When the rest of the world elected women leaders
After her loss to Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton noted that it will fall to some other woman to become the nation’s first female president. “We have still not shattered that highest and hardest glass ceiling, but someday, someone will,” she said.
By our tally, only 33 women have reached their nation's top office in an outright election, rather than through succession or appointment. Some well-known female leaders, such as Argentina's first female president, Isabel Perón, inherited the position, and India's first female prime minister, Indira Gandhi, was chosen by her party to fill a vacancy before being elected. Israel's Golda Meir rose to the office of prime minister the same way.
Here is a look at women leaders who first rose to power by initially winning outright elections.
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Elected in the 1960s
Sirimavo Bandaranaike
Prime Minister of Sri Lanka
Elected in 1960 at age 44,
17 years
in office
AFP
Bandaranaike became the world's first elected female head of government in 1960. As prime minister, Bandaranaike continued the legacy of her husband, a former prime minister, by nationalizing key sectors and dropping English as the official language in favor of Sinhala. She left office after her second term in 1977. Her daughter, Chandrika Kumaratunga, was elected Sri Lanka's first female president in 1994 and appointed Bandaranaike the prime minister (by then a largely ceremonial position due to changes in Sri Lanka's constitution), an office she occupied from 1994 until her death in 2000.
Elected in the 1970s
Margaret Thatcher
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Elected in 1979 at age 53,
11 years
in office
Sven Nackstrand /AFP/Getty Images
The first 20th century British prime minister to win three consecutive terms, Thatcher advocated free-market policies, family values and fierce nationalism — a sometimes controversial combination of politics and personal ideals that became known as Thatcherism. Known as the "Iron Lady," she resigned in 1990 and remained a public figure until her death in 2013.
Elected in the 1980s
Vigdís Finnbogadóttir
President of Iceland
Elected in 1980 at age 50,
15 years
in office
Pool, Chiaki Tsukumo/AP Photo
The world's first democratically elected and longest serving president, Finnbogadóttir was asked to run for president of Iceland by feminist movements who wanted more women in power. Narrowly elected in her first term to the largely ceremonial post, she became a popular cultural ambassador for Iceland and served her second and third terms unopposed. She stepped down in 1996.
Eugenia Charles
Prime Minister of Dominica
Elected in 1980 at age 61,
14 years
in office
Bob Daugherty/AFP
Known to supporters as "mother of the nation," Charles fought government corruption and tax evasion and banned casinos, nightclubs and duty-free shops from operating on the small Caribbean island state. She retired in 1995 and died in 2005.
Corazon Aquino
President of the Philippines
Elected in 1986 at age 53,
6 years
in office
Val Rodriguez/AP Photo
Aquino was prompted to challenge the dictatorial regime of Ferdinand Marcos after the assassination of her husband, a prominent opposition politician. She ran against Marcos when he called for elections in 1986 and became president when he fled the country following allegations of massive voting fraud. She is credited for restoring democracy to the Philippines, but her presidency was plagued by economic hardships and political corruption. She retired from politics in June 1992 and died in 2009.
Benazir Bhutto
Prime Minister of Pakistan
Elected in 1988 at age 35,
4 years
in office
Roger Richards/AP Photo
The daughter of former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, she succeeded her father as leader of the Pakistan People’s Party in 1979 after his execution for ordering the murder of a political opponent. She led the party to victory in the 1988 election, becoming the country’s first female prime minister. Her two terms saw the modernization of Pakistan after years of military dictatorship, but she faced accusations of corruption and lost power in 1996. She spent the 1990s in exile and was assassinated in 2007, shortly after returning to Pakistan.
Elected in the 1990s
Violeta Chamorro
President of Nicaragua
Elected in 1990 at age 60,
7 years
in office
Marty Laderhandler/AP Photo
Chamorro won the 1990 presidential election against Daniel Ortega, her former ally in the guerrilla movement to overthrow the military dictatorship of the Somoza family. Dedicated to restoring democracy in Nicaragua, the newspaper editor increased privatization of state-owned companies, lifted censorship and adopted conciliatory policies toward her former political opponents. However, she failed to combat the massive poverty facing the nation and retired from politics after the end of her term in 1997.
Mary Robinson
President of Ireland
Elected in 1990 at age 45,
7 years
in office
Paul McErlane/AP Photo
An outsider to the ruling conservative political establishment, Robinson is credited with expanding the influence of the Irish presidency, traditionally a ceremonial position. She was the first Irish president to visit the United Kingdom, as well as the first to visit Somalia after the civil war and Rwanda after the genocide. She ended her term a few months early to become the U.N. Commissioner on Human Rights.
Khaleda Zia
Prime Minister of Bangladesh
Elected in 1991 at age 45,
10 years
in office
Pavel Rahman/AP Photo
Zia became politically active after the assassination of her husband, President Ziaur Rahman, in 1981. She became prime minister following Bangladesh's first free general election in 1991 in almost two decades. While in power, she introduced significant education initiatives, including compulsory free primary school and free education for girls up to 10th grade. She was defeated by political rival Sheikh Hasina Wajed in 1996, but regained power in 2001. She stepped down in 2006 and has faced charges of corruption ever since. She is now awaiting trial.
Chandrika Kumaratunga
President of Sri Lanka
Elected in 1994 at age 49,
11 years
in office
Dexter Cruz/AP Photo
The daughter of two former prime ministers, Kumaratunga served as prime minister when the People's Alliance took power in 1994. She won a landslide victory in the November presidential election. She immediately appointed her mother, Sirimavo Bandaranaike, to the post of prime minister, a largely symbolic gesture. As president, she struggled to contain violence from Tamil separatists. She left office when her second term ended in 2005.
Sheikh Hasina Wajed
Prime Minister of Bangladesh
Elected in 1996 at age 48,
12 years
in office and currently serving
Jewel Samad/AFP Photo
Bangladesh's current prime minister, Hasina was first elected after Khaleda Zia stepped down from her first term amid charges of voter fraud in 1996 (the two have alternated terms ever since). The daughter of Bangladesh's first president, Hasina said she would restore and help create a civil society in the country. She was elected prime minister again in 2008.
Mary McAleese
President of Ireland
Elected in 1997 at age 46,
13 years
in office
Findlay Kember/AP Photo
McAleese won by a record margin in 1997 to become the second female president of Ireland after Mary Robinson and to-date the only woman in the world to succeed another woman as an elected president. The first Irish president born in Northern Ireland, she made the theme of her presidency "building bridges" and earned high approval ratings. In 2011, Queen Elizabeth II accepted her invitation to make a historic state visit to Ireland. McAleese concluded her second term in 2011.
Janet Jagan
President of Guyana
Elected in 1997 at age 77,
1 year
in office
Ricardo Mazalan/AP Photo
U.S.-born Jagan was named Guyana’s first female prime minister when her husband, President Cheddi Jagan, died in 1997. She was elected in her own right as the country’s first female and first white president in December of that year. Her campaign and subsequent victory sparked major protests due to her age and ethnicity. Known for her humanitarian efforts around the world, she resigned in 1999 for health reasons and died in 2009.
Mireya Moscoso
President of Panama
Elected in 1999 at age 53,
4 years
in office
Julie Plasencia/AP Photo
The widow of a former president of Panama, Moscoso won the 1999 election against Martín Torrijos. Torrijos was the son of the dictator who had deposed her husband. As president, she oversaw the U.S. handover of the Panama Canal to Panama, but later was accused of nepotism and corruption and left office in 2004 with the lowest approval rating of any Panamanian president. Torrijos won the subsequent election.
Helen Clark
Prime Minister of New Zealand
Elected in 1999 at age 49,
8 years
in office
Seth Wenig/AP Photo
New Zealand's second female prime minister and the first woman elected to the post, Clark appointed a diverse Cabinet, including 11 women and 4 Maori. Her government legalized prostitution in 2003 and same-sex civil unions in 2005, and opposed the Iraq war. After her tenure, she served as administrator of the United Nations Development Program.
Elected in the 2000s
Tarja Halonen
President of Finland
Elected in 2000 at age 56,
11 years
in office
Lehtikuva, Martii Kainulainen/AP Photo
Halonen won a tight runoff race in 2000 to become Finland's first female president. A new constitution went into effect the day she began her first term, shifting governing power to Parliament and making the presidency a largely ceremonial post. As president, she focused on foreign policy by supporting pro-European policies and opposing NATO membership. She left office after her second term in 2012.
Anneli Jäätteenmäki
Prime Minister of Finland
Elected in 2003 at age 48,
< 1 year
in office
Lehtikuva, Matti Bjorkman/AP Photo
Jäätteenmäki became Finland's first female prime minister after her party gained the most seats in the 2003 general election. Finland also had a female president during that time, Tarja Halonen. Jäätteenmäki and the members of her coalition government resigned just two months into their term after being accused of sharing confidential documents with the press about the previous administration's policy toward Iraq.
Angela Merkel
Chancellor of Germany
Elected in 2005 at age 51,
10 years
in office and currently serving
Alastair Grant/AP Photo
The nation’s first female chancellor, as well as the first born in the former East Germany, Merkel became politically active after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Considered one of the architects of the European Union, she has been praised and criticized for her management of the Eurozone during the financial crisis. Her decision last year to open Germany's border to refugees earned international acclaim, though her party, the Christian Democratic Union, has since suffered major defeat in regional elections. She has not yet announced whether she will run for a fourth term in 2017.
Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf
President of Liberia
Elected in 2005 at age 67,
10 years
in office and currently serving
Dominick Reuter/AFP/Getty Images
Johnson-Sirleaf became Liberia's first female president in 2005. The former finance minister successfully negotiated debt relief packages and secured foreign investment into the country. In 2011, she was a co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. That same year, she won a second term in office, though voter turnout was low amid election fraud allegations.
Michelle Bachelet
President of Chile
Elected in 2006 at age 54,
6 years
in office and currently serving
Johan Ordonez/AFP/Getty Images
A former political prisoner under the dictator Augusto Pinochet, Bachelet is credited with steering Chile through the global recession with her pragmatic management of the economy. Constitutionally prevented from immediately seeking a consecutive term, she left the presidency office in 2010 with an approval rating of 84%. She served as director of U.N. Women, the United Nations’ organization working to empower women, before returning to Chile to win the 2013 presidential election. She has seen low approval ratings in her second term, due to a series of corruption scandals.
Pratibha Patil
President of India
Elected in 2007 at age 72,
4 years
in office
Manish Swarup/AP Photo
A longtime ally of the powerful Gandhi family, Patil was elected as India's first female president in 2007. The post is largely ceremonial, but critics accused her of misusing government funds. She retired after finishing her term in 2012.
Cristina Fernández de Kirchner
President of Argentina
Elected in 2007 at age 54,
7 years
in office
Juan Mabromata/AFP/Getty
The wife of President Nestor Kirchner, Kirchner campaigned for the office when her husband decided not to run for reelection in 2007. She pursued progressive policies, including legalizing same-sex marriage. Her government faced economic difficulties, such as hyperinflation, and the country went into technical default in 2014. Her second term was filled with a host of scandals, and she faced fraud charges after leaving office in 2015.
Dalia Grybauskaitė
President of Lithuania
Elected in 2009 at age 53,
7 years
in office and currently serving
Petras Malukas/AFP/Getty Images
Grybauskaitė won the presidency in 2009 with 69% of the votes, a record high. An economist and former finance minister, Lithuania's first female president has worked to stabilize the country's economy after the financial crisis.
Elected in the 2010s
Laura Chinchilla Miranda
President of Costa Rica
Elected in 2010 at age 51,
3 years
in office
Zach Gibson/AFP/Getty Images
Endorsed by the previous Costa Rican president, Chinchilla won the 2010 election with a 20-point margin of victory. A border dispute crisis with Nicaragua and allegations of corruption led to low approval ratings. Her term ended in 2014.
Kamla Persad-Bissessar
Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago
Elected in 2010 at age 58,
5 years
in office
Moises Castillo/AP
Persad-Bissessar became Trinidad and Tobago's first female prime minister and the first of Indian descent when she led a five-party coalition to a landslide victory in the 2010 general election. As prime minister, she took measures to address gang violence, declaring a nationwide state of emergency in August 2011. She lost the 2015 election and is now an opposition leader.
Dilma Rousseff
President of Brazil
Elected in 2010 at age 62,
5 years
in office
Evaristo Saevaristo Sa/AFP/Getty Images
A former left-wing guerrilla tortured under the 1964 military dictatorship, Rousseff became an economist and, as the handpicked successor to President Luiz Ignacio Lula da Silva, easily won election as Brazil’s first female president. She won a second term, but her once-high popularity ratings plummeted amid a declining economy and corruption scandal. She was accused of mishandling the budget and impeached on Aug. 31.
Yingluck Shinawatra
Prime Minister of Thailand
Elected in 2011 at age 44,
2 years
in office
Wason Wanichakorn/AP Photo
Shinawatra led the Pheu Thai party to a landslide victory in the 2011 general election, becoming Thailand's first female prime minister. Critics accused her of being a proxy for her brother, an exiled former prime minister. Dogged by allegations of abusing power, she was impeached by the legislature in January 2015 for involvement in a rice subsidy scheme that allegedly distorted global market prices.
Helle Thorning-Schmidt
Prime Minister of Denmark
Elected in 2011 at age 44,
3 years
in office
Olivier Hoslet/EPA
Thorning-Schmidt entered office in 2011, promising to boost Denmark's flagging economy. As prime minister, she enacted tax and unemployment reforms. Though praised by some, these tough policies, along with a series of scandals among her administration, led popular support to plummet. She stepped down in 2015 following the general election.
Park Geun-hye
President of South Korea
Elected in 2012 at age 60,
3 years
in office and currently serving
Ed Jones/Pool Photo via AP, File
Daughter of former President Park Chung-hee, Park began her career in politics at age 22, after the assassination of her mother, when she essentially adopted the role of first lady. As president, she promised to focus on improving national security and South Korea's economy, but in early November, there were calls for her resignation amid allegations of abuse of power and fraud.
Erna Solberg
Prime Minister of Norway
Elected in 2013 at age 52,
3 years
in office and currently serving
Frederick Florin/AFP/Getty Images
Norway's second female prime minister after Gro Harlem Brundtland, Solberg formed a coalition government between her center-right Conservative Party and the right-wing Progress Party. As prime minister, she has promised to double Norway's foreign aid spending on global education as well as reduce Norway’s dependency on oil wealth.
Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović
President of Croatia
Elected in 2015 at age 46,
1 year
in office and currently serving
Emmnuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images
Narrowly winning the election in a runoff vote against the incumbent, Grabar-Kitarović became the youngest person, at age 46, and the first woman to lead Croatia as president. She earned votes by promising change and touting plans to pull the country out of a six-year recession. Croatia's economy has slowly improved over the past year.
Aung San Suu Kyi
State Counsellor of Myanmar
Elected in 2015 at age 70,
< 1 year
in office and currently serving
Molly Riley/AFP/Getty Images
Suu Kyi was named Myanmar's first state counselor (the de facto leader of the country) in April after leading her party, the National League of Democracy, to victory in the country's first first open general election since 1990. The daughter of renowned Burmese nationalist leader Aung San, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for her peaceful protest of Myanmar's military regime.
Tsai Ing-wen
President of Taiwan
Elected in 2016 at age 59,
< 1 year
in office and currently serving
Chiang Ying-ying/AP Photo
Tsai became president of the island of Taiwan earlier this year. In her inaugural address, she said that she is "committed to the defense of our freedom and democracy as a way of life." A main challenge of her administration will be to manage relations with China, Taiwan’s primary source of trade, which views the island as a breakaway province.
Timeline graphic updated on 11/15/16
Credits: Timeline graphic by Andrea Roberson and Angie Quintero, with contributions from Maloy Moore
Source: Martin Iversen Christensen, Times analysis