Category: President/Prime Minister/Head of State / page 4

Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga
Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga


Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga was elected prime minister of Sri Lanka in 1994 and then president later that same year. She was re-elected to a second term in 1999 and survived an assassination attempt in 2000. Kumaratunga was born June 29, 1945. Her father, S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike, was a senior minister of the government at the time of her birth and later became prime minister. Her mother, Sirimavo Bandaranaike, became the world's first woman prime minister in 1961. Kumaratunga graduated from the University of Paris with a degree in political science. She […]
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo


Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo served as president of the Republic of the Philippines from 2001 to 2009, the country's second female president. She was also the country's first female vice president. Macapagal was born April 5, 1947. Her father was Diosdado Macapagal, who later served as Philippine president from 1961 to 1965. She studied at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, and graduated magna cum laude from Assumption College with a bachelor's degree in commerce. She earned a master's degree in economics from the Ateneo de Manila University, and a master's degree and […]
Sanna Marin
Sanna Marin


Sanna Marin assumed the position as the prime minister of Finland on December 10, 2019. She was selected by her party when the sitting prime minister resigned. She is Finland's youngest prime minister and its third female prime minister, and was the world’s youngest serving prime minister when she took office. On April 2, 2023, her party lost the parliamentary election. Marin was born in Helsinki, Finland, on November 16, 1985. She graduated from the University of Tampere with bachelor's (2012) and master's (2017) degrees in administrative services. Marin served […]
Theresa May
Theresa May


Theresa May served as prime minister of the United Kingdom from July 13, 2016, to July 24, 2019. She was elected following Prime Minister David Cameron's resignation after the outcome of the European Union membership referendum, but resigned after several unsuccessful attempts to negotiate a deal for Britain's withdrawal. She is the UK's second female prime minister after Margaret Thatcher. May was born October 1, 1956, in Eastbourne, Sussex. She earned a B.A. degree in geography from St. Hugh's College, University of Oxford, in 1977. From 1977 to 1983, she […]
Mary McAleese
Mary P McAleese


Mary McAleese served as president of Ireland from 1997 to 2011, the second female president of that country. She succeeded Mary Robinson, making her the world's first woman to succeed another as president. McAleese was born on June 27, 1951, in Belfast and is the first president to come from Northern Ireland. The eldest of nine children, McAleese grew up in Northern Ireland through the violent times that have come to be known as The Troubles. She graduated in law from the Queen's University of Belfast in 1973 and was […]
Golda Meir
Golda Meir


Golda Meir was the world's third female prime minister, serving as prime minister of Israel. She assumed the position after the sudden death of Levi Eshkol in 1969. Meir served as prime minister until 1974. Meir was born on May 3, 1898, in Kiev, Ukraine. At the age of 8, her family immigrated to the United States and she grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. When she was young, Meir joined the Poalei Tzion youth movement. At the end of 1917, she married Morris Meyerson, and they immigrated to the Land […]
Beatriz Merino
Beatriz Merino


Martha Beatriz Merino Lucero served as prime minister of Peru in 2003, the country's first female prime minister and the first female prime minister in Latin America. Merino was born on Nov. 15, 1947, in Peru. She graduated with a degree in economics in London and received her master’s degree at Harvard. From 1990 to 1992, Merino served in Peru's Senate, and from 1995 to 2000, she served as congresswoman. Merino served as the director of the Women’s Leadership Programme, now known as the Gender Equality in Development Unit, at […]
Roza Otunbayeva
Roza Otunbayeva


Roza Otunbayeva served as the president of Kyrgyzstan from April 7, 2010 until December 1, 2011. She was announced as the Special Representative for Afghanistan and Head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan in September 2022. Otunbayeva was born on August 23, 1950, in Frunze, Soviet Union (now Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan). She graduated from Moscow State University in 1972 with a degree in philosophy. She was senior professor and head of the philosophy department at Kyrgyz State National University for six years. Otunbayeva began her political career in 1981 as […]
Geun-hye Park
Geun-hye Park


Park Geun-hye served as the president of South Korea from 2013 to 2017, the first woman president of that country. On Dec. 9, 2016, Park stepped back from her duties following a vote by parliament to impeach her over a corruption scandal. The impeachment was upheld by the Constitutional Court on March 10, 2017. Park was born February 2, 1952 in Samdeok-dong of Jung-gu, Daegu. Her father was Park Chung-hee, the third president of South Korea who served from 1961 to 1979. She received a bachelor's degree in electronic engineering […]
Pratibha Patil
Pratibha D Patil


Pratibha Patil served as president of India from 2007 to 2012, the first woman to hold this office. Prior to her election as president, Patil served as the governor of Rajasthan from 2004 to 2007, the first woman to hold this office as well. Patil was born on December 19, 1934, in Nadgaon village of Jalgaon District, Maharashtra. She received her early education from RR Vidyalaya, Jalgaon and earned her master's degree in political science and economics from the Mooljee Jetha College, Jalgaon. Later, she obtained the degree of Bachelor […]