitien  | 1975-76  | Prime Minister of Central African Republic |
Maria de Lourdes Pintasilgo  | 1979-80  | Prime Minister of Portugal |
Margaret Thatcher | 1979-90  | Prime Minister of the United Kingdom | The "Iron Lady" struck fear into the hearts of trade unionists, the Soviet gerontocracy and enemies of freedom everywhere.
Eugenia Charles  | 1980-95  | Prime Minister of Dominica |
Vigdís Finnbogadóttir  | 1980-96  | President of Iceland |
Gro Harlem Brundtland  | 1981, 1986–89, 1990–96  | Prime Minister of Norway |
Agatha Barbara  | 1982-87  | President of Malta |
Corazon Aquino | 1986-92  | President of the Philippines |
Benazir Bhutto | 1988-90 & 1993-96  | Prime Minister of Pakistan | The first female head of government in a Muslim country.
Kazimira Prunskiene  | 1990-91  | Prime Minister of Lithuania |
Violeta Chamorro  | 1990-97  | President of Nicaragua |
Mary Robinson | 1990-97  | President of Ireland |
Edith Cresson  | 1991-92  | Prime Minister of France | Included because female leaders can sometimes be just as rubbish as male ones. When someone as useless as Cresson becomes PM, you know that women are starting to achieve equality with men.
Khaleda Zia  | 1991-96, 2001–06  | Prime Minister of Bangladesh |
Hanna Suchocka  | 1992-93  | Prime Minister of Poland |
Kim Campbell  | 1993  | Prime Minister of Canada |
Sylvie Kinigi  | 1993-94  | Prime Minister of Burundi |
Agathe Uwilingiyimana  | 1993-94  | Prime Minister of Rwanda | Assassinated in the Rwandan Genocide
Tansu Ciller  | 1993-96  | Prime Minister of Turkey |
Chandrika Kumaratunga  | 1994  | Prime Minister of Sri Lanka |
Claudette Werleigh  | 1994-95  | Prime Minister of Haiti |
Chandrika Kumaratunga  | 1994-2005  | President of Sri Lanka |
Sheikh Hasina  | 1996-2001, 2009–present  | Prime Minister of Bangladesh |
Janet Jagan  | 1997  | Prime Minister of Guyana |
Janet Jagan  | 1997-99  | President of Guyana |
Jenny Shipley  | 1997-99  | Prime Minister of New Zealand |
Mary McAleese  | 1997-2011  | President of Ireland |
Mireya Moscoso  | 1999-2004  | President of Panama |
Vaira Vike-Freiberga  | 1999-2007  | President of Latvia |
Helen Clark  | 1999-2008  | Prime Minister of New Zealand |
Tarja Halonen  | 2000-12  | President of Finland |
Mame Madior Boye  | 2001-02  | Prime Minister of Senegal |
Megawati Sukarnoputri  | 2001-04  | President of Indonesia |
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo  | 2001-10  | President of the Philippines |
Maria das Neves  | 2002-04  | Prime Minister of São Tomé and Príncipe |
Anneli Jäätteenmäki  | 2003  | Prime Minister of Finland |
Beatriz Merino  | 2003  | Prime Minister of Peru |
Luisa Diogo  | 2004-10  | Prime Minister of Mozambique |
Maria do Carmo Silveira  | 2005-06  | Prime Minister of São Tomé and Príncipe |
Yulia Tymoshenko  | 2005, 2007–10  | Prime Minister of Ukraine |
Angela Merkel | 2005–2021  | Chancellor of Germany | "The Second Iron Lady", "The Second Iron Chancellor"... She talks a lot of sense to irresponsible governments of other European countries.
Han Myeong-sook  | 2006-07  | Prime Minister of South Korea |
Portia Simpson-Miller  | 2006-07, 2012 – present  | Prime Minister of Jamaica |
Michelle Bachelet | 2006-10 & 2014–18  | President of Chile |
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf  | 2006–present  | President of Liberia |
Pratibha Patil | 2007-12  | President of India |
Micheline Calmy-Rey | 2007 & 2011  | President of the Federal Council of Switzerland | Member of the Federal Council 2003-11 (also a great singer!)
Cristina Fernández de Kirchner | 2007–present  | President of Argentina |
Zinaida Greceanii  | 2008-09  | Prime Minister of Moldova |
Michèle Pierre-Louis  | 2008-09  | Prime Minister of Haiti |
Corina Casanova  | 2008–present  | Chancellor of Switzerland |
Jadranka Kosor  | 2009-11  | Prime Minister of Croatia |
Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir  | 2009-13  | Prime Minister of Iceland | World's first openly lesbian head of government.
Dalia Grybauskaite  | 2009–present  | President of Lithuania |
Mari Kiviniemi  | 2010-11  | Prime Minister of Finland |
Roza Otunbayeva  | 2010-11  | President of Kyrgyzstan |
Iveta Radičová  | 2010-12  | Prime Minister of Slovakia |
Julia Gillard | 2010-13  | Prime Minister of Australia |
Laura Chinchilla  | 2010-14  | President of Costa Rica |
Kamla Persad-Bissessar  | 2010–present  | Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago |
Rosario Fernández  | 2011  | Prime Minister of Peru |
Cissé Mariam Kaïdama Sidibé  | 2011-12  | Prime Minister of Mali |
Yingluck Shinawatra  | 2011-14  | Prime Minister of Thailand |
Dilma Rousseff | 2011–16  | President of Brazil |
Helle Thorning-Schmidt  | 2011–present  | Prime Minister of Denmark | Co-chair of Facebook’s Oversight Board, headlined an event hosted by the “public face” of the Chinese Communist Party United Front Work Department, flagged by the U.S. government for its efforts to “co-opt and neutralize” opposition to the regime.[1]
Joyce Banda  | 2012-14  | President of Malawi |
Alenka Bratusek  | 2013-14  | Prime Minister of Slovenia |
Aminata Touré  | 2013-14  | Prime Minister of Senegal |
Park Geun-hye | 2013–present  | President of South Korea |
Erna Solberg  | 2013–present  | Prime Minister of Norway |
Ana Jara  | 2014-15  | Prime Minister of Peru |
Ewa Kopacz  | 2014–present  | Prime Minister of Poland |
Marie Louise Coleiro Preca  | 2014–present  | President of Malta |
Laimdota Straujuma  | 2014–present  | Prime Minister of Latvia |
Nicola Sturgeon  | 2014–present  | First Minister of Scotland | A straight-talking, no-nonsense lady with a reputation for competence but not compromise.
Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic  | 2015–present  | President of Croatia |
Saara Kuugongelwa  | 2015–present  | Prime Minister of Namibia |
Simonetta Sommaruga  | 2015–present  | President of Switzerland |
Jeanine Áñez | 2019–20  | President of Bolivia |

## United States[edit]

Female political leader  | Dates of office  | Position  | Comments

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Nellie Tayloe Ross  | 1925-27  | Governor of Wyoming | Widow of Governor William Ross.
Miriam Ferguson  | 1925-27, 1933–35  | Governor of Texas | Wife of Governor James Ferguson
Lurleen Wallace | 1967-68  | Governor of Alabama | Wife of Governor George Wallace
Ella Grasso  | 1975-80  | Governor of Connecticut | First woman governor who was not the wife or widow of a prior governor.
Dixy Lee Ray | 1977-81  | Governor of Washington |
Martha Layne Collins  | 1983-87  | Governor of Kentucky |
Geraldine Ferraro  | 1984  | Democratic Vice-Presidential candidate  | First woman to be on the presidential ticket of a major party
Madeleine Kunin  | 1985-91  | Governor of Vermont |
Kay Orr  | 1987-91  | Governor of Nebraska |
Rose Mofford  | 1988-91  | Governor of Arizona |
Joan Finney  | 1991-95  | Governor of Kansas |
Ann Richards | 1991-95  | Governor of Texas | Delivered keynote address at the 1988 Democratic National Convention.
Barbara Roberts  | 1991-95  | Governor of Oregon |
Christine Todd Whitman | 1994-2001  | Governor of New Jersey |
Jane Dee Hull  | 1997-2003  | Governor of Arizona | Succeeded as governor on resignation of Fife Symington.
Jeanne Shaheen | 1997-2003  | Governor of New Hampshire |
Judy Martz  | 2001-05  | Governor of Montana |
Ruth Ann Minner | 2001-09  | Governor of Delaware |
Linda Lingle | 2002-10  | Governor of Hawaii |
Olene S. Walker  | 2003-05  | Governor of Utah |
Janet Napolitano | 2003-09  | Governor of Arizona | Resigned to become President Barack Obama's Secretary of Homeland Security. In 2013, she became president of the University of California.
Kathleen Sebelius | 2003-09  | Governor of Kansas | Resigned to become President Barack Obama's Secretary of Health and Human Services.
Jennifer Granholm | 2003-11  | Governor of Michigan |
Kathleen Blanco | 2004-08  | Governor of Louisiana |
M. Jodi Rell | 2004-11  | Governor of Connecticut | Succeeded as governor on resignation of John Rowland.
Christine Gregoire | 2005-13  | Governor of Washington |
Sarah Palin | 2006-09  | Governor of Alaska | Republican candidate for vice president in 2008
Nancy Pelosi | 2007-11  | Speaker of the United States House of Representatives |
Beverly Perdue | 2009-13  | Governor of North Carolina |
Jan Brewer | 2009-15  | Governor of Arizona |
Mary Fallin | 2011–present  | Governor of Oklahoma |
Nikki Haley | 2011–present  | Governor of South Carolina |
Susana Martinez | 2011–present  | Governor of New Mexico | First woman Hispanic governor of a state.
Maggie Hassan | 2017–present  | U.S. Senator for New Hampshire

Governor of New Hampshire, 2013-2017

Kate Brown | 2015–present  | Governor of Oregon |
Gina Raimondo | 2015–present  | Governor of Rhode Island |

## References[edit]

1. ↑ https://thenationalpulse.com/breaking/fb-oversight-board-chair-headlined-ccp-conference/