Female Heads of State: Who Are They, Where Are They?
Posted on July 5, 2008
Filed Under International, Politics, Women | Comments Off on Female Heads of State: Who Are They, Where Are They?
We almost did it! France tried and failed. India did it years ago, as did Israel, Great Britain and the Philippines. So did Germany, Chile and Liberia. Even Pakistan. There are 42 countries that have had at least one woman as president or prime minister over the last half century. Here is the current rundown.
Angela Merkel, Federal Chancellor – Germany, 2005-present
Merkel is the first female Chancellor of Germany. Merkel, considered by Forbes Magazine to be the most powerful woman in the world in 2007, became the second woman to chair the G8 after Margaret Thatcher.
Mary McAleese, President – Ireland, 1997-present
Mary McAleese is the eighth, and current President of Ireland. She is Ireland’s second female president and the world’s first woman to succeed another woman as an elected head of state. She was first elected president in 1997 and was re-elected, without contest, to another seven-year term in 2004.
Tarja Halonen, President – Finland, 2000-present
The first woman to hold her country’s top position, Halonen was re-elected for a second six-year term in January 2006.
Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Executive President – Liberia, 2006-present
The first African democratically elected female head of state. Sirleaf is a 67-year-old Harvard-educated economist and a seasoned politician. She is often referred to as the “Iron Lady“.
Michelle Bachelet Jeria, Executive President – Chile, 2006-present
In 2005, Bachelet ran for president as a member of the Socialist Party, promoting women’s rights, aid to the poor, and pension-system reforms. In 2006 Bachelet won the runoff election, becoming the first woman president of Chile and the first popularly elected South American woman president.
Pratibha Patil, President – India, 2007-present
She won the presidential election held on July 19, 2007 defeating her nearest rival Bhairon Singh Shekhawat by over 300,000 votes.
Cristina E. Fernández de Kirchner, Executive President – Argentina, 2007-present
Cristina Fernández de Kirchner was elected president of Argentina in 2007. Her candidacy was boosted by the fact that her husband, Néstor Kirchner, was at the time Argentina’s sitting president.
Néstor Kirchner chose not to run for reelection in 2007, and his wife replaced him as the candidate of the Justicialist party. She won with 45% of the vote in general elections of October 2007, and took office in December of that year.
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Executive President – The Philippines, 2001- present
She was elected Vice President of the Philippines in 1998 with almost 13 million votes, the largest mandate in the history of presidential or vice presidential elections. She was sworn in as the 14th President of the Philippines on 20 January 2001.
