WORLDWIDE GUIDE 

TO WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP

This page is dedicated all the women who has ruled the world since the beginning of times. Entries are found below. See What is new for updates.

There have always been female rulers. The first we hear about is Queen Ku-Baba of Kis in Iraq arround 2500 B.C. But the women who came to power were always an exception, and only came to power when there was no male heirs, or when their sons or daughters were minors.

The first breaktrough
It was not until after World War I that the first few women became members of governments. In front were: Russia 1917, Ukraine 1918, Denmark 1924, Finland 1927, United Kingdom 1929, Mongolia 1930 and Spain 1936. Nina Bang, Danish Minister of Education (1924-26) was the world's first full cabinet minister (see image on the right).

Progress was slow
And it was only in the late 1980s that female ministers became less uncommon. In 1999 Sweden became the first country to have more female ministers than male. 11 women and 9 men.

Today only a handfull of countries never had a female member of government at least at a sub-ministerial level. Those countries are: Bahrain, Monaco, Laos, Lebanon, Saudia Arabia and Tonga.

Next Step
In 1953-54 the Mongolian Yanjamaa Nemendeyen Sübaataryn was the first non-royal woman to be acting head of state. The first female president was Maria Estela Martínez de Perón of Argentina (1974-76).

The first woman to become Prime Minister was Sirivamo Rawatte Dias Bandaranaike (see image abowe) in Sri Lanka in 1960-66, 1970-77 and again 1994-2000.

Since then 38 women have been Premier Ministers of independent countries or self-ruling territories.

Entries

Ministers
Most countries and self-ruling territories have had at least one female minister or other member of government. They are found in Ministers by Country. The Premier Ministers and Vice-Premier Ministers are listed seperatly.  

                                                                          
Heads of State    
                                                Queen Salote Tupou III of Tonga (1918-65) 

This entry lists all women who has been heads of state as Queens, Empresses, Presidents and Governor-Generals in the 20th century. Vice-Presidents and Governors of Self-Ruling Territories are also listed

Queens  
Presidents  UPDATED
Vice-Presidents
GovernorGenerals
Heads of State by Country 
Governors of Selfruling External Territories  

Tarja Halonen takes the oath as president of
Finland in march 2000 flanked by the president of the
Parliament Riitta Uosukainen and out-going president
Matti Arthisari

Parliaments
Presidents of Parliaments lists all female presiding officers of legislatures chronologically. In  Parliaments by country women presidents, vice-presidents and other members of the presidiums are listed in entries for each country.
 
Party Leaders
Female Party Leaders by Country in some cases also incudes deputy party leaders.  

Local Leaders
In Local Leaders by Country  female governor and other local leaders of both unitarian and federated states are listed.

Since both the former Soviet Union and Yugoslavia were federations the leaders of the sub-states in those countries are listed seperately in Leaders in the Former USSR and Leaders of Socialist Yugoslavia

Dr. Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri was Premier of the Free State 1994-99 and is now member of the South African government

Presidential Candidates
Apart from the women who has managed to be elected presidents, many have tried, and they are listed in Unsucessful Presidential Candidates. Women running for the post of deputy head of state are listed in Unsucessful Vice-Presidential Candidates.

Pretenders and Traditional Rulers
Many former monarchies are now republics. But the former ruling families still exists, the female heads and pretenders from 1900 onwards are listed in Heads of Former Sovereign Families.

Other countries are a merger of former sovereign countries or consists of sub-states wich have been or are ruled by women.They are found in Traditional Leaders

Other countries have been invaded and the leader gone in exile, or the opposition has set up alternative governments abroad. Exile Leaders lists the female heads of such governments or opposition movements.

Ambassadors
This entry lists the first female ambassadors for all the countries of the world, and all female ambassadors to United Nations in New York and other Headquarters

First Female Ambassadors 
Representatives to Leauge of Nations
New York Ambassadors
Ambassadors to UN in Geneva 
Ambassadors to UN in Vienna  

Akmaral Kh. Arystanbekova (right)  was Kazakhstan's first ambassador to the United Nations 1991-99. She is former foreign minister and presently ambassador to France.

Miscellaneous
Related links
Sources
About the Author of this page                                                                

The informations are collected from a number of sources and are not complete. Therefore additional informations and corrections will be highly welcome at my, Martin Iversen Christensen's, e-mail: mki_christensen@get2net.dk.

I would especially like to thank Anne Værnholt Olesen for her technichal support setting up this page, Mart Martin, Roberto Zárate de Ortis, Juan Jorge Schäffer, Raymond Lloyd of the Council for Parity Democracy and  Dragan Markovic for adding valuable information to the entries on this page. And Martin Riget Nielsen for his additional technical advice.

Last update 15th of August 2000. See What is new
The page was created on the 29th of December 1999.