Category: President/Prime Minister/Head of State / page 2

Zuzana Caputová
Zuzana Caputová


Zuzana Čaputová assumed office as the president of Slovakia on June 15, 2019, the first woman to hold that position. Čaputová was born June 21, 1973, in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia). She graduated from the Comenius University Faculty of Law in 1996. Before entering politics, Čaputová spent most of her career as a lawyer in the public sector. She was an assistant in the legal department and then deputy to the town mayor in the city of Pezinok. Beginning in 1998, she worked for several civic and non-profit organizations and […]
Laura Chinchilla
Laura Chinchilla


Laura Chinchilla Miranda was the first female president of Costa Rica, serving from 2010 to 2014. Chinchilla was born on March 28, 1959, in San Jose, Costa Rica. She graduated from the University of Costa Rica and received a master's degree in public policy from Georgetown University. Prior to entering politics, Chinchilla was an NGO consultant in Latin America and Africa, specializing in judicial reform and public security issues. As a consultant, she conducted assessments of the justice sector for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), coordinated studies and […]
Helen Clark
Helen E Clark


Helen Clark served as New Zealand's prime minister from 1999 to 2008, the first woman elected at a general election as the prime minister and was fifth-longest serving person to hold the office. Following her terms as prime minister, Clark became the administrator of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in April 2009; she is the first woman to lead the organization. She held the position until 2017. Clark was born February 26, 1950, in Hamilton, New Zealand. She graduated from the University of Auckland with a B.A. and an […]
Luisa Diogo
Luisa D Diogo


Luisa Dias Diogo was appointed prime minister of Mozambique in February 2004, becoming the first woman ever to hold the post. Diogo held the position until January 2010. As prime minister, she earned a reputation as a progressive reformer, a passionate advocate and a savvy business-woman. Diogo was born on April 11, 1958, in the western Mozambique province of Tete. She studied economics at Maputo's Eduardo Mondlane University. After graduating with a bachelor's degree in 1983, she continued her studies at the University of London, where she earned a master's […]
Vigdís Finnbogadóttir
Vigdís Finnbogadóttir


President of Iceland from 1980 to 1996, Vigdís Finnbogadóttir was the first democratically, directly elected, female president. Finnbogadóttir was born in Reykjavík, Iceland, on April 15, 1930. Her mother, an active feminist, participated in the nurse’s trade union for 35 years. Her father was an engineer and professor and encouraged Finnbogadóttir to pursue the arts. She graduated in 1949 from Reykjavík College and continued her education in France and Sweden at the University of Grenoble, the Sorbonne and the University of Uppsala, respectively. Later, she taught drama, theatre history, and […]
Indira Gandhi
Indira Gandhi


Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi served as the prime minister of India for three consecutive terms (1966 to 1977) and a fourth term (1980 to 1984). She adhered to the quasi-socialist policies of industrial development that were begun by her father, Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of independent India. As prime minister, Gandhi established closer relations with the Soviet Union, depending on that nation for support in India's long-standing conflict with Pakistan. Gandhi was born November 19, 1917. She attended Visva-Bharati University, West Bengal, and the University of Oxford. In 1942, […]
Julia Gillard
Julia Gillard


Julia Eileen Gillard served as the 27th prime minister of Australia, and the Australian Labor Party leader from 2010 to 2013. She was the first woman to hold either position. Gillard was born on September 29, 1961, in Barry, Wales, and migrated with her family to Adelaide, South Australia, in 1966. She graduated from the University of Melbourne with a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Laws in 1986. In 1987, she joined the law firm Slater & Gordon, specializing in industrial law. Gillard was elected to the Australian […]
Dalia Grybauskaite
Dalia Grybauskaite


Dalia Grybauskaite was elected president of Lithuania on May 17, 2009, the country's first female president and the first president of Lithuania to be reelected for a second consecutive term. She held the position until 2019. Grybauskaite was born in Vilnius on March 1, 1956. She studied political economy at Leningrad University. In 1988, she defended her Ph.D. thesis at Moscow Academy of Public Sciences. She holds the academic qualification of doctor of social sciences. In 1991, she completed a special course for senior executives at Georgetown University in Washington. […]
Tarja K Halonen
Tarja K Halonen


Tarja Halonen served as president of Finland from 2000 to 2012, the first female head of state in Finland. Halonen was born December 24, 1943, in Helsinki, Finland. As a student at the University of Helsinki, Halonen served as the social affairs secretary and the general secretary of the National Union of Finnish Students. After earning a law degree in 1970, she began her professional career as an attorney with the Central Organization of Finnish Trade Unions. From 1974 to 1975, Halonen served as the parliamentary secretary to Prime Minister […]
Sheikh Hasina
Sheikh Hasina


Sheikh Hasina first became Bangladesh's prime minister in June 1996, serving until 2001, and then again assumed office January 2009, serving until August 2024. Hasina was born on September 28, 1947, in Tungipara, East Bengal, the daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who would become the founding father and first president of Bangladesh. Hasina actively participated in the mass upsurge of 1969 and at the time of the Liberation War of 1971, she was imprisoned by the Pakistani occupation army along with her husband, mother, sister and brother. She graduated from […]