Women Prime Ministers 1945-2011

Sirimavo Bandaranaike (1916-2000)
Prime minister of Sri Lanka three times: from 21 Jul 1960 to 27 Mar 1965, from 29 May 1970 to 23 Jul 1977 and from 14 Nov 1994 to 10 Aug 2000. She was the first woman to head of government in world history and probably the oldest female political leader in active by the time of her demise in 2000. Widow and political heiress of Solomon Bandaranaike, prime minister in 1956 and assassinated in office three years later, in 1994 she received her third government mandate from her own daughter, Chandrika Kumaratunga, who was just sworn in as president of the Republic. This was the first time in history that a woman succeeded another woman at the helm of a top State office through elections.

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Indira Gandhi (1917-1984)
Prime minister of India twice, from 19 Jan 1966 to 24 Mar 1977 and from 14 Jan 1980 to 31 Oct 1984, the day she was assassinated. Second generation of the Nehru-Gandhi saga, her father Jawaharlal Nehru ruled India from the independence in 1947 to his death in 1964. Her younger son and political heir, Sanjay, had passed away in plane crash in 1980, so elder Rajiv assumed the leadership of the Congress Party and, automathically, the premiership. In 1991 Rajiv, two years after leaving the Government, suffered the same fate than his mother and was assassinated as well. The widow of Rajiv and daughter-in-law of Indira, Sonia Gandhi, currently leads the Congress Party.

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Golda Meir (1898-1978)
Prime minister of Israel from 17 Mar 1969 to 3 Jun 1974.

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Elisabeth Domitien (1926-2005)
Prime minister of the Central African Republic from 3 Jan 1975 to 7 Apr 1976, as first holder of the just created post of premier upon decision of dictator Jean-Bedel Bokassa. She was Africa's first woman prime minister and the first black woman ruler of an independent State. Nevertheless, it must be said that Empress Zauditu ruled on Ethiopia from 1917 to 1930 and 'Mantsebo Amelia 'Matsaba Sempe was Queen-Regent of Lesotho from 1941 to 1960, albeit under colonial rule. Another Queen-Regent of Lesotho, 'MaMohato Tabitha 'Masentle Lerotholi, served for first time briefly in 1970, four years after the independence.

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Margaret Thatcher (1925-)
Prime minister of the United Kingdom from 4 May 1979 to 28 Nov 1990. First woman elected ruler in Europe.

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Maria de Lourdes Pintasilgo (1930-2004)
Prime minister of Portugal from 1 Aug 1979 to 3 Jan 1980.

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Mary Eugenia Charles (1919-2005)
Prime minister of Dominica from 21 Jul 1980 to 14 Jun 1995. Second black woman ruler in the world behind Elisabeth Domitien of the Central African Republic, the first Caribbean (and American) female premier and the third American woman ruler following Isabel Perón, president of Argentina, and Lydia Gueiler Tejada, president of Bolivia.

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Gro Harlem Brundtland (1939-)
Prime minister of Norway three times: from 4 Feb to 14 Oct 1981, from 9 May 1986 to 16 Oct 1989 and from 3 Nov 1990 to 25 Oct 1996. After leaving politics in her country, she served as as chief of the World Health Organization (WHO).

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Milka Planinc (1924-2010)
Federal prime minister of the former Socialist Yugoslavia from 16 May 1982 to 15 May 1986. She was the only (and probably, the last) woman premier of a communist country in world history.

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Benazir Bhutto (1953-2007)
Prime Minister of Pakistan twice, from 2 Dec 1988 to 6 Aug 1990, and again from 19 Oct 1993 to 5 Nov 1996. The first woman prime minister of a muslim country, she was the daughter of former ruler Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (president in 1971-1973 and prime minister in 1972-1977), who was overthrown in 1977 and executed by the military regime of general Zia ul-Haq in 1979. Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in Rawalpindi on 27 Dec 2007.

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Kazimiera Prunskiene (1943-)
Prime minister of Lithuania from 17 Mar 1990 to 10 Jan 1991.

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Khaleda Zia (1945-)
Prime minister of Bangladesh twice, from 20 Mar 1991 to 30 Mar 1996 and again from 10 Oct 2001 to 29 Oct 2006. She is the widow of the late president Ziaur Rahman, assassinated in 1981.

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Edith Cresson (1934-)
Prime minister of France from 15 May 1991 to 2 Apr 1992.

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Hanna Suchocka (1946-)
Prime minister of Poland from 8 Jul 1992 to 26 Oct 1993.

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Kim Campbell (1947-)
Prime minister of Canada from 25 Jun to 5 Nov 1993. First woman ruler in North America.

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Tansu Çiller (1946-)
Prime minister of Turkey from 25 Jun 1993 to 7 Mar 1996. She belongs to the reduced but notable group of women rulers in muslim countries, along with Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan, Khaleda Zia and Hasina Wajed in Bangladesh, and president Megawati Sukarnoputri in Indonesia.

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Sylvie Kinigi (1952-)
Prime minister of Burundi from 10 Jul 1993 to 11 Feb 1994.

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Agathe Uwilingiyimana (1953-1994)
Prime minister of Rwanda from 18 Jul 1993 to her killing on 7 Apr 1994.

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Chandrika Kumaratunga (1945-)
Prime minister of Sri Lanka from 19 Aug to Nov 1994. See more at the Women Presidents' page.

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Reneta Indzhova (1953-)
Interim prime minister of Bulgaria from 16 Oct 1994 to 25 Jan 1995.

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Claudette Werleigh (1944-)
Prime minister of Haiti from 7 Nov 1995 to 27 Feb 1996.

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Sheikh Hasina Wajed (1947-)
Prime minister of Bangladesh twice, from 23 Jun 1996 to 15 Jul 2001 and again since 6 Jan 2009.

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Janet Jagan (1920-2009)
Prime minister of Guyana from 17 Mar 1997 to December 19, 1997. See more at the Women Presidents' page.

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Jenny Shipley (1952-)
Prime minister of New Zealand from 8 Dec 1997 to 10 Dec 1999. Shipley was not only the first woman ruler in New Zealand (aside from former governor-general Catherine Tizard, with token duties), but of an independent state of South Pacific/Oceania as well.

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Irena Degutiene (1949-)
Acting prime minister of Lithuania twice, from 4 to 18 May 1999 and from 27 Oct to 3 Nov 1999. Second Lithuanian premier following Kazimiera Prunskiene in early 90s.

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Nyam-Osoriyn Tuyaa (1958-)
Acting prime minister of Mongolia from 22 to 30 Jul 1999,

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Helen Elizabeth Clark (1950-)
On 10 Dec 1999 Helen Clark became the second, consecutive woman prime minister of New Zealand, succeeding Jenny Shipley. She left office on 19 Nov 2008.

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Mame Madior Boye (1940-)
Prime minister of Senegal from 3 Mar 2001 to 4 Nov 2002.

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Chang Sang (1939-)
Acting and ephemeral prime minister of South Korea in 2002, from 11 Jul, by appointment of president Kim Dae Jung, to 31 Jul, when the Parliament rejected her.

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Maria das Neves Ceita Baptista de Sousa (1958-)
Prime minister of São Tomé and Príncipe from 7 Oct 2002 to 16 Jul 2003, when was deposed, together with president Fradique de Menezes, in a military coup.

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Anneli Tuulikki Jäätteenmäki (1955-)
Prime minister of Finland from 17 Apr to 24 Jun 2003. The country's first woman premier.

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Beatriz Merino Lucero (1948-)
Prime minister of Peru from 28 Jun to 15 Dec 2003.

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Luísa Dias Diogo (1958-)
Prime minister of Mozambique from 17 Feb 2004 to 18 Jan 2010.

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Radmila Sekerinska (1972-)
Acting prime minister of Macedonia twice in 2004, from 12 May to 12 Jun and from 18 Nov to 17 Dec.

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Yuliya Tymoshenko (1960-)
Prime minister of Ukraine twice, from 24 Jan to 8 Sep 2005 and from 18 Dec 2007 to 3 Mar 2010.

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Maria do Carmo Silveira (1960-)
Prime minister of São Tomé and Príncipe from 8 Jun 2005 to 21 Apr 2006.

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Angela Merkel (1954-)
Federal Chancellor of Germany from 22 Nov 2005.

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Portia Simpson-Miller (1945-)
Prime Minister of Jamaica from 30 Mar 2006 to 11 Sep 2007.

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Han Myung Sook (1944-)
Prime minister of South Korea from 19 Apr 2006 to 7 Mar 2007.

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Zinaida Greceanii (1956-)
Prime minister of Moldova from 31 Mar 2008 to 14 Sep 2009.

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Michèle Pierre-Louis (1947-)
Prime minister of Haiti from 5 Sep 2008 to 11 Nov 2009.

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Jóhanna Sigurdardóttir (1942-)
Prime minister of Iceland since 1 Feb 2009.

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Jadranka Kosor (1953-)
Prime minister of Croatia since 6 Jul 2009.

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Cécile Manorohanta
Prime minister of Madagascar from 18 to 20 Dec 2009.

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Roza Otunbayeva (1950-)
Head of the interim Government of Kyrgyzstan from 7 Apr to 19 May 2010; then, interim president of the Republic.

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Kamla Persad-Bissessar (1952-)
Prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago since 26 May 2010.

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Mari Kiviniemi (1968-)
Prime minister of Finland from 22 Jun 2010 to 22 Jun 2011.

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Julia Gillard (1961-)
Prime minister of Australia since 24 Jun 2010.

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Iveta Radicová (1956-)
Prime minister of Slovakia since 8 Jul 2010.

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Rosario Fernández Figueroa (1955-)
Prime minister of Peru from 19 Mar 2011 to 28 Jul 2011.

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Cissé Mariam Kaïdama Sidibé (1948-)
Prime minister of Mali from 3 Apr 2011.