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While most countries have been ruled almost entirely by men throughout their histories, more and more countries are electing women to high political offices, including heads of state. According to the United Nations' UN Women division, 30 women were serving as Heads of State and/or Government in 28 countries as of September 19, 2022.
The following is a list of women who have been elected or appointed head of state or government of their respective countries since the interwar period (1918–1939). The first list includes female presidents who are heads of state and may also be heads of government, as well as female heads of government who are not concurrently head of state, such as prime ministers.
NamePortraitCountryOffice12 May 20244 April 20241 April 20242 October 2023Apr 3, 2024 · Finland follows with four female prime ministers or presidents, including Sanna Marin, who was premier from 2019 to 2023. Iceland has counted three female leaders. One of them, Vigdís ...
Mar 28, 2023 · Women currently serve as the head of government in just 13 of the 193 member states of the United Nations. And fewer than a third of UN countries have ever had a woman leader, according to a Pew Research Center analysis. In nine of the 13 UN member countries that are currently led by women, the current leader is the country’s first woman head ...
Aug 4, 2023 · Aaron O'Neill , Aug 4, 2023. The highest position of executive power has been held by a woman in just 59 countries since 1960. Since this time, 77 women have held the most powerful positions of ...
Since Sri Lanka’s Sirimavo Bandaranaike was elected the world’s first female leader back in 1960, there have been a total of 63 female presidents and prime ministers. The map below was compiled using Pew Research data from 2014 and illustrates the years served by female heads of state across the world. Iceland’s Vigdís Finnbogadóttir ...
To date, there have only been 63 countries since 1960 where a woman has held the highest position of executive power. The year with the highest number of female world leaders was 2020. That year saw 18 countries out of 195 led by a woman, representing just 9% of countries worldwide.
