1. Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany
The
most influential female politician in the world, Merkel earned a
doctorate in physics in East Germany before turning her eye to politics.
She won a seat in the Bundestag during the first post-reunification
general election, in December 1990, and Chancellor Helmut Kohl appointed
her as a Cabinet minister just one year later. Childless and twice
married, the chairwoman of the Christian Democratic Union often comes
off as reserved and self-effacing. But as she told TIME in a 2010
interview, she has plenty of confidence: “You could certainly say that
I’ve never underestimated myself. There’s nothing wrong with being
ambitious.”
2. Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, President of Argentina
Elected
President in November 2007 (thereby succeeding her husband Néstor),
Fernández has proven she is her own woman. Dismissively referred to as
“Cristina” by some members of Argentina’s macho political elite,
Fernández has survived a standoff with the country’s powerful farming
lobby, a fallout with the U.S. over a suitcase allegedly containing
illegal campaign contributions and a series of high-profile
economic-policy spats that culminated in the ousting of the governor of
Argentina’s Central Bank earlier this year. With her striking appearance
and polarizing rhetoric, she inevitably draws comparisons with former
First Lady Eva Perón.
3. Dilma Rousseff, President of Brazil
“I
would like parents who have daughters to look straight in their eyes
and tell them: ‘Yes, a woman can,’” Dilma Rousseff said following her
victory in Brazil’s runoff election. When she takes the reins of the
world’s fourth largest democracy on Jan. 1, Rousseff will become the
South American country’s first female president. Her win, a victory for
would-be women leaders everywhere, was also a nod to outgoing President
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who handpicked her for the job. As Lula’s
former chief of staff, Rousseff promised to carry on the outgoing and
overwhelmingly popular leader’s work. “I offer special thanks to
President Lula,” she said in her election night speech. “I will know how
to honor his legacy. I will know how to consolidate and go forward with
his work.”
4. Julia Gillard, Prime Minister of Australia
After
she helped orchestrate a Labor Party coup that ousted Prime Minister
Kevin Rudd on June 24, 2010, Gillard, 48, became Australia’s first
female PM. Tasked with rebuilding dwindling support for her party, she
called snap elections just three weeks into office, hoping to benefit
from her bounce in public opinion. But the Aug. 21 election proved
inconclusive: neither Gillard’s center-left government nor the
Liberal-National coalition led by Tony Abbott were able to secure an
outright majority. The stalemate finally broke on Sep. 7. After more
than two weeks of protracted negotiation with a handful of independent
candidates, Gillard secured a 76-74 majority in parliament to form a
minority government.
5. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of Liberia
Educated
at the University of Wisconsin and at Harvard, Africa’s first female
President served as Liberia’s Minister of Finance in the late 1970s. But
when Samuel Doe seized power in a military coup in 1980 and executed
the President and several Cabinet members, Johnson Sirleaf fled to
Kenya, where she became a director at Citibank. She returned to contest
the 1996 presidential election and lost to Charles Taylor. In 2005, she
ran again and won, promising to bring motherly sensitivity and emotion
to the presidency — a tall order in a country still reeling from years
of civil war.
6. Sheik Hasina Wajed, Prime Minister of Bangladesh
Hasina,
the 62-year-old leader of the left-of-center Awami League, has a
history of surviving. During a 1975 coup d’état, assassins killed 17
members of her family — including her son, three brothers, mother and
father, former Prime Minister Sheik Mujibur Rahman. Hasina, then 28,
happened to be abroad at the time. She later survived a grenade attack
that killed more than 20 people, dodging the bullets that sprayed her
car as she fled. Hasina was first elected Prime Minister in 1996. But in
2001, Transparency International named Bangladesh as the most corrupt
country in the world, and Hasina was ousted in a landslide. That wasn’t
the end of her, though. In January 2009, the Awami League won 230 of 299
parliamentary seats, and the consummate survivor found herself Prime
Minister — again.
7. Johanna Sigurdardottir, Prime Minister of Iceland
After
Iceland’s economy collapsed in October 2008, Sigurdardottir rode a wave
of discontent all the way to the premiership. It wasn’t exactly
surprising: the former flight attendant turned politician had won eight
consecutive elections since entering Parliament in 1978, making her the
country’s longest-serving parliamentarian and one of its most popular.
In addition to being Iceland’s first female Prime Minister,
Sigurdardottir, 67, is also the world’s first openly gay head of state.
In June 2010, when Iceland legalized gay marriage, Sigurdardottir tied
the knot with her long-term partner, with whom she had entered a civil
union seven years earlier.
8. Laura Chinchilla, President of Costa Rica
A
former Vice President under Nobel laureate Oscar Arias Sánchez,
Chinchilla won a 47% majority in the February 2010 election. In a
country increasingly concerned about crime, the center-leftist played up
her security experience: she previously served as both Public Security
Minister and Justice Minister in the National Liberation Party. A social
conservative, she opposes gay marriage, abortion and the legalization
of the morning-after pill. She has pledged to continue the pro-business
policies of her predecessor by courting international investment and
expanding free trade.
9. Tarja Halonen, President of Finland
Brought
up in a working-class family in downtown Helsinki, Halonen has built a
highly successful political career by building ties with trade unions
and nongovernmental organizations. Serving as President since 2000, she
has vehemently defended the President’s role as commander in chief of
the military, and campaigned against Finnish membership in NATO. Her
hobbies belie her powerful position: she is said to enjoy swimming and
taking care of her two cats. In 2006, TV host and comedian Conan O’Brien
endorsed Halonen’s re-election because of her strong resemblance to
him.
10. Dalia Grybauskaite, President of Lithuania
After
Grybauskaite came to power in 2009, European journalists quickly dubbed
her Lithuania’s Iron Lady, owing to her steely way with words and her
black belt in karate. The daughter of a saleswoman and an electrician,
she worked part time in a factory while earning a Ph.D. in economics.
She went on to become Deputy Minister of Finance in 1999, before holding
a series of positions within the European Commission. In 2009, with
Lithuania mired deep in recession, Grybauskaite focused her presidential
campaign on protecting those with the lowest incomes and tackling
unemployment, which had climbed to nearly 16%. Running as an
independent, she won with a 68% majority — the largest margin of victory
ever recorded in Lithuania’s presidential election history.
Source :- http://worldtoptenthings.blogspot.in/2011/09/world-top-10-female-politicians.html
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