Elected and appointed female heads of state and government
Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. There is more info on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org.
All countries which currently have a woman serving as an elected or appointed head of state or government, as of 13 March 2023.[lower-alpha 1][lower-alpha 2]
Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. There is more info on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org.
All countries which have ever had a woman serve as an elected or appointed head of state or government, as of 16 February 2023.[lower-alpha 1][lower-alpha 2]
Female combined head of state/government, or female head of government and monarchial head of state with no vice-regal representative
Female head of state and female head of government, in separate offices[lower-alpha 4]
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. The list does not include female monarchs who are heads of state (but not of government).[lower-alpha 5]
Khertek Anchimaa-Toka, of the mostly unrecognized and now defunct Tuvan People's Republic, is regarded as "first ever elected woman head of state in the world", although not in multiparty, free and fair elections. The wife of the nation's Supreme Leader, she is the first woman to be elected Chairman of a country. She became the chairwoman of the country's presidium in 1940.[1][2]
The first woman to serve as president of a country was Isabel Perón of Argentina, who served as the country's vice president and succeeded to the presidency in July 1974 upon the death of her husband.[4][2]
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.[5][2]
The longest-tenured female non-hereditary head of government and longest-serving female leader of a country is Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh. She served as the country's prime minister from 1996 to 2001 and again since January 2009, for a combined total of 20 years.[8]
Currently, Barbados is the only republic in the world where both the serving head of state and head of government are women. Honduras, the Marshall Islands, and Peru are republics where the female President is the combined head of state and government.
Elected or appointed female chief executives
This list includes women who were appointed by a governing committee or parliament where heads of state or government are not directly elected by citizens. The list does not include women chosen by a hereditary monarch. Interim heads of state or government are listed in italics.
Below are women who have been appointed representatives of heads of state, such as female governors-general and French representatives of Andorra. As governors-general are appointed representatives of the monarch of the Commonwealth realms (currently Charles III) and the French Representatives of Andorra are appointed representatives of the French Co-Prince of Andorra (currently Emmanuel Macron), they act as heads of state and carry out on a regular basis the functions and duties associated with such a role in the Commonwealth realms (excluding the United Kingdom, which has no governor-general, as the monarch of the Commonwealth realms primarily resides there) and Andorra, respectively.
↑ Does not include those in countries with a monarchial head of state and no vice-regal representative
1 2 Includes appointed female vice-regal representatives, and does not include monarchial female heads of state
↑ As of 2024, there is one female monarch of a sovereign state, Ntfombi of Eswatini (as Queen Mother and co-head of state with her son, King Mswati III).
Title II: The Executive Power, I. Of the President of the Republic, Article 8
The President of the Republic is the Chief of State; he or she ensures respect of the Constitution; the President assures, by his or her determination, the regular function of public powers as well as the continuity of the State.
The President determines, in concert with the Government, the policies of the Nation.
The President is the supreme bearer of executive power, which he or she shares with the Prime Minister.
Title II: The Executive Power, II. Of the Government, Articles 29 and 31
The Prime Minister directs the actions of the Government. He or she assures the execution of the laws. According to the conditions of Article 20 mentioned above, the Prime Minister exercises regulatory power and nominates civil and military posts of the State.
The Government is composed of the Prime Minister and other members of Government.
The Prime Minister is the head of the Government. He directs the action of the Government and coordinates the functions of the other members. He presides over the Committees of Defense.
Before his entry into office, the Prime Minister presents before the National Assembly the program of action of his Government.
The National Assembly accords its confidence to him by a vote with the absolute majority of its members.
Related Research Articles
Constitutional monarchy, also known as limited monarchy, parliamentary monarchy or democratic monarchy, is a form of monarchy in which the monarch exercises their authority in accordance with a constitution and is not alone in making decisions. Constitutional monarchies differ from absolute monarchies in that they are bound to exercise powers and authorities within limits prescribed by an established legal framework.
A head of state is the public persona of a sovereign state. The specific naming of the head of state depends on the country's form of government and separation of powers; the head of state may be a ceremonial figurehead or concurrently the head of government and more.
These are lists of incumbents, including heads of states or of subnational entities.
A monarch is a head of state for life or until abdication, and therefore the head of state of a monarchy. A monarch may exercise the highest authority and power in the state, or others may wield that power on behalf of the monarch. Usually a monarch either personally inherits the lawful right to exercise the state's sovereign rights or is selected by an established process from a family or cohort eligible to provide the nation's monarch. Alternatively, an individual may proclaim oneself monarch, which may be backed and legitimated through acclamation, right of conquest or a combination of means.
A monarchy is a form of government in which a person, the monarch, is head of state for life or until abdication. The political legitimacy and authority of the monarch may vary from restricted and largely symbolic, to fully autocratic, and can span across executive, legislative, and judicial domains.
A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems a prime minister is not the head of state, but rather the head of government, serving as the principal administrator under either a monarch in a monarchy or a president in a republican form of government.
President is a common title for the head of state in most republics. The president of a state is, generally speaking, the head of the government and the fundamental leader of the country or the ceremonial head of state.
In the executive branch, the head of government is the highest or the second-highest official of a sovereign state, a federated state, or a self-governing colony, autonomous region, or other government who often presides over a cabinet, a group of ministers or secretaries who lead executive departments.
The prime minister of Hungary is the head of government of Hungary. The prime minister and the Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Parliament, to their political party and ultimately to the electorate. The current holder of the office is Viktor Orbán, leader of the Fidesz – Hungarian Civic Alliance, who has served since 29 May 2010.
The president of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is the head of state of Trinidad and Tobago and the commander-in-chief of the Trinidad and Tobago Defence Force. The office was established when the country became a republic in 1976, before which the head of state was the Queen of Trinidad and Tobago, Elizabeth II. The last governor-general, Sir Ellis Clarke, was sworn in as the first president on 1 August 1976 under a transitional arrangement. He was formally chosen as president by an electoral college consisting of members of both houses of Parliament on 24 September 1976, which is now celebrated as Republic Day.
An order, line or right of succession is the line of individuals necessitated to hold a high office when it becomes vacated, such as head of state or an honour such as a title of nobility. This sequence may be regulated through descent or by statute.
Movements for Muslim women to seek roles in national leadership have increased rapidly. Greater opportunities for women in education have further encouraged their involvement in politics. The most prominent Muslim female leaders are former prime minister of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto, Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri (2001–2004), former Turkish Prime Minister Tansu Çiller (1993–1996), former Senegalese Prime Minister Mame Madior Boye (2001–2002), Bangladeshi Prime Ministers Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina Wajed, former Iranian Vice President Masoumeh Ebtekar (1997–2005), former Malian Prime Minister Cissé Mariam Kaïdama Sidibé (2011–2012), Kosovan President Atifete Jahjaga (2011–2016), former President of Mauritius Ameenah Gurib (2015–2018), former President of Singapore Halimah Yacob (2017–2023) and current President of Tanzania Samia Suluhu Hassan
In many countries, women have been underrepresented in the government and different institutions. This historical tendency still persists, although women are increasingly being elected to be heads of state and government.
Mia Amor Mottley, is a Barbadian politician and attorney who has served as the eighth prime minister of Barbados since 2018 and as Leader of the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) since 2008. Mottley is the first woman to hold either position. She is also Barbados' first prime minister under its republican system, following constitutional changes she introduced that abolished the country's constitutional monarchy.
The Federal Government of Somalia is the internationally recognised government of Somalia, and the first attempt to create a central government in Somalia since the collapse of the Somali Democratic Republic. It replaced the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) of Somalia on 20 August 2012 with the adoption of the Constitution of Somalia.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
