March is Women’s History Month, highlighting to the world the impact that women have had throughout history. There isn’t enough room to celebrate all of these amazing women in one post, or everything they achieved during their lives. However, here’s a selection of famous figures who were the first of their gender to hold high-profile and powerful roles in politics:
Indira Gandhi, first female prime minister of India (1966) – Gandhi was nominated for prime minister because the male bosses thought they would be able to control her, but this was certainly not the case.
Simone Veil, first woman Minister of Health in France (1974) and first woman President of the European Parliament (1979) – Veil is an Auschwitz survivor who went on to become a qualified judge, entering the Ministry of Justice as a humanitarian and advocate of women’s issues.
Margaret Thatcher, first woman Prime Minister in the United Kingdom (1975) – Thatcher had been a research chemist and a lawyer before moving in to politics.
Violeta Chamorro, Nicaragua’s first woman president (1990) – Chamorro took on the leadership of La Prensa, an anti‐Somoza newspaper, after her husband was assassinated in 1978.
Mary Robinson, first female president of Ireland (1990) – Robinson fought for the end to Ireland’s ban on divorce and artificial contraception in a 30-year struggle.
Sylvie Kinigi, first woman Prime Minister in Burundi (1993) – on her political ambitions Kinigi said “I will not enter politics to play the role of onlooker, but to bring my ideas on democracy and peace, the source of everything.”
Kim Campbell, Canada’s first female Prime Minister (1993) – Campbell became prime minister only five years after entering the federal parliament
Angela Merkel, first woman Chancellor in Germany (2005) – Merkel, today one of the most powerful women in the Western World, has a doctorate with a thesis in quantum chemistry.
Dilma Rousseff, Brazil’s first woman president (2011) – Rousseff, who has defied critics, is the daughter a lawyer who had emigrated from Bulgaria.
Joyce Banda, first woman president in Malawi and in southern Africa (2012) – Banda is an active campaigner for women’s rights, founding the National Association for Business Women which provides start-up capital for small businesses.
Image: ‘Joyce Banda, President of Malawi’ by Chatham House. CC-BY-2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
