- Benazir Bhutto
She was elected co-chairwoman of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) along with her mother, and when free elections were finally held in 1988, she herself became Prime Minister. At 35, she was one of the youngest chief executives in the world, and the first woman to serve as prime minister in an Islamic country.
- Angela Merkel
Angela Merkel will be on a four-day trip to India her first trip as Chancellor along with a trade delegates. Continue reading German chancellor Angela Merkel four-day…
- Sirimavo Bandaranaike
Sirimavo Ratwatte Dias Bandaranaike (April 17, 1916 - October 10, 2000) was a politician from Sri Lanka. She was prime minister of Sri Lanka three times, 1960-1965, 1970-1977 and 1994-2000, and was the world's first female prime minister. She was a leader of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party. She was the wife of a previous Sri Lankan prime minister, Solomon Bandaranaike and the mother of Sri Lanka's third president, Chandrika Kumaratunga.
- Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo , President of the Philippines
- Indira Gandhi
Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (November 19, 1917 - October 31, 1984) was an Indian politician who served as Prime Minister of India for three consecutive terms from 1966 to 1977 and for a fourth term from 1980 to 1984. Born in the politically influential Nehru dynasty, she grew up in an intensely political atmosphere. Her grandfather Motilal Nehru and father Jawaharlal Nehru were prominent Indian nationalist leaders. While studying at Somerville College, University of Oxford, …
- Kim Campbell
Avril Phaedra Douglas Campbell, PC, QC, LL.B, LL.D (h.c.) commonly known as Kim Campbell (born 10 March 1947), was the 19th Prime Minister of Canada from 25 June to 3 November 1993. As Prime Minister, she was unique as the only woman ever to hold Canada's highest office and the third woman to serve as a head of government in North America (after Eugenia Charles of Dominica and Violeta Chamorro of Nicaragua).
- Violeta Chamorro
Violeta Barrios de Chamorro (born October 18, 1929) is a Nicaraguan political leader and publisher. She was the forty-eighth President of Nicaragua from April 1990 to January 1997, and the first and to date only woman to hold that office. Chamorro was the second woman elected in her own right as a head of government in North America (behind Eugenia Charles of Dominica), and the first in Latin America.
- Eugenia Charles
Dame Eugenia Charles, DBE (May 15 1919 - September 6, 2005) was the Prime Minister of Dominica from July 21 1980 until June 14 1995. She was the first female prime minister in the Caribbean, and the first woman elected in her own right as head of government in North America. She was Dominica's first and to date only female prime minister. Born Mary Eugenia Charles in Pointe Michel in Saint Luke parish, …
- Khaleda Zia
Khaleda Zia (born 15 August 1945) was the Prime Minister of Bangladesh from 1991 to 1996, the first woman in the country's history to hold that position, and then again from 2001 to 2006. She is the widow of assassinated President of Bangladesh Ziaur Rahman, and leads his old party, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. After 35 years of independence of Bangladesh she has ruled the country for about 10 years (longest period).
- Portia Simpson-Miller
Portia Lucretia Simpson-Miller, ON, MP (born 12 December 1945 in Wood Hall, St. Catherine Parish) is, since 30 March 2006, the Prime Minister of Jamaica. She replaced outgoing Prime Minister P. J. Patterson, becoming the first female head of government of the nation and the third in the Anglophone Caribbean following Eugenia Charles of Dominica and Janet Jagan of Guyana. She also holds the position of president of the ruling People's National Party.
- Tansu Çiller
Tansu Penbe Çiller (IPA: (born 9 October 1946) is an economist and politician in Turkey. She was Turkey's first and to date only female prime minister. She was born in Istanbul and graduated from the School of Economics at Robert College after finishing the American College for Girls of Istanbul. Çiller received her Ph.D. from the University of Connecticut and completed later on her postdoctoral studies at Yale University.
- Helen Clark
Helen Elizabeth Clark (born February 26, 1950) became Prime Minister of New Zealand in December 1999 and entered her third successive term in that office in 2005. As of 2006, she is ranked by "Forbes" magazine as the 20th most powerful woman in the world.
- Édith Cresson
Édith Cresson is a French politician. She is the only female Prime Minister of France.
- Janet Jagan
Janet Rosalie Jagan was President of Guyana from 19 December 1997 to 11 August 1999, and also served as Prime Minister from 17 March 1997 up until her appointment as President. She was married to Cheddi Jagan, a Prime Minister and President of Guyana well known for his leftist leanings, from 1943 until his death in 1997. Janet Jagan was a communist political activist in her youth but moderated her stance later in her career.
- Michelle Michelle Bachelet
Verónica Michelle Bachelet Jeria is a center-left politician and the current President of Chile—the first woman to hold this position in the country's history. She won the 2006 presidential election in a runoff, beating center-right billionaire businessman and former senator Sebastián Piñera, with 53.5% of the vote. A moderate Socialist, she campaigned on a platform of continuing Chile's free market policies, …
- Sheikh Hasina
Sheikh Hasina Wazed (born September 28, 1947) was the Prime Minister of Bangladesh from 1996 to 2001. She has been the President of the Awami League, a major political party in Bangladesh, since 1981. She is the eldest of five children of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the nationalist leader and the first president of Bangladesh. Sheikh Hasina's political career started as a student activist in Eden College in 1960's.
- Golda Meir
Golda Meir (born Golda Mabovitz on 3 May 1898, died December 8, 1978, also known as Golda Myerson from 1917-1956), was one of the founders of the State of Israel. Meir served as the Minister of Labour, Foreign Minister, and then as the fourth Prime Minister of Israel from March 17, 1969, to June 3, 1974. As the BBC put it, Golda Meir was the "Iron Lady" of Israeli politics years before the epithet was coined for Margaret Thatcher.
- Gro Harlem Brundtland
(born April 20, 1939) is a Norwegian politician, diplomat, and physician, and an international leader in sustainable development and public health. She is a former Prime Minister of Norway, and has served as the Director General of the World Health Organization. She now serves as an Environmental Envoy of the United Nations.
- Ertha Pascal-Trouillot
Ertha Pascal-Trouillot is the first and only woman to date to have held the post of President of the Republic of Haïti. She held the position of provisional president of Haïti for nearly a year, from 1990 to 1991. Pascal-Trouillot was chief justice of the Haïtian Supreme Court when she became president on March 13 1990 following a military coup in which general Herard Abraham overthrew the government and then immediately agreed to give up power.
- Luisa Diogo
Luísa Dias Diogo has been prime minister of Mozambique since February 2004. She replaced Pascoal Mocumbi, who had been prime minister for the previous nine years. Before becoming prime minister she was minister of planning and finance, and she continued to hold that post until February 2005. She is the first female to be prime minister of Mozambique. Luisa Diogo represents the party FRELIMO, which has ruled the country since independence in 1975.
- Corazon Aquino
María Corazón Sumulong Cojuangco-Aquino, widely known as 'Cory Aquino', was President of the Philippines from 1986 to 1992. She was the first female President of The Philippines. She was Asia's first female President and world-renowned advocate of democracy, peace, women empowerment, and religious piety. Aquino is the widow of the popular opposition senator Benigno Aquino, Jr., …
- Megawati Sukarnoputri
Diah Permata Megawati Setiawati Soekarnoputri (born January 23, 1947), was President of Indonesia from July 2001 to October 20, 2004. She was the country's first female President, and the first Indonesian leader born after independence. On September 20 she lost her campaign for re-election in the 2004 Indonesian presidential election. She is the daughter of Indonesia's first president, Sukarno.
- Hanna Suchocka
Hanna Suchocka (b. 3 April, 1946 in Pleszew, Poland) is a Polish political figure. She served as the prime minister of Poland between July 11 1992 and October 26 1993 under the presidency of Lech Wałęsa, and was the first and to date only woman to hold this post in Polish history. Suchocka is a specialist in Constitutional Law. She was a member of the Polish Sejm in the 1980s, and became Prime Minister in 1992. She served as an anomaly in the representation of women, …
- Yulia Tymoshenko
Yulia Volodymyrivna Tymoshenko (born 27 November, 1960) is a Ukrainian politician and former Prime Minister of Ukraine (from 24 January to 8 September 2005). She is leader of the All-Ukrainian Union Fatherland party and the Yulia Tymoshenko Electoral Bloc. Before becoming Ukraine's first female Prime Minister, Tymoshenko was one of the key leaders of the Orange Revolution. In this period, some Western media publications dubbed her "Joan of Arc of the Revolution".
- Anneli Jäätteenmäki
Anneli Tuulikki Jäätteenmäki was the first female Prime Minister of Finland, in office April 17th, 2003, to June 24th, 2003. She worked as a lawyer from 1981 until 1987, when she was elected as a member of Finnish Parliament (Eduskunta). Jäätteenmäki was Minister of Justice 1994-1995. She was the leader of the Centre Party of Finland from June 18th, 2000, to October 5th, 2003, …
- Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I (7 September 1533 - 24 March 1603) was Queen of England, Queen of France (in name only), and Queen of Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. She is sometimes referred to as The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, and was immortalised by Edmund Spenser as the Faerie Queene.
- Isabel Martínez de Perón
María Estela Martínez Cartas de Perón, better known as Isabel Martínez de Perón, was President of Argentina from 1974 to 1976 and the third wife of Argentine President Juan Perón. During her husband's third term as president, Isabel served as vice president. After her husband's death in office, Isabel served as president from July 1 1974 to March 24 1976.
- Sylvie Kinigi
Sylvie Kinigi (born 1952) was Prime Minister of Burundi from 10 July 1993 to 7 February 1994, the only female to hold the position. Kinigi was born in 1952, and is a member of the Tutsi ethnic group. Her husband, with whom she had five children, was a member of the Hutu ethnic group - there has traditionally been a poor relationship between Tutsis and Hutus. Kinigi graduated from Burundi University, having studied economic management, …
- Han Myeong-Sook
Han Myeong-sook (born March 24 1944) was the Prime Minister of South Korea from April 2006 to March 2007. She is from the ruling Uri Party and is a graduate of the prestigious Ewha Womans University of Seoul with a degree in French literature. She resigned on March 7, 2007. She declared her presidential candidacy on June 17, 2007.South Korean presidential election, 2007
- Milka Planinc
Milka Planinc is a Communist Federal Prime Minister of Yugoslavia from 1982 to 1986. She remains the only female head of government in the history of Communism. She currently resides in Zagreb, Croatia.
- Sila María Calderón
Sila María Calderón Serra was the seventh Governor of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico from 2001 to 2005. She is the only woman ever elected to that office. Prior to being Governor, Calderón held various positions in the Government of Puerto Rico, including Secretary of State and Chief of Staff. She was also Mayor of San Juan, the Capital of Puerto Rico.
- Beatriz Merino
Beatriz Merino Lucero (born 1947) was the first female Prime Minister of Peru. She held the office between 23 June 2003 and 12 December 2003. Before she was appointed, she was a lawyer and in charge of Peru's tax office. Near the end of her term, she fell out with President Alejandro Toledo over the style of her administration and other issues, and she resigned at his request.
- Elisabeth Domitien
Elisabeth Domitien was prime minister of the Central African Republic from 1975 to 1976. Domitien began her political career in the Movement for the Social Evolution of Black Africa (MÉSAN), the country's only legal political party at the time, being appointed vice president of the party in 1972. On January 2, 1975, the dictator Jean-Bédel Bokassa formed a new government and introduced the post of prime minister, appointing Domitien to the position.
- Sangay Ngedup
Lyonpo Sangay Ngedup was Prime Minister of Bhutan from 1999 to 2000 and again from 2005 to 2006. He is also Minister of Agriculture. In Dzongkha, the title "Lyonpo" means "Minister". Sangay Ngedup was born in Nobgang village in Punakha. He is the second eldest son in a family of two brothers and five sisters. Four of his sisters are the Queens of Bhutan. He graduated from Dr Graham's Homes in Kalimpong, India, …
- Maria Das Neves
Maria das Neves Ceita Baptista de Sousa is a former Prime Minister of São Tomé and Príncipe. She held the post of Prime Minister from 3 October 2002 until 18 September 2004, and was the nation's first female head of government. She is also a member of the Movement for the Liberation of São Tomé and Príncipe-Social Democratic Party (MLSTP-PSD).
- Lyonpo Jigme Thinley
Lyonpo Jigme Yoser Thinley (born Bumthang 1952) is the former Chairman of the Council of Ministers (Prime Minister) and Head of the Government of Bhutan. "Lyonpo" is a title, meaning "minister". The chairmanship to the council is on rotation for a duration of one year, and is based on the number of votes secured during the time of election to the council. He has held this office twice - once from July 20, 1998 to July 9, 1999 and from 30 August 2003 to August 20 2004.
- Reneta Indzhova
Reneta Indzhova (born July 6, 1953 in Nova Zagora) is a leading Bulgarian politician and, whilst serving as interim Prime Minister, became the country's first and to date only female head of government. She stood for election to the presidency in 2001, finishing fourth with 4.9% of the vote.
- Akbar Shah II
Akbar Shah II (1760 - 1837), also known as Mirza Akbar, was the second-to-last of the Mughal emperors of India. He held the title from 1806 to 1837. He was the second son of Shah Alam II and the father of Bahadur Shah Zafar II. Akbar had little real power due to the increasing British control of India through the East India Company. Shortly before his death he sent Ram Mohan Roy as an ambassador to England.
- Radmila Šekerinska
Radmila Šekerinska (Macedonian: Радмила Шекеринска; born 10 June, 1972 in Skopje, Republic of Macedonia) is the current leader of the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM) and the main opposition leader in parliament. Šekerinska was previously deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Macedonia and National Coordinatior for Foreign Assistance and was the acting Prime Minister of the Republic of Macedonia from May 12, 2004 until June 12, …
- Diwan Mohanlal