We are still in awe of Hillary Clinton becoming the first female presidential candidate for a major political party, but this milestone in U.S. history is nothing new to the rest of the world. In honor of #girlbosses everywhere, we put together a list of 13 women around the world who have shattered the glass ceiling and held the highest position of power in their country.
Angela Merkel: chancellor of Germany
Angela Merkel has been the chancellor of Germany since 2005 and is the first woman to hold the position. Numerous media outlets have praised her administration, and she was Time‘s Person of the Year in 2015.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf: president of Liberia
Dubbed the “Iron Lady,” Ellen Johnson Sirleaf began her Liberian presidency in 2006 as the world’s first black female president. She is also the first elected female leader in Africa.
Sheikh Hasina Wazed: prime minister of Bangladesh
Sheikh Hasina Wazed has been in her second term as prime minister of Bangladesh since 2009; her first term was from 1996 to 2001. She was the first prime minister since Bangladesh’s independence to complete a full five-year term.
Kamla Persad-Bissessar: former prime minister of Trinidad
Kamla Persad-Bissessar became the seventh prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago from 2010 to 2015 and was the first female to hold the position. She was also the first woman to serve as the country’s attorney general, acting prime minister and leader of the opposition.
Portia Simpson-Miller: former prime minister of Jamaica
Portia Simpson Miller was Jamaica’s first female prime minister and served from 2005 to 2007 and again from 2012 to 2016. She was also a recipient of the country’s Order of the Nation honor in 2006.
Park Geun-hye: president of South Korea
Park Geun-hye was elected president of South Korea in 2013 and is the first woman to hold the position. BBC stated she is the “first female leader in a country that has the highest level of gender inequality in the world.”
Erna Solberg: prime minister of Norway
Erna Solberg is the second woman to be elected prime minister of Norway and has held the position since 2013. She began her career in politics as a local government official in 1979, was re-elected to the Norwegian Parliment five times and was the leader of the Conservative Party in 2004.
Michelle Bachelet: president of Chile
Michelle Bachelet is the first female president of Chile and is currently serving her second term. She first held office from 2006 to 2010 and was re-elected in 2014. After struggling in the first half of her first term, things turned around when she helped Chile through the global financial crisis of 2008 and oversaw relief efforts during the earthquake in 2010.
Ewa Kopacz: former prime minister of Poland
Before becoming the second woman in Poland’s history to hold the position of prime minister, Kopacz was a pediatrician and general practitioner before becoming involved in politics in 1997. She was Poland’s minister of health from 2007 to 2011, and then became the first woman to serve as speaker of the Parliament.
Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca: president of Malta
Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca became the ninth president of Malta in 2014, and was the first president in the country’s history to be nominated unanimously by the Maltese parliament. She is not only the youngest person to ever hold the position, but she is also the second woman to occupy the office after 32 years.
Catherine Samba-Panza: president of Central African Republic
In 2014, Catherine Samba-Panza was appointed as the president of the Central African Republic to lead the country after of months of sectarian killings and violence that forced 1 million people to flee. She is Africa’s third female president.
Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovi?: president of Croatia
Before winning the presidency by the narrowest of margins, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovi? was a former foreign minister and assistant to the Nato secretary general. She is the first woman president of Croatia as well as the youngest, and ran in the hopes of turning around the country’s economic crisis.
Atifete Jahjaga: former president of Kosovo
Atifete Jahjaga was elected the first female president of Kosovo in 2011 and is the youngest woman elected to the top office in the country. Before becoming president, she served as deputy director of the Kosovo police and held the rank of major general, making her the most senior among women officers in Southeast Europe.
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