On 11 November 2025, the Republic of Ireland swore in its third female leader, President Catherine Connolly. For the occasion, An t-Uachtaráin (the Irish term for president) wore purple as an homage to the suffragettes who wore purple while campaigning for women’s right to vote. Her inauguration was also attended by Ireland’s first woman president, Mary Robinson, who now serves as an Elder for the United Nations.
While some countries, like the United States of America, have never had a female leader, many, including Australia, have chosen a woman to lead their nations. On 21 October 2025, Japan elected its first female Prime Minister, Sanae Takaichi. And also onon March 21, 2025, Netumbo Nandi‑Ndaitwah became the first female President of Namibia.
However, according to a Pew Research Centre analysis, fewer than a third of UN countries have ever had a woman leader. Furthermore, according to the United Nations, women make up 27.2 per cent of parliamentarians in single or lower houses worldwide (up from 11% in 1995). Only six countries have 50% or more women in parliament: Rwanda, Cuba, Nicaragua, Andorra, Mexico, and the United Arab Emirates.
Lack of representation is also reflected in our workplace; research from LinkedIn shows that globally, only 32 per cent of any sort of leadership position is currently held by women.
Read on to find out more about the female world leaders we’ve had so far…
Who have been the women leaders around the world?
Presidents
- Isabel Perón – Argentina (1974-1976)
- Vigdís Finnbogadóttir – Iceland (1980-1996)
- Corazon Aquino – Philippines (1986-1992)
- Mary Robinson – Ireland (1990-1997)
- Mary McAleese – Ireland (1997-2011)
- Violeta Chamorro – Nicaragua (1990-1997)
- Ruth Dreifuss – Switzerland (1999)
- Tarja Halonen – Finland (2000-2012)
- Mireya Moscoso – Panama (1999-2004)
- Gloria Macapagal Arroyo – Philippines (2001-2010)
- Michelle Bachelet – Chile (2006-2010, 2014-2018)
- Ellen Johnson Sirleaf – Liberia (2006-2018)
- Cristina Fernández de Kirchner – Argentina (2007-2015)
- Dalia Grybauskaitė – Lithuania (2009-2019)
- Laura Chinchilla – Costa Rica (2010-2014)
- Dilma Rousseff – Brazil (2011-2016)
- Park Geun-hye – South Korea (2013-2017)
- Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović – Croatia (2015-2020)
- Tsai Ing-wen – Taiwan (2016-present)
- Hilda Heine – Marshall Islands (2016-present)
- Sahle-Work Zewde – Ethiopia (2018-present)
- Zuzana Čaputová – Slovakia (2019-present)
- Katerina Sakellaropoulou – Greece (2020-present)
- Maia Sandu – Moldova (2020-present)
- Sandra Mason – Barbados (2021-present)
- Samia Suluhu Hassan – Tanzania (2021-present)
- Xiomara Castro – Castro (2022-present)
- Droupadi Murmu – India (2022-present)
- Dina Boluarte – Peru (2022-present)
- Nataša Pirc Musar – Slovenia (2022-present)
- Karin Keller-Sutter – Switzerland (2023-present)
- Christine Kangaloo – Trinidad & Tobago (2023-present)
- Sylvanie Burton – Dominica (2024-present)
- Myriam Spiteri Debono – Malta (2024-present)
- Claudia Sheinbaum – Mexico (2024-present)
- Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova – North Macedonia (2024-present)
- Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah – Namibia (2025-present)
- Catherine Connolly – Ireland (2025-present)
Prime Ministers
- Sirimavo Bandaranaike – Sri Lanka (1960-1965, 1970-1977, 1994-2000)
- Indira Gandhi – India (1966-1977, 1980-1984)
- Golda Meir – Israel (1969-1974)
- Margaret Thatcher – United Kingdom (1979-1990)
- Édith Cresson – France (1991-1992)
- Kim Campbell – Canada (1993)
- Tansu Çiller – Turkey (1993-1996)
- Jenny Shipley – New Zealand (1997-1999)
- Helen Clark – New Zealand (1999-2008)
- Julia Gillard – Australia (2010-2013)
- Yingluck Shinawatra – Thailand (2011-2014)
- Helle Thorning-Schmidt – Denmark (2011-2015)
- Erna Solberg – Norway (2013-2021)
- Mia Mottley – Barbados (2018-
- Theresa May – United Kingdom (2016-2019)
- Jacinda Ardern – New Zealand (2017-2023)
- Sanna Marin – Finland (2019-2023)
- Mette Frederiksen – Denmark (2019-
- Victoire Tomegah Dogbé – Togo (2020
- Fiame Naomi Mata’afa – Samoa (2021-
- Liz Truss – United Kingdom (September 2022-October 2022)
- Giorgia Meloni – Italy (2022
- Evika Siliņa – Latvia (2023-
- Judith Suminwa – Democratic Republic of Congo (2024-
- Kristrún Frostadóttir – Iceland (2024-
- Paetongtarn Shinawatra – Thailand (2024-
Chancellor
- Angela Merkel – Germany (2005-2021)
Who was the first-ever female world leader?
Obviously, women have been world leaders in a royal context for centuries; the first being Queen Hatshepsut, who ruled as Pharaoh of Egypt from approximately 1479 to 1458 BCE.
However, the first female world leader in a democratic context is widely recognised as Sirimavo Bandaranaike of Sri Lanka (then Ceylon). She became the world’s first female prime minister in 1960.
How many female prime ministers has Australia had?
Sadly, since Federation (when Australia first became a nation on January 1, 1901), Australia has only ever had one female prime minister.
In 2010, Julia Gillard challenged Kevin Rudd for the leadership of the Australian Labor Party, as she felt the party needed a change – Mr Rudd was facing a serious decline in public support, plus there were internal party dissatisfactions with his leadership style as well as concerns about his ability to win another term in office.
After initially declaring he would challenge her, Mr Rudd ultimately decided not to contest the leadership vote, so Ms Gillard became the leader unopposed.
Then, as the Labor Party leader, she automatically became the 27th Prime Minister of Australia – and the first female prime minister.
23 days after becoming prime minister, Ms Gillard announced the next federal election and swiftly began campaigning with the slogan, “Moving forward”.
After winning the election (which was held on August 21, 2010) against Opposition leader Tony Abbott, Ms Gillard was sworn in once again as prime minister on September 14, 2012, by Quentin Bryce, who was Governor-General at the time.
Ms Gillard held office until 2013, and since then, Australia has not had another female prime minister.
However, Sussan Ley did make history by becoming the first woman to be elected to lead the Liberal Party in 2025.
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