"has gone on to become the President of Sri Lanka. Sirimavo Bandaranaike became the world's first female head of government on 21 July 1960, holding the post for a non-consecutive 17 years. Her daughter, Chandrika Kumaratunga, became Sri Lanka's first modern female head of state and president. This marked the first time that a female prime minister directly succeeded another female prime minister, and is also the first time that a nation possessed a female prime minister and a female president simultaneously. The progress of women in Sri Lankan politics, however, has stagnated as expectations are higher for their representation"
"productive workers to remain. His successor, Dudley Senanayake, was the first to recommend compulsory repatriation for the population. Bandaranaike toured the country and made emotional speeches, frequently bursting into tears as she pledged herself to continue her late husband's policies. Her actions earned her the title ""The Weeping Widow"" from her opponents. On 21 July 1960, following a landslide victory for the Freedom Party, Bandaranaike was sworn in as the first female Prime Minister in the world, as well as Minister of Defence and External Affairs. She was the first woman in modern history to become a non-hereditary head of"
"Foundation in 2006, where she established the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom. Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was a British stateswoman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the longest-serving British prime minister of the 20th century and the first woman to hold that office. A Soviet journalist dubbed her ""The 'Iron Lady, a nickname that became associated with her uncompromising politics and leadership style. As Prime Minister, she implemented policies known as Thatcherism."
"Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was a British stateswoman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the longest-serving British prime minister of the 20th century and the first woman to hold that office. A Soviet journalist dubbed her ""The 'Iron Lady, a nickname that became associated with her uncompromising politics and leadership style. As Prime Minister, she implemented policies known as Thatcherism. A research chemist at Somerville College, Oxford, before becoming a barrister, Thatcher"
"Sirimavo Bandaranaike Sirima Ratwatte Dias Bandaranaike (, ; 17 April 1916 – 10 October 2000), commonly known as Sirimavo Bandaranaike, was a Sri Lankan stateswoman. She became the world's first non-hereditary female head of state or government in modern history, when she was elected Prime Minister of Sri Lanka in 1960. She served three terms: 1960–1965, 1970–1977 and 1994–2000. Born into an aristocratic Kandyan family, Bandaranaike was educated in Catholic, English-medium schools, but remained a Buddhist and spoke Sinhala as well as English. On graduating from secondary school, she worked for various social programmes before marrying and raising a family."
"the world's first female Prime Minister when another coalition led by the SLFP won elections in July 1960. The murder weapon, fatal bluet and the cloths worn by Bandaranaike on that day are on display at the National Museum of Colombo. Tintagel remained the private residence of the Bandaranaike family until it was converted into a hotel in 2010. Assassination of S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike, the forth Prime Minister of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), was assassinated by the Buddhist priest Talduwe Somarama Thero on September 25, 1959, while meeting the public at his private"
"Indira Gandhi Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (; née Nehru; November 19, 1917 – October 31, 1984), was an Indian politician, stateswoman and a central figure of the Indian National Congress. She was the first and, to date, the only female Prime Minister of India. Indira Gandhi was the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of India. She served as Prime Minister from January 1966 to March 1977 and again from January 1980 until her assassination in October 1984, making her the second longest-serving Indian Prime Minister after her father. Gandhi served as her father's personal assistant and hostess during"
"the first female prime minister in the world. 1961 Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conference The 1961 Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conference was the eleventh Meeting of the Heads of Government of the Commonwealth of Nations. It was held in the United Kingdom in March 1961, and was hosted by that country's Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan. While Commonwealth conferences were normally held biennially, this conference was held after an interval of only a year as the May 1960 conference due to disagreement over South Africa and whether the country should be removed from the Commonwealth due to its policy of racial segregation with"
"Playing hostess to her husband S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike, who was involved in politics and later became Prime Minister, she gained his trust as an informal advisor. Her social work focused on improving the lives of women and girls in rural areas of Sri Lanka. Following her husband’s assassination in 1959, Sirimavo Bandaranaike entered politics and in 1960 became the first woman elected Prime Minister of a country. Bandaranaike attempted to reform the former British Colony of Ceylon into a socialist republic by nationalizing organizations in the banking, education, industry, media and trade sectors. Changing the administrative language from"
"she had no serious health problems but weighed only 48 kg, had low blood pressure and could become weak easily. Aung San Suu Kyi Aung San Suu Kyi (; ; born 19 June 1945) is a Burmese politician, diplomat, author, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate (1991). She is the leader of the National League for Democracy and the first and incumbent State Counsellor, a position akin to a prime minister. She is also the first woman to serve as Minister for Foreign Affairs, for the President's Office, for Electric Power and Energy, and for Education. From 2012 to 2016 she"
"Theresa May Theresa Mary May (; ; born 1 October 1956) is a British politician serving as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party since 2016. She served as Home Secretary from 2010 to 2016. May was first elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Maidenhead in 1997. Ideologically, she identifies herself as a one-nation conservative. May grew up in Oxfordshire and attended St Hugh's College, Oxford. From 1977 until 1983, she worked for the Bank of England, and from 1985 until 1997 at the Association for Payment Clearing Services, also serving as a councillor for"
"and the second woman to serve as Premier. Smith is a member of the Council of Women World Leaders, an international network of current and former women presidents and prime ministers whose mission is to mobilize the highest-level women leaders globally for collective action on issues of critical importance to women and equitable development. Smith was born in 1947 in Bermuda, the daughter of a bartender. She was raised as a member of the African Methodist Episcopal church. She exhibited an interest in art from an early age, and later enrolled at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, from which she"
"Wijeyananda Dahanayake, minister of education and the Leader of the House, was appointed caretaker prime minister by Parliament. However, he fell out of favor with the members of the government, resulting in the removal of all ministers of the Bandaranaike's cabinet in less than a year. Eventually, the leadership of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party fell to Bandaranaike's widow Sirima Ratwatte Dias Bandaranaike who held the SLFP to an election victory in July 1960 becoming the world's first female Prime Minister and was soon appointed a Senator. In 1940, he married Sirima Ratwatte, daughter of Barnes Ratwatte Rate Mahatmaya, later"
"Portia Simpson-Miller. The Honorable Kamla Persad-Bissessar was the female Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago from May 26th 2010 to September 9th 2015. This is significant because these two islands have the largest GDPs in the English speaking Caribbean region. Born May 15, 1919 Dame Eugenia Charles rose up to be the first female Prime Minister in the Caribbean and the first female Head of State in the Americas to be elected in her own right. Born on the island of Dominica, she went on to study economics in Canada and the London School of Economics. She then moved back"
"Radio 4's ""Woman's Hour"" described her as Britain's second-most powerful woman after Queen Elizabeth II. On 30 November 2014, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the World Sikh University. In April 2017, during an official trip to Saudi Arabia, May was appointed to the Order of King Abdulaziz. That September, she was listed by ""Forbes"" as the second most powerful woman in the world, behind Angela Merkel. Theresa May Theresa Mary May (; ; born 1 October 1956) is a British politician serving as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party since 2016. She"
"of Women World Leaders, an International network of current and former women presidents and prime ministers whose mission is to mobilize the highest-level women leaders globally for collective action on issues of critical importance to women and equitable development. Maria Liberia Peters Maria Liberia Peters, also known as Maria Liberia-Peters, (born May 20, 1941) was the Prime Minister of the Netherlands Antilles from 1984 to 1986 and from 1988 to 1994. Born Maria Peters in Willemstad, Curaçao, Netherlands Antilles, she attended school and earned a teaching degree in the Netherlands. She later married Niels Liberia, a civil servant. Together they"
"Lourdes Pintasilgo becoming the first woman Prime Minister of Portugal in 1979, and Margaret Thatcher becoming the first woman Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in 1979. Both Indira Gandhi and Margaret Thatcher would remain important political figures in the following decade in the 1980s. The opposition to the War in Vietnam that began in the 1960s grew exponentially during the early 1970s. One of the best-known anti-war demonstrations was the Kent State shootings. In 1970, university students were protesting the war and the draft. Riots ensued during the weekend and the National Guard was called in to maintain the"
"Denis Thatcher Sir Denis Thatcher, 1st Baronet, (10 May 1915 – 26 June 2003) was a British businessman and the husband of Margaret Thatcher, who was the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The first man married to a British prime minister, he is the last person outside the British royal family to have been awarded a hereditary title, which he was granted in 1990. Thatcher was born in Lewisham, London, as the first-born child of a New Zealand-born British businessman, Thomas Herbert ""Jack"" Thatcher. At age eight he entered a preparatory school as a boarder in Bognor"
"Khaleda Zia Begum Khaleda Zia (IPA: kʰaled̪a dʒia; Majumder, born 1945) is a Bangladeshi politician who served as the Prime Minister of Bangladesh from 1991 to 1996, and again from 2001 to 2006. She was the first woman in the country's history and second in the Muslim majority countries (after Benazir Bhutto) to head a democratic government as prime minister. She was the First Lady of Bangladesh during the presidency of her husband Ziaur Rahman. She is the current chairperson and leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) which was founded by Rahman in the late 1970s. After a military"
"Aung San Suu Kyi Aung San Suu Kyi (; ; born 19 June 1945) is a Burmese politician, diplomat, author, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate (1991). She is the leader of the National League for Democracy and the first and incumbent State Counsellor, a position akin to a prime minister. She is also the first woman to serve as Minister for Foreign Affairs, for the President's Office, for Electric Power and Energy, and for Education. From 2012 to 2016 she was an MP for Kawhmu Township to the House of Representatives. The youngest daughter of Aung San, Father of the"
"in February 2007, aged 80. Her sister, Helene Brown, was also a member of parliament, and her nephew, Ewart Brown, served as premier from 2006 to 2010. Gloria McPhee Gloria Juanita McPhee OBE (née Darrell; 10 November 1926 – 18 February 2007) was a Bermudian politician who served as a member of the House of Assembly from 1968 to 1980, representing the United Bermuda Party (UBP). She was a government minister from 1968 to 1977, the first woman appointed to the ministry. McPhee was educated in the United States, attending Howard University in Washington, D.C., where she met and married"
"increase in women in politics brought increased parliamentary priority to issues such as women's health, domestic violence, childcare. In addition, the increased number of women MPs and greater focus on women's concerns likely resulted in increased female support for Labour at the polls. AWS may also have made it easier for women to be selected non-all-women shortlist seats. The shortlists also gave rise to the appointment of the first British female Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith in June 2007. However, the United Kingdom has had two female Prime Ministers (Margaret Thatcher (1979-1990) and Theresa May) (2016-present), both of whom were Conservatives,"
"Jennifer M. Smith Dame Jennifer Meredith Smith, DBE, JP, DHumL, MP (born 1947) was the Premier of Bermuda from 1998 until 2003, the first premier who was not a member of the United Bermuda Party. Affectionately referred to as ""Dame Jennifer"", she has marked her place in Bermuda's history as the first woman to lead a political party to an election victory, the first Progressive Labour Party Shadow Minister of Education, the first and so far only leader of the PLP to lead the party to win two consecutive general elections, the first female Speaker of the House of Assembly"
"Eugenia Charles Dame Mary Eugenia Charles, DBE (15 May 1919 – 6 September 2005) was a Dominican politician who was Prime Minister of Dominica from 21 July 1980 until 14 June 1995. The first woman lawyer in Dominica, she was Dominica's first, and to date only, female prime minister. She was the second female prime minister in the Caribbean after Lucina da Costa of the Netherlands Antilles. She was the first woman in the Americas to be elected in her own right as head of government. She served for the longest period of any Dominican prime minister, and was the"
"Bhutto Road and Rawalpindi General Hospital as Benazir Bhutto Hospital. Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani, a member of Bhutto's PPP, also asked President Pervez Musharraf to pardon convicts on death row on her birthday in honour of Bhutto. Benazir Bhutto Benazir Bhutto (; 21 June 1953 – 27 December 2007) was a Pakistani politician who served as Prime Minister of Pakistan from 1988 to 1990 and again from 1993 to 1996. She was the first woman to head a democratic government in a Muslim majority nation. Ideologically a liberal and a secularist, she chaired or co-chaired the centre-left Pakistan Peoples"
"1979 general election to become the first female Prime Minister in British history. Denis Thatcher became the first husband of a British Prime Minister. In 1953, they had twin children (Carol and Mark), who were born on 15 August, seven weeks premature. Thatcher was watching the 1953 Ashes series at the time of the birth. Not long after the 1964 general election, Denis Thatcher suffered a nervous breakdown which put a severe strain on their marriage. The breakdown was probably caused by the increasing pressure of running the family business, caring for his relatives, and his wife's preoccupation with her"
"her the first female prime minister in the world, in 1960. Therefore, Chandrika was involved in politics from an young age along with her siblings as she was the second of three children in the family. Her elder sister Sunethra Bandaranaike became a socialite and her younger brother Anura Bandaranaike joined active politics, going on to become a cabinet minister and Speaker of the Parliament of Sri Lanka. Chandrika was educated at the St Bridget's Convent, Colombo, and enrolled at the Roman Catholic Aquinas University College, Colombo to study for a law degree. However, in 1967, she left Aquinas without"
"the hassle, the scrutiny from [the press]. That’s a world that was beyond him until he was elected leader"". Margaret Beckett Dame Margaret Mary Beckett (; born 15 January 1943) is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Derby South since 1983. She was the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party under John Smith from 1992 to 1994, and briefly served as Leader of the Labour Party after Smith died suddenly. She later served in the Cabinet under Prime Minister Tony Blair in a number of roles, becoming Britain's first female Foreign Secretary"
"his assassination and became the world's first female prime minister in 1960. Due to successive governments, varying economic policies, regular strikes the economic out look of Ceylon in the 1960s had fallen below what it was when it gained independence in 1948. This had even lead to an attempted coup in 1962. During the late 1960s a movement named as the JVP was initiated by Rohana Wijeweera a former medical student and former functionary of the Ceylon Communist Party. He had been at odds with party leaders and impatient with its lack of revolutionary purpose and formed his own movement"
"Julia Gillard Julia Eileen Gillard (born 29 September 1961) is an Australian former politician who served as the 27th Prime Minister of Australia and Leader of the Australian Labor Party from 2010 to 2013. She was previously the 13th Deputy Prime Minister of Australia from 2007 until 2010 and held the cabinet positions of Minister for Education, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations and Minister for Social Inclusion from 2007 to 2010. She was the first and to date only woman to hold the positions of Deputy Prime Minister, Prime Minister and leader of a major party in Australia. Born"
"Benazir Bhutto Benazir Bhutto (; 21 June 1953 – 27 December 2007) was a Pakistani politician who served as Prime Minister of Pakistan from 1988 to 1990 and again from 1993 to 1996. She was the first woman to head a democratic government in a Muslim majority nation. Ideologically a liberal and a secularist, she chaired or co-chaired the centre-left Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) from the early 1980s until her assassination in 2007. Of mixed Sindhi and Kurdish parentage, Bhutto was born in Karachi to a politically important, wealthy aristocratic family. Her father, the PPP's founder and leader Zulfikar, was"
"and at the University of Oxford. The most distinguishable being that of the first woman Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Margaret Thatcher; the first, and only, British woman to win a Nobel Prize in science Dorothy Hodgkin and the first woman to lead the world's largest democracy Indira Gandhi, who was Prime Minister of India for much of the 1970s. Somerville educated at least twenty-six Dames, sixteen heads of Oxford colleges, ten MP's, ten life peers, four Olympic rowers, three of ""The 50 greatest British writers since 1945"", two prime ministers, two princesses, a queen consort and a Nobel"
"period included Isabel Martínez de Perón as the first woman President in Argentina and the first woman non-monarch head of state in the Western hemisphere in 1974 until being deposed in 1976, Elisabeth Domitien becomes the first woman Prime Minister of the Central African Republic, Indira Gandhi continuing as Prime Minister of India until 1977 (and taking office again in 1980), Prime Minister Golda Meir of Israel and acting Chairman Soong Ching-ling of the People's Republic of China continuing their leadership from the sixties, Lidia Gueiler Tejada becoming the interim President of Bolivia beginning from 1979 to 1980, Maria de"