Countries With Powerful Female Leaders
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When it comes to gender equality, we are living in a historic age. Women make up 28 percent of the United States Congress, more than at any other point in history, and representation is steadily increasing in statewide offices across the nation. Globally, women are also participating more frequently in the political process.
At the forefront of these societal shifts are powerhouse women who currently serve as president, prime minister or chancellor of their home country, defying every tired stereotype about a woman’s ability to lead. Women hardly hold an iron grip on political leadership, as most nations remain ruled by men. But progress is being made, slowly but surely.
These 11 female leaders have been at the helm of their countries since at least 2019. Here’s where to go if you want to visit a country where a woman runs the show.
Denmark: Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen
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Years in service: 2019-present
Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has led Denmark since 2019, taking the country through the COVID-19 pandemic. She has worked in politics since 2001, holding positions as Minister of Justice and Minister of Employment before becoming PM.
Some of her views are controversial within the liberal Scandinavian political atmosphere. For instance, she opposes giving spontaneous asylum status to refugees and has made remarks deemed offensive to Muslims within the country.
Finland: Prime Minister Sanna Marin
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Years in service: 2019-present
Prime Minister Sanna Marin was elected to office when she was just 34 years old. She is seen as a progressive leader, speaking out against issues like the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the ethnic cleansing of Uyghurs in China and the lack of a bill that guarantees rights to the indigenous Sami people.
She also champions the rights of sexual minorities, having been raised by two female parents. Marin has announced that she will resign from her position in 2023.
Slovakia: President Zuzana Caputova
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Years in service: 2019-present
Born in Czechoslovakia, Zuzana Caputova worked as a lawyer and became known for defending environmental issues before her presidency. She was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2016 for shutting down a polluting landfill.
During her presidency, she has continued her environmental work, also defending the rights of sexual and gender minorities and calling for a reform in the country's judicial system. A 2021 poll revealed that she was the most trusted politician in Slovakia — an achievement any politician would be proud of.
Ethiopia: President Sahle-Work Zewde
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Years in service: 2018-present
An advocate for peace and gender equality in her country, Sahle-Work Zewde is currently the only female president in Africa. (There are several female prime ministers in the continent.)
She became Ethiopia’s president in 2018 and works alongside the country’s prime minister Abiy Ahmed, who defied political gender norms by appointing a cabinet made of 50 percent women that same year.
While Ethiopia is no stranger to women leaders (the country was governed by Empress Zewditu from 1916-1930), Sahle-Work Zewde is widely considered Ethiopia’s first “modern-era” head-of-state by its citizens. She’s held numerous important jobs throughout her career, including UN positions like Head of Peace-Building in the Central African Republic, Ethiopian Ambassador in Senegal and UN Representative at the African Union.
Her address to parliament after being sworn in was a promise to help end gender inequality and promote peace within Ethiopia. “The absence of peace victimises firstly women,” she proclaimed, “so during my tenure I will emphasise women's roles in ensuring peace and the dividends of peace for women.”
Georgia: President Salome Zourabichvili
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Years in service: 2018-present
Salome Zourabichvili became the first female president of Georgia — a feat made more interesting by the fact that she was born and raised in France. Of course, to be elected, she had to give up her French citizenship and live in the country for over 10 years.
She was previously a member of the Parliament of Georgia and served as the country's Minister of Foreign Affairs. Zourabichvili advocates for the advancement of women's rights in the region and has spoken against violence targeting the LGBTQIA+ community.
Iceland: Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir
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Years in service: 2017-present
Kudos to Iceland for long being open to female leaders — the country elected the world’s first female president, Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, in 1980. More recently, in 2017, Katrin Jakobsdottir secured the prime minister role at 41 years old, becoming the second woman in Iceland history to hold a head-of-state position.
Jakobsdottir’s political career spans decades, and she boasts a resume as impressive as you’d expect of a woman who’s ascended the boys’-club ranks: She served as Minister of Education, Science and Culture and the Minister of Nordic Co-operation from 2009 to 2013, and as deputy chairperson of the Left Green Movement in 2003.
Under Jakobsdottir’s watch, Iceland has enjoyed a tourist boom that’s led to a reduction in unemployment and an economic revolution following fallout from the 2008 global financial crisis. She's also led the charge on environmental activism, with her sights set on making Iceland completely carbon neutral by 2040. All this, and she’s managed to maintain her status as Iceland’s “most trusted politician.” Not bad!
Serbia: Prime Minister Ana Brnabic
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Years in service: 2017-present
Ana Brnabic is not only the first female Prime Minister of Serbia, but she's also the country's first openly gay head of state. (And the fifth overall in the world.) This is a big deal in a country where same-sex marriage is still illegal.
She has stated that her priorities are improving education and digitalizing Serbia to compete with an increasingly technological market. Some criticize Brnabic for what they deem conservative stances on issues like the recognition of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, which she has denied was genocide.
Singapore: President Halimah Yacob
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Years in service: 2017-present
Halimah Yacob is the first female leader of Singapore. Her story certainly garners admiration since she grew up in poverty and rose against the challenges to become a lawyer and politician.
She has also been praised for her advocacy for gender equality. However, her election has been widely criticized as all her opponents were disqualified for not meeting strict (and some would say arbitrary) standards. She, therefore, ran undisputed and won by default without a vote being held.
In May 2023, she announced that she would not be running for re-election.
Taiwan: President Tsai Ing-wen
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Years in service: 2016-present
President Tsai Ing-wen is Taiwan’s first female president, though she wasn’t exactly a natural choice — before assuming the presidential role, she trained as a lawyer and worked as a trade negotiator, rather than holding any political office.
She’s known for her solitude and privacy, and was praised for what was seen as an effective response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
An advocate for LGBT rights and pension reform, Ing-wen is a decidedly progressive figure in a country that leans more conservative. But her anti-China rhetoric has made her popular with the people and given her an advantage for re-election.
Namibia: Prime Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila
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Years in service: 2015-present
Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila is nothing if not determined, touting a remarkable story behind her political ascendance.
A longtime member of the South West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO), a liberation movement, she went into exile with the group when she was just 13 years old. Leaving behind her hometown in northern Namibia and traveling to the West African country of Sierra Leone, Kuugongelwa-Amadhila continued her education and eventually ended up with a degree in economics from Pennsylvania’s Lincoln University.
After returning to Namibia, she was offered a job in the Office of the President at age 27, not long after her home country gained independence. She swiftly moved up the ranks to Director General of the National Planning Commission a few months later. In 2015, the president of Namibia appointed her to the position of prime minister, which she has since retained.
Kuugongelwa-Amadhila is credited with employing “serious fiscal discipline” to present the first budget surplus in the country’s history while in office.
Bangladesh: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina
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Years in service: 2009-present
The longest-serving leader in Bangladesh’s history is the daughter of the man principally responsible for the country’s independence from Pakistan in the 1970s. Hasina sacrificed a lot to get to where she is today, having survived arrests for her political views, imprisonment and six years in exile after her family was assassinated (by military officers who were arrested for the crime over 13 years later).
Her government made headlines in 2017 after providing assistance and refuge to 700,000 citizens of Myanmar who were fleeing genocide. Her rule hasn't been without controversy, with many criticizing her for restricting freedom of press in the country.
Female Heads of State That Have Ruled Since 2020
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The world has elected 12 female heads of state since 2019, significantly adding to the list of countries ruled by women. Here are all the women who have been leading since 2020:
Honduras: President Xiomara Castro; 2022-present
Italy: President Georgia Meloni; 2022-present
Barbados: President Sandra Mason; 2021-present
Estonia: Prime Minister Kaja Kallas; 2021-present
Samoa: Prime Minister Fiam Naomi Mata'afa; 2021-present
Tanzania: Prime Minister Samia Suluhu Hassan; 2021-present
Tunisia: Prime Minister Najla Bouden Ramadhane; 2021-present
Uganda: Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja; 2021-present
Greece: President Katerina Sakellaropoulou; 2020-present
Lithuania: Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonyt; 2020-present
Moldova: President Maia Sandu; 2020-present
Togo: Prime Minister Victoire Tomegah Dogbé; 2020-present
Honorable Mentions
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Politicians come and go, but we wanted to highlight these noteworthy female heads of state that ruled until at least 2019.
They may not be leading their countries anymore, but they certainly left their mark in world politics.
New Zealand: Jacinda Ardern
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Former title: Prime Minister
Years in service: 2017-2023
When she was elected as the Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern was the youngest female world leader on Earth. She continues to be the youngest person to have been elected to the position in New Zealand. Impressively, she won the deputy leader seat of the New Zealand Labour Party in a landslide victory just a few months before securing the prime minister nomination.
A true modern-day political pioneer, Ardern earned feminist praise when she became the second world leader in history to give birth while in office and the first to take maternity leave.
She made global headlines following the horrific mass shooting in New Zealand in 2019, as she powerfully and gracefully led the country during its time of grief. That same year, she made a splash when she announced a first-of-its kind “wellbeing” budget to tackle mental illness, family violence and child poverty.
Her strict policies during the COVID-19 pandemic garnered praise from some (the country had one of the lowest death rates in the world), and ardent criticism from others.
United Kingdom: Theresa May
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Former title: Prime Minister
Years served: 2016-2019
Theresa May became the second female prime minister of the U.K. in 2016. With big Margaret Thatcher-sized shoes to fill, May had already made history before becoming PM as the longest-serving secretary of state for the home department in 100 years.
May’s defining political move became her struggle to withdraw the United Kingdom from the European Union following the “Brexit” referendum.
She revealed to the press after securing the prime minister spot that she didn’t want Brexit to define her time in office, insisting that she wanted to focus on providing more opportunities to society’s disadvantaged and to propose radical social reform. Instead, dealing with the challenges of Brexit was such a burdensome task that it proved to be her undoing. In June 2019, she announced that she was quitting office.
The Marshall Islands: Hilda Heine
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Former title: President
Years served: 2016-2020
Hilda Heine became a symbol of hope for young Marshallese girls who’d dreamed of a life in politics when she was elected president of the Marshall Islands in 2016, making her the first-ever female leader of an independent Pacific Island country.
In a career marked by “firsts,” Heine was also the first person, male or female, to earn a doctorate in the Marshall Islands, meaning she officially goes by Dr. Hilda Heine. And she has an illustrious record on fighting for the good of her people. After serving as a classroom teacher for most of her life, she became Secretary of Education and Minister of Education and co-founded Women United Together Marshall Islands (WUTMI), an organization that provides counseling for domestic violence victims and promotes the eradication of violence against women.
Unsurprisingly, as the leader of a small island country, Heine was also a tireless advocate for battling climate change, co-penning the “Washington Post” piece, “Don’t let rising seas drown the Marshall Islands.”
Estonia: Kersti Kaljulaid
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Former title: President
Years in service: 2016-2021
Estonia has had five presidents since the country gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Kersti Kaljulaid became both the first female and the youngest head-of-state in Estonian history in 2016 and famously launched a digital revolution in the country. She was responsible for the first platform to allow Estonians to pay taxes and vote online, making it available to all of her country’s citizens.
Under her term, Estonia became a leader in business startups, which is especially impressive given the country’s small population of just 1.33 million. Kaljulaid also helped to implement the world’s first ever “digital nomads visa” in 2019, allowing visitors from other countries to work in Estonia for a year. A move that governments around the world have now copied.
And just in case you weren’t impressed enough already, while traveling through the U.S. in 2018, Kaljulaid ran the NYC Marathon in just over four hours.
Croatia: Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic
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Former title: President
Years served: 2015-2020
Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic was able to add “president” to her long list of political accomplishments in 2015. Aside from becoming the first female and youngest person to be elected president in Croatia, she also served as her country’s Foreign Minister, U.S. Ambassador and NATO Assistant Secretary-General.
She was widely known as a relatable and engaging leader, maintaining a more approachable demeanor than her fellow dignitaries. Case in point? In 2018, she made headlines when she showed up to the FIFA World Cup sporting a colorful jersey and standing in the rain to support her country’s losing team members, shaking the hand of each player.
Outside of her tenure as president, Grabar-Kitarovic identifies with the center-right Croatian Democratic Union (Croatian presidents aren’t allowed to be affiliated with a specific party while in office).
Nepal: Bidhya Devi Bhandari
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Former title: President
Years in service: 2015-2023
Elected in 2015, Bidhya Devi Bhandari was the first female president in Nepal’s history. In 2018 she was re-elected for a second term by an overwhelming majority — 39,275 votes to 11,730 votes, according to the country’s Election Commission.
She faced early tragedy in her presidency after a devastating earthquake shook the county just six months after her term began, taking thousands of lives and damaging infrastructure. Bhandari worked with her fellow leaders to rebuild the country, while emphasizing the importance of gender equality in efforts to recover from disaster.
Nepal is a country that has long been defined as a male-dominated society, and politics are no exception. Bhandari’s election represented a milestone for the Nepalese people in an ongoing push towards equality. A long-time campaigner for women’s rights, she successfully fought for a mandate in the country’s new constitution requiring Nepal’s parliament to be made up of at least one-third women.
Norway: Erna Solberg
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Former title: Prime Minister
Years served: 2013-2021
Serving two terms as Norway’s prime minister, Erna Solberg was an advocate for women’s reproductive health and environmental sustainability throughout her political career. She served as leader of the Conservative Party since 2004 and was elected prime minister in 2013.
Solberg made history by reaching an agreement in January 2019 to form a center-right majority government for Norway — the country’s first non-socialist government since 1985. The coalition aimed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and monitor oil drilling to combat climate change.
On account of her impassioned commitment to the environment, Solberg has served as co-chair of the Sustainable Development Goals Advocacy Group (basically a global “to-do” list to improve humanity and the planet) by the U.N. Secretary General, along with Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama, since 2016.
Lithuania: Dalia Grybauskaite
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Former title: President
Years served: 2009-2019
Grybauskaite was Lithuania’s first female president since the country declared independence from the Soviet Republic in 1991. She was also the first president of Lithuania to be elected for a second term. Her criticism of Vladimir Putin and rejection of closer ties with Russia, earned her the title of “The Baltic Iron Lady,” a nod to the famous nickname for Margaret Thatcher.
She held no ties to a specific political party and chose to run as an Independent candidate for the presidential election in 2009. That year, she won over 69 percent of the vote, the largest-ever margin of victory in a Lithuanian presidential election.
Grybauskaite is a former EU Commissioner and helped play a part in her country’s succession to the European Union in 2004. Though popular in Lithuania, Grybauskaite was ineligible to run in the country’s 2019 presidential election after serving two terms; and was replaced in office by Gitanas Nauseda.
Germany: Angela Merkel
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Former title: Chancellor
Years served: 2005-2021
Angela Merkel served four terms as chancellor of Germany. First elected in 2005, she was the first female chancellor in German history as well as the first from East Germany and the youngest.
Merkel trained as a physicist at university and earned a doctorate in 1986 for her thesis on quantum chemistry before starting her career in politics in 1989 (after the fall of the Berlin Wall). She steered her country through the Euro-zone debt crisis and the refugee crisis, gaining mixed reviews after temporarily suspending refugee laws in 2015 — leading to a reported 1.4 million asylum applications.
Merkel declined to run for a fifth term as chancellor (or any other political position) after her term ended in 2021. She also stepped down from her chairmanship of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), a position she’d held for 18 years.
"It is time today for me to start a new chapter," she told reporters in Berlin, adding that serving as Chancellor had been a "very challenging and fulfilling task."