For most of modern history, the leaders of nations were almost always men. That began to change in 1960, when a widow in Ceylon took office as the world’s first female prime minister, and in the decades since, women have led governments on every inhabited continent. The stories of these female world leaders are stories of firsts: first elected, first in their region, first to break barriers that once seemed permanent.
In this guide, we look at fifteen trailblazing women who led their countries, from Sirimavo Bandaranaike to Claudia Sheinbaum, drawing on Britannica, official records and international organizations. Each profile focuses on verifiable milestones rather than opinion, so you can see how the path for female world leaders was built, one first at a time.
Female World Leaders at a Glance
- 1960: Sirimavo Bandaranaike, Sri Lanka, first female prime minister
- 1966: Indira Gandhi, India
- 1969: Golda Meir, Israel
- 1974: Isabel Perón, Argentina, first woman president of a republic
- 1979: Margaret Thatcher, United Kingdom
- 1980: Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, Iceland, first democratically elected female president
- 1981: Gro Harlem Brundtland, Norway
- 1986: Corazon Aquino, Philippines
- 1988: Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan
- 1990: Mary Robinson, Ireland
- 2005: Angela Merkel, Germany
- 2006: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberia, and Michelle Bachelet, Chile
- 2010: Julia Gillard, Australia
- 2024: Claudia Sheinbaum, Mexico
15 Pioneering Female World Leaders Who Made History
1. Sirimavo Bandaranaike, Sri Lanka
In July 1960, Sirimavo Bandaranaike became the world’s first female prime minister, leading what was then Ceylon. She entered politics after the assassination of her husband, Prime Minister S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike, in 1959, and went on to serve three terms: 1960 to 1965, 1970 to 1977, and 1994 to 2000. According to Britannica, her governments pursued nationalization and a nonaligned foreign policy. Her daughter, Chandrika Kumaratunga, later became the country’s president.
2. Indira Gandhi, India
The daughter of India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi became prime minister in 1966 and served until 1977, then again from 1980 until her assassination in 1984. She remains the only woman to have held the office in India and one of the most studied female world leaders, and her tenure included major events such as the 1971 war that led to the creation of Bangladesh and the controversial state of emergency from 1975 to 1977.
3. Golda Meir, Israel
Born in Kyiv and raised in Milwaukee in the United States, Golda Meir became Israel’s prime minister in 1969, the first woman to hold the post and one of the earliest female world leaders. Before that she served as labor minister and foreign minister. She led the country through the 1973 Yom Kippur War and resigned in 1974.
4. Isabel Perón, Argentina
Isabel Perón was elected vice president alongside her husband, Juan Perón, and became president on his death in July 1974, making her the first woman to serve as president of a republic. Her government faced economic crisis and political violence, and she was removed by a military coup in March 1976.
5. Margaret Thatcher, United Kingdom
Margaret Thatcher became Britain’s first female prime minister in 1979 and served until 1990, the longest continuous term of any British prime minister in the twentieth century. Among female world leaders, she is one of the best known internationally. Her Conservative governments are associated with privatization and free-market reforms, and her leadership remains widely debated.
6. Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, Iceland
In 1980, Icelanders elected Vigdís Finnbogadóttir as president, making her the world’s first woman democratically elected as a head of state. A former theater director, she served four terms until 1996 and became known for promoting Icelandic language and culture. Her election followed the famous 1975 women’s day off, when a large share of Icelandic women stopped work to show their importance to the economy.
7. Gro Harlem Brundtland, Norway
A physician by training, Gro Harlem Brundtland became Norway’s first female prime minister in 1981 and served again from 1986 to 1989 and 1990 to 1996. Her 1986 cabinet was notable for including a near-equal number of women. Like several female world leaders after her, she also built a global career: she chaired the UN commission behind the 1987 report Our Common Future, which popularized the idea of sustainable development, and later led the World Health Organization.
8. Corazon Aquino, Philippines
Corazon Aquino became president of the Philippines in 1986 after the People Power Revolution ended the rule of Ferdinand Marcos. The widow of opposition senator Benigno Aquino Jr., she was the country’s first female president and served until 1992, overseeing a new constitution in 1987.
9. Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan
In 1988, Benazir Bhutto became the first woman to lead a democratic government in a Muslim-majority country. She served as Pakistan’s prime minister from 1988 to 1990 and from 1993 to 1996. She was assassinated in December 2007 while campaigning ahead of elections.
10. Mary Robinson, Ireland
A constitutional lawyer and senator, Mary Robinson was elected Ireland’s first female president in 1990. She served until 1997, when she became the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. Her presidency, alongside those of other female world leaders of the 1990s, is often credited with modernizing the role and reaching out to the Irish diaspora.
11. Angela Merkel, Germany
Angela Merkel, a physicist who grew up in East Germany, became Germany’s first female chancellor in 2005 and served until 2021. Her sixteen years in office made her one of the longest-serving female world leaders and a fixture of European Union politics, guiding Germany through the global financial crisis, the euro crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic.
12. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberia
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf became Liberia’s president in 2006, the first woman elected head of state in Africa, and served two terms until 2018. An economist and one of the most celebrated female world leaders in Africa, she led reconstruction after years of civil war. In 2011 she shared the Nobel Peace Prize for her nonviolent work for women’s safety and rights.
13. Michelle Bachelet, Chile
A pediatrician who had been detained under the Pinochet regime, Michelle Bachelet became Chile’s first female president in 2006 and served again from 2014 to 2018. Between terms she became the first executive director of UN Women, an agency that tracks the progress of female world leaders, and later served as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
14. Julia Gillard, Australia
Julia Gillard became Australia’s first female prime minister in 2010 and served until 2013. She later chaired the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at King’s College London and co-wrote a book on the experiences of women leaders.
15. Claudia Sheinbaum, Mexico
A climate scientist and former mayor of Mexico City, Claudia Sheinbaum took office as Mexico’s first female president on October 1, 2024, after winning the June 2024 election. Her inauguration made her one of the most prominent female world leaders in the Americas.
How We Researched This Guide
We focused on documented milestones from reference sources such as Britannica, the Nobel Prize organization, UN Women and official government records, and we avoided opinions about policies. Dates refer to time in office as head of state or government. Read more about our standards in our editorial policy.
Before 1960: Queens and Early Firsts
Women ruled long before the modern era, but usually through hereditary monarchy. Queens regnant such as Elizabeth I of England, Catherine the Great of Russia and Queen Victoria held enormous power, yet they inherited or seized their thrones rather than winning elections. In the twentieth century, a few women led smaller or partially recognized states. Khertek Anchimaa-Toka, for example, became head of state of the Tuvan People’s Republic in 1940 and is often cited as one of the first non-hereditary female heads of state. The modern era of elected female world leaders, though, is usually dated to 1960.
Why Female World Leaders Still Stand Out
Representation Remains Limited
Despite these milestones, women remain a minority among heads of state and government. UN Women tracks these figures and reports that many countries have never had a woman in the top job. Data from the Inter-Parliamentary Union shows that women hold only around a quarter of seats in national parliaments worldwide.
Paths to Power
Early female world leaders often came from political families, such as Bandaranaike, Gandhi, Bhutto and Aquino. Over time, more women rose through party ranks, civil service and professional careers, including medicine, science and law, as the examples of Brundtland, Merkel, Bachelet and Sheinbaum show.
Suffrage Made It Possible
None of these firsts could have happened without the right to vote and to stand for office. Our guide to women’s suffrage history explains how that fight unfolded country by country.
More Notable Firsts
- Kim Campbell became Canada’s first female prime minister in 1993.
- Tansu Çiller became Turkey’s first female prime minister in 1993.
- Dilma Rousseff became Brazil’s first female president in 2011.
- Jacinda Ardern became the second elected head of government to give birth while in office, in 2018, after Benazir Bhutto in 1990.
- Sanae Takaichi became Japan’s first female prime minister in October 2025.
Recommended Reading
To go deeper, this book by Julia Gillard and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala draws on interviews with women leaders including Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Michelle Bachelet and Theresa May, exploring the obstacles they faced.
Women and Leadership: Real Lives, Real Lessons
- By Julia Gillard and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
- Interviews with women leaders
- Research on gender and leadership
Frequently Asked Questions
Who was the first female prime minister in the world?
Sirimavo Bandaranaike of Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, became the world’s first female prime minister in July 1960.
Who was the first woman elected president?
Vigdís Finnbogadóttir of Iceland, elected in 1980, is recognized as the first woman democratically elected as a head of state.
Which country had the first female president?
Isabel Perón of Argentina became the first woman president of a republic in 1974, though she succeeded to the role rather than being elected to it.
How many female world leaders are there today?
The number changes with elections, so UN Women and the Inter-Parliamentary Union are the best sources for current figures.
Final Thoughts
The history of female world leaders is still being written. From Sirimavo Bandaranaike in 1960 to Claudia Sheinbaum in 2024, each first has widened the path for the next generation of women in public life. For more stories of women who changed history, read our features on women Nobel Prize winners and the history of International Women’s Day.
