Which was the first country, in 1960, to elect a female prime minister?
"new elections could be held to elect a new president. This was the case with H.E. President Dingiri Banda Wijetunge. United National Party leaders Dudley Senanayake and Ranil Wickramasinghe together with Sri Lanka Freedom Party leader Sirimavo Bandaranaike was appointed three times to the position. With the passing of the 19th amendment to the constitution in 2015, the prime minister was granted more powers when appointing ministers and leading the cabinet. On the 26th October 2018, former President Mahinda Rajapaksa was appointed by Maithripala Sirisena as the Prime Minister dismissing incumbent Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe. Wickremasinghe refused to accept the"
"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"
"of the first Asian countries to allow voting rights to women over the age of 21 without any restrictions. Since then, women have enjoyed a significant presence in the Sri Lankan political arena. The zenith of this favourable condition to women has been the 1960 July General Elections, in which Ceylon elected the world's first woman Prime Minister, Sirimavo Bandaranaike. She is the world's first democratically elected female head of government. Her daughter, Chandrika Kumaratunga also became the Prime Minister later in 1994, and the same year she was elected as the Executive President of Sri Lanka, making her the"
"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"
"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"
"In 2015 Annastacia Palaszczuk of Queensland became the first woman to be elected premier from opposition and was the first female premier to be elected for a second term after winning the 2017 Queensland state election. Despite being the earliest state to grant voting rights and allow women to stand in parliament since 1895, South Australia has never elected a female premier. Julia Gillard became Australia's first female prime minister on 24 June 2010. Women's suffrage groups began to appear in the Australian political landscape in the 1880s. The first, the Victorian Women's Suffrage Society, was formed by Henrietta Dugdale"
"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"
"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"
"Canada's Kim Campbell, the UK's Margaret Thatcher, Australia's Julia Gillard, Israel's Golda Meir, and France's Édith Cresson. Other female national leaders include Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, President Dilma Rousseff of Brazil, and President Isabel Perón of Argentina. Even Pakistan and Turkey, countries often viewed as particularly male-dominated have had female prime ministers. Therefore, the United States, a country which promotes the rights of women and girls around the world, is conspicuous for having only male presidents. In popular media in the United States, female politicians see some focus on their appearance; more so than their male counterparts. A 2011"
"Overall, this pattern of social history that disempowers females produces a cycle of undervaluing females, providing only secondary access to health care and schooling and thus less opportunities to take on high level jobs or training, which then exacerbates the issue of low political participation and lowered social rights, a cycle studied and noted on by Dr. Elaine Enarson, a disaster sociologist studying the connection between disaster and role of women. In 1960, Sri Lanka elected Sirimavo Bandaranaike, the world's first female head of state and Sri Lanka's first female prime minister. Throughout the history of Sri Lanka, there has"
"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"
"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."
"by Dr. Elaine Enarson, this cycle in turn worsens the issue of low political participation and social rights. (Data as of 1988.) Gender roles in Sri Lanka All ethnic groups in Sri Lanka have many distinctions regarding the roles of the sexes. Sri Lanka was the first nation in the world to elect a female head of state, Sirimavo Bandaranaike. Bandaranaike won the election in 1960 after S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike, the preceding leader who was also her husband, was murdered by a spy. While Sri Lanka relatively excels when it comes to gender equality indices, there are still many underlying issues"
"some of the lowest political participation rates for women out of any Asian country. In 2010, on the 50th anniversary of Bandaranaike's election as the world's first female prime minister, Sri Lankan parliamentarian Rosy Senanayake told the press that Sri Lanka had not made significant progress towards gender equality in politics: only 4.5 per cent of parliamentarians were women. Senanayake had earlier called for a ""special quota"" to achieve better gender representation: such a quota, reserving 25% of all legislative seats for women, was passed in 2016. Sirimavo Bandaranaike Sirima Ratwatte Dias Bandaranaike (, ; 17 April 1916 – 10"
"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,"
"the right to stand for parliament, however, until 1920. In 2005 almost a third of the Members of Parliament elected were female. Women recently have also occupied powerful and symbolic offices such as those of Prime Minister (Jenny Shipley, Helen Clark and current PM Jacinda Ardern), Governor-General (Catherine Tizard and Silvia Cartwright), Chief Justice (Sian Elias), Speaker of the House of Representatives (Margaret Wilson), and from 3 March 2005 to 23 August 2006, all four of these posts were held by women, along with Queen Elizabeth as Head of State. Women in Central and South America lagged behind those in"
"Gender roles in Sri Lanka All ethnic groups in Sri Lanka have many distinctions regarding the roles of the sexes. Sri Lanka was the first nation in the world to elect a female head of state, Sirimavo Bandaranaike. Bandaranaike won the election in 1960 after S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike, the preceding leader who was also her husband, was murdered by a spy. While Sri Lanka relatively excels when it comes to gender equality indices, there are still many underlying issues pertaining to gender inequality in Sri Lanka. Many Women in Sri Lanka choose to work, while some choose to work at home"
"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"
"that women held more than 10% seats in parliament. In 1947, Karin Kock-Lindberg became the first female government minister, and in 1958, Ulla Lindström became the first acting Prime Minister. It was not be until 1966, however, that there were more than one woman in the cabinet in the same time. The election of 1994 signified a breakthrough in this aspect: for the first time on history, women had more than 40% of the seats of parliament, and half of the cabinet positions in government. This made Sweden unique in the world at the time. As in many other Western"
"women were elected to Swedish Parliament after the suffrage: Kerstin Hesselgren in the Upper chamber and Nelly Thüring (Social Democrat), Agda Östlund (Social Democrat) Elisabeth Tamm (liberal) and Bertha Wellin (Conservative) in the Lower chamber. Karin Kock-Lindberg became the first female government minister, and in 1958, Ulla Lindström became the first acting Prime Minister. A referendum on women's suffrage was held on 1 February 1959. The majority of Switzerland's men (67%) voted against it, but in some French-speaking cantons women obtained the vote. The first Swiss woman to hold political office, Trudy Späth-Schweizer, was elected to the municipal government of"
"were female. Iceland has had a woman as either president or prime minister for 20 of the last 36 years. In the 2016 parliamentary election covering 63 seats, 30 women were elected, increasing the number of females in the Alþingi to over 47%. Compared to the United States which sits at twenty percent, Iceland was said to have the ""most equal parliament"" in the world when women won 48% of the seats in 2016. On June 29, 1980 Vigdís Finnbogadóttir was voted in as the first female president of Iceland, and the fourth president of the republic. She was the"
"countries, such as in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Turkey. However, in Arabic-speaking countries no woman has ever been head of state, although many Arabs remarked on the presence of women such as Jehan Al Sadat, the wife of Anwar El Sadat in Egypt, and Wassila Bourguiba, the wife of Habib Bourguiba in Tunisia, who have strongly influenced their husbands in their dealings with matters of state. Many Arab countries allow women to vote in national elections. The first female Member of Parliament in the Arab world was Rawya Ateya, who was elected in Egypt in 1957. Some countries granted the female"
"In 1958, women suffrage was introduced in Cambodia, and in the following elections the same year, Tong Siv Eng became the first and only woman elected to parliament. She served as state secretary in 1958–59, minister of Social Action in 1959–61, and minister of Health in 1963–68. Women were legally subservient to men in the Cambodian civil code of 1958, and there were only three other examples of women in higher positions in Cambodia during the 1960s: Tip Man (1962), the minister of education Diep Dinar (1966), and the under state secretary Nou Neou (1966). She also served as editor"
"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"
"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"
"are to be male. In the 2015 general election, 191 women were elected, making up 29% of the House of Commons; up from 141 and 23% before the election. As elected in the 2010 general election. A total of 42 female ministers have held cabinet positions since the first, Margaret Bondfield, in 1929. Tony Blair’s 1997 Cabinet had five women and was the first to include more than two female ministers at one time. The highest number of concurrent women Cabinet Ministers under Tony Blair was eight (36 per cent), under Tony Blair (then a record) from May 2006 –"
"The present Danish government is a coalition between the Social Democrats, the Social-Liberal Party and the Socialist People's Party. All three parties have female leaders. Helle Thorning-Schmidt is Prime Minister. The world's first elected female president was Vigdís Finnbogadóttir of Iceland, whose term lasted from 1980 to 1996. In 2005, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia became Africa's first elected female head of state. It was not until World War I and the first socialist revolutions that the first few women became members of governments. Alexandra Kollontai became the first female to hold a minister position, as the People's Commissar for"
"in January 1965. Five women have held one or more Great Offices of State, with three of the five being members of the Conservative Party. Out of the four Offices, three have been held by women; Chancellor of the Exchequer is the only position that has not. Due to her ascension to the office of Prime Minister in July 2016, Theresa May became the first woman to hold two different Great Offices of State, with the appointment of Amber Rudd as Home Secretary resulting in the first period in which more than one of the Offices were held by women"
"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"
"Constance V. Mitcham Constance Viola Mitcham (born 1947) is a politician in Saint Kitts and Nevis. She was the first woman elected to the National Assembly for that country. She was also the first woman to serve as acting prime minister for the country. She was born in Sandy Point Town and completed her education to high school in St. Kitts. She continued her education in England, earning a LLB from Kingston University in 1971. The following year, Mitcham completed her legal studies at the Middle Temple and was called to the bar of England and Wales. In 1974, on"
"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"
"the Indian feminist movement has gone beyond treating women as useful members of society and a right to parity, but also having the power to decide the course of their personal lives and the right of self-determination. In 1966 Indira Gandhi became the first female Prime Minister of India. She served as prime minister of India for three consecutive terms (1966–77) and a fourth term from 1980 until she was assassinated in 1984. Mary Roy won a lawsuit in 1986, against the inheritance legislation of her Keralite Syrian Christian community in the Supreme Court. The judgement ensured equal rights for"