On Sept. 15 Helle Thorning-Schmidt led her
political alliance to victory in Denmark, paving the way for her to
become the country's first female Prime Minister. In honor of female
politicians kicking through glass ceilings, TIME takes a look at 13
women who have made it to the top
Helle Thorning-Schmidt, Prime Minister of Denmark
The Social Democrats leader, Helle Thorning Schmidt smiles as she delivers a speech at the party's election headquarters after the announcement of the Danish parliamentary elections in Copenhagen on September 16, 2011
Jonathan Nackstrand / AFP / Getty Images
As Europe copes with economic stagnation, center-left parties across the continent have struggled to gain traction. But Helle Thorning-Schmidt, leader of Denmark's Social Democrats, bucked the trend on Sept. 15 by leading her left-leaning bloc to power and ousting the coalition government of Lars Lokke Rasmussen. During the campaign the mother-of-two pledged to end conservative austerity measures, to introduce taxes on the wealthy, and to fire up the economy through increased public spending. But it's not all change. In a nation that prizes consensus, it's unlikely Thorning-Schmidt will stray too far from the stringent anti-immigrant policies laid down by her predecessors who were in alliance with the anti-Islam Danish People's Party. The victory of her left-leaning bloc is the first in Scandinavia since right-wing extremist Anders Breivik carried out his devastating massacre in Norway in July.
Yingluck Shinawatra, Prime Minister of Thailand
Dario Pignatelli / Polaris
Critics say that Yingluck Shinawatra's only political
qualification is that she's the youngest sister of deposed Prime
Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. It's not an outrageous claim. Yingluck, who
studied public administration at Kentucky State University, has spent
much of her adult life working at a property business Thaksin founded.
But on May 17 she rose to national prominence after the pro-Thaksin Pheu
Thai Party selected her as its leader. Just two weeks later, on July 3,
her party won 265 of 500 parliamentary seats, and on Aug. 5 the Thai
parliament officially confirmed her as Premier. Besides overcoming
suggestions that her brother is running the country from exile, Yingluck
must now deliver on her populist pledges — raising the minimum wage,
providing free public wi-fi and giving every schoolchild a tablet PC —
without ruining the economy. She'll also need to navigate Thailand's
prickly relationship with Cambodia, as well as attempt to reconcile the
pro-Thaksin Red Shirts and the antigovernment Yellow Shirts, who helped
bring down her brother's government.
Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany
Markus Schreiber / AP
The most influential female politician in the world, Angela
Merkel earned a doctorate in physics in East Germany before turning her
eye to politics. She won a seat in the Bundestag during the first
postreunification general election in December 1990, and Chancellor
Helmut Kohl appointed her as a Cabinet minister just one year later.
Childless and twice married, the chairwoman of the Christian Democratic
Union often comes off as reserved and self-effacing. But as she told
TIME in a 2010 interview, she has plenty of confidence: "You could
certainly say that I've never underestimated myself. There's nothing
wrong with being ambitious."
Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, President of Argentina
Natacha Pisarenko / AP
Elected President in November 2007 (thereby succeeding her
husband Néstor Kirchner), Cristina Fernández de Kirchner has proved she
is her own woman. Dismissively referred to as Cristina by some members
of Argentina's macho political elite, Fernández has survived a standoff
with the country's powerful farming lobby, a fallout with the U.S. over a
suitcase allegedly containing illegal campaign contributions and a
series of high-profile economic-policy spats that culminated in the
ousting of the governor of Argentina's Central Bank earlier this year.
With her striking appearance and polarizing rhetoric, she inevitably
draws comparisons to former First Lady Eva Perón.
Dilma Rousseff, President of Brazil
Bruno Domingos / Reuters
"I would like parents who have daughters to look straight in their eyes and tell them, 'Yes, a woman can,'" Dilma Rousseff said following her victory in Brazil's runoff election in October 2010. When she took the reins of the world's fourth largest democracy on Jan. 1, 2011, she became the South American country's first female President. Her win, a victory for would-be women leaders everywhere, was also a nod to outgoing President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who handpicked her for the job. As Lula's former chief of staff, Rousseff promised to carry on the outgoing and overwhelmingly popular leader's work. "I offer special thanks to President Lula," she said in her election-night speech. "I will know how to honor his legacy. I will know how to consolidate and go forward with his work."
Julia Gillard, Prime Minister of Australia
Mick Tsikas / Reuters
After she helped orchestrate a Labor Party coup that ousted
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on June 24, 2010, Julia Gillard, then 48,
became Australia's first female Prime Minister. Tasked with rebuilding
dwindling support for her party, she called snap elections just three
weeks into office, hoping to benefit from her bounce in public opinion.
But the election on Aug. 21, 2010, proved inconclusive: neither
Gillard's center-left government nor the Liberal-National coalition led
by Tony Abbott was able to secure an outright majority. The stalemate
finally broke on Sept. 7. After more than two weeks of protracted
negotiation with a handful of independent candidates, Gillard secured a
76-74 majority in parliament to form a minority government.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of Liberia
Chris Hondros / Getty
Educated at the University of Wisconsin and at Harvard, Africa's
first female President served as Liberia's Minister of Finance in the
late 1970s. But when Samuel Doe seized power in a military coup in 1980
and executed the President and several Cabinet members, Ellen Johnson
Sirleaf fled to Kenya, where she became a director at Citibank. She
returned to contest the 1996 presidential election and lost to Charles
Taylor. In 2005, she ran again and won, promising to bring motherly
sensitivity and emotion to the presidency — a tall order in a country
still reeling from years of civil war.
Sheik Hasina Wajed, Prime Minister of Bangladesh
Max Rossi / Reuters
Sheik Hasina Wajed, the 63-year-old leader of the left-of-center
Awami League, has a history of surviving. During a 1975 coup d'état,
assassins killed 17 members of her family — including her son, three
brothers, mother and father, former Prime Minister Sheik Mujibur Rahman.
Hasina, then 28, happened to be abroad at the time. She later survived a
grenade attack that killed more than 20 people, dodging the bullets
that sprayed her car as she fled. Hasina was first elected Prime
Minister in 1996. But in 2001, Transparency International named
Bangladesh as the most corrupt country in the world, and Hasina was
ousted in a landslide. That wasn't the end of her, though. In January
2009, the Awami League won 230 of 299 parliamentary seats, and the
consummate survivor found herself Prime Minister — again.
Johanna Sigurdardottir, Prime Minister of Iceland
Bob Strong / Reuters
After Iceland's economy collapsed in October 2008, Johanna
Sigurdardottir rode a wave of discontent all the way to the premiership.
It wasn't exactly surprising: the former flight attendant turned
politician had won eight consecutive elections since entering Parliament
in 1978, making her the country's longest-serving parliamentarian and
one of its most popular. In addition to being Iceland's first female
Prime Minister, Sigurdardottir, 68, is also the world's first openly gay
head of state. In June 2010, when Iceland legalized gay marriage,
Sigurdardottir tied the knot with her long-term partner, with whom she
had entered a civil union seven years earlier.
Laura Chinchilla, President of Costa Rica
Mayela Lopez / AFP / Getty
A former Vice President under Nobel laureate Oscar Arias
Sánchez, Laura Chinchilla won 47% of the vote in Costa Rica's February
2010 presidential election. In a country increasingly concerned about
crime, the center-leftist played up her security experience: she
previously served as both Public Security Minister and Justice Minister
in the National Liberation Party. A social conservative, she opposes gay
marriage, abortion and the legalization of the morning-after pill. She
has pledged to continue the probusiness policies of her predecessor by
courting international investment and expanding free trade.
Tarja Halonen, President of Finland
Vincent Kessler / Reuters
Brought up in a working-class family in downtown Helsinki, Tarja
Halonen has created a highly successful political career by building
ties with trade unions and nongovernmental organizations. Serving as
President since 2000, she has vehemently defended the President's role
as commander in chief of the military and campaigned against Finnish
membership in NATO. Her hobbies belie her powerful position: she is said
to enjoy swimming and taking care of her two cats. In 2006, TV host and
comedian Conan O'Brien endorsed Halonen's re-election because of her
strong resemblance to him.
Dalia Grybauskaite, President of Lithuania
Ints Kalnins / Reuters
After Dalia Grybauskaite came to power in 2009, European
journalists quickly dubbed her Lithuania's Iron Lady, owing to her
steely way with words and her black belt in karate. The daughter of a
saleswoman and an electrician, she worked part time in a factory while
earning a Ph.D. in economics. She went on to become Deputy Minister of
Finance in 1999, before holding a series of positions within the
European Commission. In 2009, with Lithuania mired deep in recession,
Grybauskaite focused her presidential campaign on protecting those with
the lowest incomes and tackling unemployment, which had climbed to
nearly 16%. Running as an independent, she won with a 68% majority — the
largest margin of victory ever recorded in Lithuania's
presidential-election history.
Kamla Persad-Bissessar, Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago
Renzo Gostoli / Bloomberg / Getty Images
Kamla Persad-Bissessar, leader of the United National Congress,
oversees a coalition of five political parties. Since being sworn in on
May 26, 2010, the onetime attorney general has laid out ambitious plans
to tackle the country's growing murder rate, boost pensions and slash
the number of people living in poverty (currently one-fifth of the
population). A former social worker, she's known for compassion: she has
looked after her brother's two children since he died in a car crash 20
years ago.
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