Sirimavo Bandaranaike
Prime minister of Sri Lanka - 1960, 1970, 1994
(Sri Lanka was the very first country to elect a female head of state.Sirimavo Bandaranaike was elected prime minister for the first time in 1960 (and later served two more terms) after her husband, Prime Minister Solomon Bandaranaike, was assassinated.)
Indira Gandhi
Prime minister of India - 1966, 1980
(Indira Gandhi, India's first prime minister, was assassinated by her own bodyguards in 1984 while serving her fourth term as prime minister.)
Golda Meir,
Prime minister of Israel - 1969
Isabel Peron,
President of Argentina - 1974
(Isabel Peron of Argentina was the world's first woman president.)
Elisabeth Domitien,
Prime minister of Central African Republic - 1975
Margaret Thatcher,
Prime minister of Great Britain - 1979
Maria da Lourdes Pintasilgo,
Prime minister of Portugal - 1979
Lidia Gueiler Tejada,
Prime minister of Bolivia - 1979
Dame Eugenia Charles,
Prime minister of Dominica - 1980
Vigdis Finnbogadottir,
President of Iceland - 1980
Gro Harlem Brundtland,
Prime minister of Norway - 1981, 1986, 1990
Milka Planinc,
Federal prime minister of Yugoslavia - 1982
Agatha Barbara,
President of Malta - 1982
Maria Liberia-Peters,
Prime minister of Netherlands Antilles - 1984, 1988
Carmen Pereira,
Acting president of Guinea Bissau - 1984
Corazon Aquino,
President of Philippines - 1986
Benazir Bhutto,
Prime minister of Pakistan - 1988, 1993
(Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan's first female prime minister, was assassinated in 2007 while campaigning for another term in office.)
Kazimiera Danuta Prunskiene,
Prime minister of Lithuania - 1990
Violeta Chamorro,
President of Nicaragua - 1990
Mary Robinson,
President of Ireland - 1990
Ertha Pascal Trouillot,
Interim president of Haiti - 1990
Sabine Bergmann-Pohl,
President of German Democratic Republic - 1990
Khaleda Zia,
Prime minister of Bangladesh - 1991, 2001
Edith Cresson,
Prime minister of France - 1991
Hanna Suchocka,
Prime minister of Poland - 1992
Kim Campbell,
Prime minister of Canada - 1993
Sylvie Kinigi,
Prime minister of Burundi - 1993
Agathe Uwilingiyimana,
Prime minister of Rwanda - 1993
Susanne Camelia-Romer,
Prime minister of Netherlands Antilles - 1993, 1998
Tansu Ciller,
Prime minister of Turkey - 1993
Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga,
President of Sri Lanka - 1994
Reneta Indzhova,
Interim prime minister of Bulgaria - 1994
Claudette Werleigh,
Prime minister of Haiti - 1995
Sheikh Hasina Wajed,
Prime minister of Bangladesh - 1996
Mary McAleese,
President of Ireland - 1997
Pamela Gordon,
Premier of Bermuda - 1997
Janet Jagan,
Prime minister of Guyana - 1997
Jenny Shipley,
Prime minister of New Zealand - 1997
Ruth Dreifuss,
President of Switzerland - 1999
Jennifer M. Smith,
Prime minister of Bermuda - 1998
Nyam-Osoriyn Tuyaa,
Acting prime minister of Mongolia - 1999
Helen Clark,
Prime minister of New Zealand - 1999
Mireya Moscoso,
President of Panama - 1999
Vaira Vike-Freiberga,
President of Latvia - 1999
Tarja Halonen,
President of Finland - 2000
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo,
President of the Philippines - 2001
Mame Madior Boye,
Prime minister of Senegal - 2001
Megawati Sukarnoputri,
President of Indonesia - 2001
Maria das Neves,
Prime Minster of Sao Tome and Principe - 2002
Beatriz Merino,
Prime minister of Peru - 2003
Luisa Diogo,
Prime minister of Mozambique - 2004
Angela Merkel,
Chancellor of Germany - 2005
Yulia Tymoshenko,
Prime minister of Ukraine - 2005
Michelle Bachelet,
President of Chile - 2006
Micheline Calmy-Rey,
President of Switzerland - 2006
Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf,
President of Liberia - 2006
Han Myung-sook,
Prime minister of South Korea - 2006
Portia Simpson Miller,
Prime minister of Jamaica - 2006
Pratibha Devisingh Patil,
President of India - 2007
Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner,
President of Argentina - 2007
Borjana Kristo,
President of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzogovina - 2007
Zinaida Greceanii
Prime minister of Moldova, 2008
Dalia Grybauskaite
President of Lithuania, 2009
Laura Chinchilla
President of Costa Rica, 2010
Kamla Persad Bissessar
Prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago, 2010
Julia Gillard
Prime minister of Australia, 2010
Dilma Rousseff
President of Brazil, 2010
Yingluck Shinawatra
Prime minister of Thailand, 2011
