Ask your average American about female heads of state and my guess is that most could only name a few - perhaps Margaret Thatcher, Cory Aquino or Angela Merkel, depending on their age and knowledge of history. But ask who was the first woman in the 20th century to become prime minister of a nation and most would probably draw a blank. And if they had to guess the year -- how many would know it was 1960? And the country? Even more improbable - it was Sri Lanka. Even before Indira Gandhi and Golda Meir, Sirimavo Bandaranaike of Sri Lanka was blazing a trail for female politicians.



Since then, more than 50 women have been elected heads of state. Some countries, such as the Philippines, New Zealand and Ireland, have already elected women leaders two or more times (New Zealand has only had two female heads of state, but the current prime minister is serving her third term). Surprised? Then read on.

Sirimavo Bandaranaike, prime minister of Sri Lanka - 1960, 1970, 1994



Indira Gandhi, prime minister of India - 1966, 1980



Golda Meir, prime minister of Israel - 1969



Isabel Peron, president of Argentina - 1974



Elisabeth Domitien, prime minister of Central African Republic - 1975



Margaret Thatcher, prime minister of Great Britain - 1979



Maria da Lourdes Pintasilgo, prime minister of Portugal - 1979



Lidia Gueiler Tejada, prime minister of Bolivia - 1979



Dame Eugenia Charles, prime minister of Dominica - 1980



Vigdis Finnbogadottrr, president of Iceland - 1980



Gro Harlem Brundtland, prime minister of Norway - 1981, 1986, 1990



Milka Planinc, federal prime minister of Yugoslavia - 1982



Agatha Barbara, president of Malta - 1982



Maria Liberia-Peters, prime minister of Netherlands Antilles - 1984, 1988



Carmen Pereira, acting president of Guinea Bissau - 1984



Corazon Aquino, president of Philippines - 1986



Benazir Bhutto, prime minister of Pakistan - 1988, 1993



Kazimiera Danuta Prunskiena, prime minister of Lithuania - 1990



Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, prime minister of Nicaragua - 1990



Mary Robinson, president of Ireland - 1990



Ertha Pascal Trouillot, interim president of Haiti - 1990



Sabine Bergmann-Pohl, president of German Democratic Republic - 1990



Khaleda Zia, prime minister of Bangladesh - 1991



Edith Cresson, prime minister of France - 1991



Hanna Suchocka, prime minister of Poland - 1992



Kim Campbell, prime minister of Canada - 1993



Sylvie Kinigi, prime minister of Burundi - 1993



Agathe Uwilingiyimana, prime minister of Rwanda - 1993



Susanne Camelia-Romer, prime minister of Netherlands Antilles - 1993, 1998



Tansu Ciller, prime minister of Turkey - 1993



Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunge, prime minister of Sri Lanka - 1994



Reneta Indzhova, interim prime minister of Bulgaria - 1994



Claudette Werleigh, prime minister of Haiti - 1995



Sheikh Hasina Wajed, prime minister of Bangladesh - 1996



Mary McAleese, president of Ireland - 1997



Pamela Gordon, premier of Bermuda - 1997



Janet Jagan, prime minister of Guyana - 1997



Jenny Shipley, prime minister of New Zealand - 1997



Ruth Dreifuss, president of Switzerland - 1999



Jennifer Smith, prime minister of Bermuda - 1998



Nyam-Osoriyn Tuyaa, acting prime minister of Mongolia - 1999



Helen Clark, prime minister of New Zealand - 1999



Mireya Elisa Moscoso de Arias, president of Panama - 1999



Vaira Vike-Freiberga, president of Latvia - 1999



Tarja Halonen, president of Finland - 2000



Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, president of the Philippines - 2001



Mame Madior Boye, prime minister of Senegal - 2001



Megawati Sukarnoputri, president of Indonesia - 2001



Maria Das Neves Prime Minster, Sao Tome and Principe - 2002



Beatriz Merino, prime minister of Peru - 2003



Luisa Diogo, prime minister of Mozambique - 2004



Angela Merkel, chancellor of Germany - 2005



Yulia Tymoshenko, prime minister of Ukraine - 2005



Michelle Bachelet, president of Chile - 2006



Micheline Calmy-Rey, president of Switzerland - 2006



Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, president of Liberia - 2006



Han Myung-sook, prime minister of South Korea - 2006



Portia Simpson Miller, prime minister of Jamaica - 2006



Pratibha Devisingh Patil, president of India - 2007



Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, president of Argentina - will take office December 2007

Victoria C. Woodhull was the first woman to run for president in the United States. She was selected by the Equal Rights Party to be its candidate in the 1872 election.



The Equal Rights Party platform supported women's right to vote and work, among other issues, but Woodhull was soundly defeated in the election by Ulysses S. Grant.

Sri Lanka was the very first country to elect a female head of state. Sirimavo Bandaranaike was elected prime minister for the first time in 1960 (and later served two more terms) after her husband, Prime Minister Solomon Bandaranaike, was assassinated.

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