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20 Most Influential Female Politicians of All Time

Since the Late 1990s, women have slowly risen to the top. From helping create powerful countries to maintaining a stable economy, women have helped grow the world into what it is today. Women politicians have helped each government around the world become more accepting of women in authoritative roles.

1. Golda Meir

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Golda was born on May 3, 1898, she was an Israeli politician, teacher, and kibbutznik. Golda served as the fourth prime minister of Israel from 1969 to 1974. Golda was Prime Minister during the Yom Kippur War of 1973. The first days of the war took a toll on Israel which suffered multiple losses. Public anger at the government caused Golda to resign the following year.

Golda was one of 24 signatories of the Israeli Declaration of Independence on May 14, 1948. On September 2 of the same year, Golda’s term as the appointed Israel minister plenipotentiary to the Soviet Union. During her term, there were good relations between Israel and the Soviet Union. The term ended in March 1949.

2. Isabel Martinez de Peron

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Isabel also known as Maria Estela Martinez Cartas was born on February 4, 1931. She is an Argentine politician who served as President of Argentina from 1974 to 1976. Isabel was one of the first female republican heads of state in the world, she is also the first woman to serve as president of a country.

Isabel was the third wife of President Juan Peron, during his third term as president, she served as both Vice President and First Lady of Argentina from 1973 to 1974. When her husband died in office in 1974, Isabel served as President for almost two years before the military took over the government with the 1976 coup. She was later placed under house arrest for five years before she was exiled to Spain in 1981.

During her presidency, she pledges to uphold the social market economy policies which were embodied in the 1973 Social Pact as well as her husband’s long-held economic nationalism. Isabel’s first significant economic policy decisions were the enactment of a new, pro-labor employment contract law and the granting to YPF a monopoly over filling stations. Isabel received a lot of support during her term as president, even the leftist groups publicly offered support to her.

3. Margaret Thatcher

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Margaret Hilda Thatcher or Baroness Thatcher was born on October 13, 1925. She was a British politician and stateswoman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. In the 1959 election, Margaret was elected as MP for the seat after a hard campaign. Her maiden speech was in support of her private member’s bill, the Public Bodies Act 1960, which required local authorities to hold their council meetings in public. The bill was successful and became law.

Margaret was the first female British prime minister and the longest-serving British prime minister of the 20th century. As prime minister, Margaret implemented economic policies that became known as Thatcherism. She was dubbed the Iron Lady by a Soviet journalist, the nickname became associated with her uncompromising politics and leadership style. 

4. Eugenia Charles

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Dame Mary Eugenia Charles was born on May 15, 1919. She was a Dominican politician who was Prime Minister of Dominica from 21 July 1980 to 14 June 1995. She is known as the first female lawyer in Dominica, and the second female prime minister in the Caribbean after Lucina da Costa of the Netherlands Antilles.

Mary’s career began in the 1960s when she campaigned for politics against restrictions on press freedom. in 1967, she became involved in the Freedom Fighters which was an advocacy group that opposed the Seditious and Undesirable Publications Act. In October 1968, the group merged with the National Democratic Movement of Dominica to become the Dominica Freedom Party. The party held its first convention in June 1969 and Mary was appointed as its leader. She held the position until 1995.

Mary was the first female in America to be elected in her own right as head of government. She served for the second-largest period of any Dominican prime minister and was the world’s fourth longest-serving Prime minister. Mary established a record for the longest continuous service of any woman Prime Minister.

5. Corazon Aquino

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Mari Corazon Sumulong Cojuangco-Aquino was born on Janury 25, 1933. She was a Filipino politician who served as the 11th president of the Philippines from 1986 to 1992. Maria was the most prominent figure of the 1986 People Power Revolution it ended the two-decade rule of President Ferdinand Marcos and led to the establishment of the current democratic Fifth Philippine Republic.

When she was president, Maria oversaw the drafting of the 1987 Constitution which limited the powers of the presidency and re-established the bicameral Congress. Her economic policies focused on forging good economic standing amongst the international community as well as disestablishing Marcos-era crony capitalism. Maria’s administration pursued peace talks to resolve the Moro conflict.

6. Edith Cresson

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Edith was born on January 27, 1934, she is a French politician from the Socialist Party. She served as Prime Minister of France from 1991 to 1992, the first woman to do so. Mary was the only woman to be prime minister until 2022 when Elisabeth Borne was appointed. 

The Cresson Government also placed considerable emphasis during its time in the office on facilitating the international competitiveness of firms with under 500 employees. Still, under her government, a law was passed in July 1991 which included several measures aimed at improving access of people with disabilities to housing, workplaces, and public building.

Edith is a member of the Council of Women World Leaders, it is an International network of current and former women presidents and prime ministers. Their main mission is to mobilize the highest-level women leaders globally for collective action on issues of critical importance to women and equitable development.

7. Kim Campbell

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Avril Phaedra Douglas “Kim” Campbell was born on March 10, 1947. She is a Canadian politician, diplomat, lawyer, and writer. She served as the 19th prime minister of Canada from June 25 to November 4, 1993. Kim is the first female prime minister of Canada, before the final Progressive Conservative prime minister, she was also the first woman to serve as minister of justice in Canadian history. 

Kim is also the first woman to become minister of defense in a NATO member state. She was first elected to the British Columbia Legislative Assembly as a member of the British Columbia Social Credit Party in 1986 before she was elected to the House of Commons of Canada as PC in 1988.

Under Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, Kim occupied numerous cabinet positions including minister of justice and attorney general, minister of veterans affairs, and minister of national defense from 1990 to 1993. Kim became the new prime minister in June 1993 after Mulroney resigned in the wake of declining popularity.

8. Megawati Sukarnoputri

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Diah Permata Megawati Setiawati Sukarnoputri was born January 23, 1947. She is an Indonesian politician who served as the fifth president of Indonesia from 2001 to 2004. Megawati previously served as the vice president from 1999 to 2001. She is Indonesia’s first female president and the sixth woman to lead a Muslim-majority country. 

Megawati is the first Indonesian president and as of 2021, the only vice president to be born after Indonesia proclaimed its independence in 1945. She became president when Wahid was removed from office re-election in the 2004 presidential election. She ran again in the 2009 presidential election but was defeated again.

Megawati is the first and current leader of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, which is one of Indonesia’s largest political parties. She is the eldest daughter of Indonesia’s first president. In 2018, she was appointed as Head of the Steering Committee of Pancasila Ideology Development Agency. Megawati also gained a position as Head of the National Research and Innovation Agency Steering Committee on May 5, 2021.

9. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

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Ellen Johnson also known as Ellen Eugenia Johnson was born on October 29, 1938. She is a Liberian politician who served as the 24th president of Liberia from 2004 to 2018. Ellen was the first elected female head of state in Africa. From 1971 to 1974, she worked as Deputy Minister of Finance and later worked for the World Bank in the Caribbean and Latin America.

In 2005, she won the presidential election and took office on January 16, 2006. She was noted as the first woman in Africa elected as president of her country. In 2011, she won the Nobel Peace Prize and was recognized for her efforts to bring women into the peacekeeping process.

Ellen has received numerous other awards for her leadership, and in June 2016 was elected as the Chair of the Economic Community of West African States. This made her the first woman to hold the position since it was created.

10. Portia Simpson-Miller

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Portia Lucretia Simpson-Miller was born on December 12, 1945. She is a Jamaican politician who served as Prime Minister of Jamaica from March 2006 to September 2007. She was the leader of the People’s National Party from 2005 to 2017 and the Leader of the Opposition twice, from 2007 to 2012 and from 2016 to 2017. As she served as Prime Minister, she retained the position of Minister of Defence, Development, Information, and Sport, Minister of Tourism and Sports, and also Minister of Local Government.

After her election win in December 2011, her party defeated the Jamaica Labour. Portia became the second individual since independence to have served non-consecutive terms as prime minister.

The People’s National Party under her leadership lost the 25 February 2016 general election. She was ranked by Time as one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2012. Later in 2011, Portia was named Person of the Year by The Gleaner and Observer.

11. Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner

Cristina was born on February 19, 1953, she is an Argentine lawyer and politician. She served as the Vice President of Argentina since 2019. Cristina also served as the President of Argentina from 2007 to 2015 and the first lady during the tenure of her husband, Nestor Kirchner.

She was the second female president of Argentina and the first elected female president of Argentina. Cristina identifies herself as a Peronist and a progressive with her political approach called Kirchnerism. In 1994, she was also elected to the constituent assembly that amended the Constitution of Argentina.

Later in 1995, Cristina was elected national senator and had a controversial tenure while her husband was elected governor of Santa Cruz Province. From 2003 to 2007, Cristina was the First Lady, after her husband was elected president.

12. Dilma Rousseff

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Dilma Vana Rousseff was born on December 14, 1947. She is a Brazilian economist and politician who served as the 36th president of Brazil. She is the first woman to have held the Brazillian presidency and had previously served as chief of staff to former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from 2005 to 2010. 

In 2002, Dilma became an energy policy advisor. After the chief of Staff Mensalao’s corruption scandal, she became chief of staff and remained in that post till March 31, 2010, when she stepped down to run for president. She later launched her campaign as the official presidential candidate for the Workers’ Party in the 2010 presidential election. 

Dilma’s candidacy was supported by notable international figures like the first secretary of the French Socialist Party Martine Aubry, Portuguese Brazillian economist Maria da Conceicao Tavares, American filmmaker Oliver Stone, and journalist Hildegard Angel.

13. Joyce Banda

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Joyce Hilda Banda was born on April 12, 1950. She is a Malawian politician who was the President of Malawi from April 7, 2012, to May 31, 2014. Joyce took office as President following the sudden death of President Bingu Mutharika.  She was the founder and leader of the People’s Party which was created in 2011. Joyce is also the Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2006 to 2009. 

Joyce had served in various roles as a member of Parliament and as Minister of Gender and Child Welfare before she became the President of the Republic of Malawi. She was Malawi’s fourth president and was its first female president and second female head of state.

In 2014, Forbes named President Banda as the 40th most powerful woman in the world and the most powerful woman in Africa. Later in the same year, she was included in the BBC’s 100 Women.

14. Tsai Ing-wen

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Tsai is a Taiwanese politician who has served as the president of the Republic of China since 2016. She is a member of the Democratic Progressive Party and is known as the first female president of Taiwan. From 2020 to 2022, Tsai served as chair of the DPP. In 2010, Tsai ran for New Taipei City mayorship in the 2010 municipal elections. Later in 2011, she became the first female nominated by a major party as a presidential candidate in the history of Taiwan. 

Tsai is known as the second president of the Democratic Progressive Party, and the first popularly elected president to have never served as Mayor of Taipei. In 2020, she was named one of Time’s most influential people and was number 9 on Forbes’s most powerful women, and number 2 female politician after Kamala Harris of 2021.

15.  Samia Suluhu Hassan

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Samia was born on January 27, 1960. She is a Tanzanian politician who has been serving since March 19, 2021, as the sixth and first female president of Tanzania. Samia is a member of the ruling social-democrat Chama Cha Mapinduzi party and is the third female head of government of an East African Community. 

Samia became Tanzania’s first female vice president after the 2015 general election. On November 5, 2015, Samia subsequently became the first female vice president in the history of the country. On March 17, 2021, Samia announced that Magufuli has died after a long illness. She was sworn in as his successor on March 19, 2021, and will serve the balance of Magufuli’s second five-year term.

16. Maria de Lourdes Pintasilgo

Maria de Lourdes Ruivo da Silva de Matos Pintasilgo was born January 18, 1930. She was a Portuguese chemical engineer and politician, she was the first and only woman to serve as Prime Minister of Portugal. Maria is known as the second woman to serve as prime minister in Western Europe. In 1986, she was noted as the first woman to run for president and received 7% of the votes.

Later in 1987, she was elected to the European Parliament as a member of the Socialist Party which she held until 1989. Since 2016, IST promotes the Maria de Lourdes Pintasilgo Award which aims to recognize and reward manually two women. 

17. Vigdis Finnbogadottir 

 Vigdis was born on April 15, 1930. She is an Icelandic politician who served as the fourth president of Iceland from 1980 to 1996. She was the world’s first woman who was democratically elected as president.

Vigdis also remains the long-serving elected female head of state of any country to date, she has exactly sixteen years. She is known for currently being a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador and a club member of the Club of Madrid.

Vigdis took an active an active role as an environmental activist and fought for the Icelandic language and culture. She emphasized the role of smaller states and hosted a crucial summit between U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1986. Vigdis is also a member of the Fondation Chirac’s honor committee ever since the foundation was launched in 2008.

18. Soong Ching-ling

Rosamond Soong Ch’ing-ling was born on January 27, 1893. She was a Chinese political figure. She was often referred to as Madame Sub Yat-sen because she was the third wife of Sun Yat-sen.

After the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, she held several prominent positions in the new government including Vice Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress.

During the Cultural Revolution, during the 4th NPC which approved the 1975 Constitution in January 1975, her term as Vice President of China ended. During her final illness, she was given the special title of Honorary President of the People’s Republic of China. 

19. Benazir Bhutto

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Benazir was born on June 21, 1953. She was a Pakistani politician who served as the 11th and 13th prime minister of Pakistan from 1988 to 1990. She was the first woman elected to head a democratic government in a Muslim-majority country. Benazir chaired or co-chaired the Pakistan Peoples Party from the early 1980s until her assassination in 2007.

Benazir’s first cabinet was the largest in Pakistan’s history. She later appointed herself as the new treasury minister her mother as a senior minister without portfolio and her father-in-law as chairman of the parliamentary public accounts committee.

During her first premiership, Benazir went on a number of foreign trips that enhanced her image as the first female Prime Minister in the Islamic world. Benazir also made efforts to cultivate good relationships with the leaders of Islamic countries who also had good relationships with her father. In 1989, Benazir attended the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting of Nations.

20. Hanna Suchocka

Hanna Stanislawa Suchocka was born April 3, 1946. She is a Polish political figure, lawyer, and professor at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan and is Chair of the Constitutional Law Department. Hanna is the former First Vice-President and Honorary President of the Venice Commission. Between July 8, 1992, and October 26, 1993, Hanna served as the Prime Minister of Poland under the residency of Lech Walesa.

Hanna is the first woman to hold this post in Poland and was the 14th woman to be appointed and serve as Prime Minister in the world. She is a member of the Council of Women World Leaders which is an international network of current and former women presidents and prime ministers. Their mission is to mobilize the highest-level women leaders globally for collective action on issues of critical importance to women and equitable development.