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The first woman elected president of a country was Vigdís Finnbogadóttir of Iceland, who won the 1980 presidential election as well as three subsequent elections, remaining in office for a total of 16 years, which makes her the longest-serving non-hereditary female head of state in history.
Feb 2, 2021 · Vigdis Finnbogadottir: First Female President. While there have been female prime ministers leading a country before Vigdis Finnbogadottir became president, she was the first woman to be elected to a presidency. Finnbogadottir became president of Iceland in June of 1980.
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- Sri Lanka - Sirimavo Bandaranaike
- India – Indira Gandhi
- Israel- Golda Meir
- Argentina - Isabel Martinez de Peron
- Central African Republic - Elisabeth Domitien
- Portugual - Maria Da Lourdes Pintasilgo
- Bolivia - Lidia Gueiler Tejada
- Dominica - Dame Eugenia Charles
- United Kingdom - Margaret Thatcher
- Iceland - Vigdís Finnbogadóttir
Sirimavo Bandaranaike became the world’s first female Prime Minister in 1960. She began her political career the previous year following the assassination of her husband who was prime minister at the time. Sirimavo was elected head of state of Ceylon, modern-day Sri Lanka, from 1960 until 1965, and again from 1970 to 1977. Her government was notabl...
Born into a political family, Indira Gandhi was the only child of India’s first elected prime minister. She attended a Swiss boarding school, and later, Oxford University, before launching her political career. She rose to prominence quickly, becoming the first female prime minister of India in 1966 and serving three consecutive terms. She was a vo...
Golda Meir was born in Ukraine and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She immigrated to Israel in 1921, when the country was called British Palestine. During World War II, Meir was a leading spokesperson for the Zionist cause, and later helped establish the state of Israel, signing their declaration of independence in 1948. She was elected prime minis...
Majoritas.com Isabel Martinez de Peron was the world’s first female president and served as Argentina’s president from 1974 to 1976. Already on the brink of anarchy, her country’s economic and political situations continued to deteriorate. She was seized by air forces and held under house arrest for five years.
Born in 1925, Elisabeth Domitien was active in politics from an early age. In 1972 she was appointed prime minister of the Central African Republic, by the former president Bokassa. A year later, however, she was dismissed from her position a year later, because of her opposition to his proposed monarchy. In 1979 she staged a coup against him and w...
The first, and only, female prime minister of Portugal, Maria da Lourdes Pintasilgo only held office for three months. During this short time, she was still able to reform social security and improve health care and education systems.
Lidia Gueiler Tejada was Bolivia’s first female president. She was sworn in 1979 as an interim president and served an eight-month term. After a coup d’état, she continued to work in politics as an ambassador to Columbia and Venezuela.
Credit: Image by One News Box The granddaughter of slaves, Eugenia Charles’ was not only the female first prime minister of Dominica, but she was also the country’s first female lawyer and the first woman elected as head of state in the whole of the Caribbean. Known as the “Iron Lady of the Caribbean” Charles fought tirelessly again government corr...
Margaret Thatcher came from a humble background and worked as an industrial chemist before launching into politics. She joined the Conservative Party and became its leader in 1975. By 1979, she was the United Kingdom’s first female prime minister. Thatcher was also the first woman elected to lead a major Western country. Nicknamed the “Iron Lady” f...
Vigdís Finnbogadóttir became Europe’s first female president in 1980. Despite being a divorced, single mother, she became an iconic political figure and the first woman to be elected head of state in a national election. A staunch advocate for Iceland’s cultural heritage, Finnbogadóttir was immensely popular and was re-elected three times until fin...
Finnbogadóttir’s election made her Iceland’s first woman head of state, and the first woman in the world to be elected president of a country. With a term length of exactly 16 years, she also became the longest-serving woman head of state in any country in history.
Vigdís Finnbogadóttir of Iceland became the first woman in the world to be elected head of state in a national election. Of the 10 most populous countries, the United States, Russia, China, Mexico, and Nigeria have never elected a woman leader.
Feb 5, 2020 · In 1980, as a divorced, single mother, Finnbogadóttir won election as Iceland’s first female leader, becoming the first woman in the world to be democratically elected president.
Jul 30, 2020 · She was the first woman to be democratically elected president in any nation on June 29, 1980. She won the simple plurality vote with 33.8% of the votes, ahead of Guðlaugur Thisorvaldsson (32.3%), Albert Guðmundsson (19.8%), and Pétur J. Thorsteinsson (14.1%).
