WJeanine Áñez Chávez is a Bolivian politician and lawyer who served as the 66th President of Bolivia from 2019 to 2020. Áñez was previously a senator from the northeastern department of Beni from 2010 to 2019. She was Bolivia's second female president after Lidia Gueiler Tejada. She is a member of Ahora! (Now), branch of the National Unity Front in Beni.
WMaria Corazon Sumulong Cojuangco Aquino, popularly known as Cory Aquino, was a Filipina politician who served as the 11th president of the Philippines, from 1986 to 1992. Corazon Aquino was the most prominent figure of the 1986 People Power Revolution, which ended the two-decade rule of President Ferdinand Marcos and led to the establishment of the current democratic Fifth Philippine Republic.
WMaria Gloria Macaraeg Macapagal Arroyo, often referred to by her initials GMA, is a Filipina academic and politician who served as the 14th president of the Philippines from 2001 until 2010. She is the longest serving President of the Philippines in the post-Marcos era. Before her accession to the presidency, she served as the 10th vice president of the Philippines from 1998 to 2001, and was a senator from 1992 to 1998. After her presidency, she was elected as the representative of Pampanga's 2nd district in 2010 and later became the Speaker of the House of Representatives from 2018 until her retirement in 2019. She is the first woman to hold two of the highest offices in the country: Vice President and Speaker of the House.
WRosalía Arteaga Serrano is an Ecuadorian politician who served as the country's first female head of state as acting president for a few days in 1997.
WVerónica Michelle Bachelet Jeria is a Chilean politician who has served as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights since 2018. She also previously served as President of Chile from 2006 to 2010 and 2014 to 2018 for the Socialist Party of Chile; she is the first woman to hold the Chilean presidency and the first elected female leader in South America. After leaving the presidency in 2010 and while not immediately reelectable, she was appointed the first executive director of the newly created United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. In December 2013, Bachelet was reelected with over 62% of the vote, bettering the 54% she obtained in 2006. She was the first President of Chile to be reelected since 1932.
WJoyce Hilda Banda is a Malawian politician who was the President of Malawi from 7 April 2012 to 31 May 2014. She is the founder and leader of the People's Party, created in 2011.
WAgatha Barbara, was a Maltese politician, having served as a Labour Member of Parliament and Minister. She was the first woman to hold the office of President of Malta, and remains the longest-serving woman Member of Parliament in Maltese political history.
WBidya Devi Bhandari is a Nepalese politician, serving as the second president of Nepal, in office since 28 October 2015. She is the first woman to hold the office in the country. She served as the vice-chairperson of the Communist Party of Nepal and was the chair of the All Nepal Women's Association before being elected president.
WZuzana Čaputová, is a Slovak politician, lawyer, and environmental activist who has been President of Slovakia since 15 June 2019. Čaputová is the first woman to hold the presidency, as well as the youngest president in the history of Slovakia, elected at the age of 45.
WVioleta Chamorro is a Nicaraguan politician who served as President of Nicaragua from 1990 to 1997. She was the first and, to date, only woman to hold the position of president in Nicaragua.
WLaura Chinchilla Miranda is a Costa Rican politician who was President of Costa Rica from 2010 to 2014. She was one of Óscar Arias Sánchez's two Vice-Presidents and his administration's Minister of Justice. She was the governing PLN candidate for president in the 2010 general election, where she won with 46.76% of the vote on 7 February. She was the eighth woman president of a Latin American country and the first woman to become President of Costa Rica. She was sworn in as President of Costa Rica on May 8, 2010.
WMarie-Louise Coleiro Preca, is a Maltese politician who served as the 9th President of Malta from 2014 to 2019. Currently, Coleiro Preca is president of Eurochild.
WĐặng Thị Ngọc Thịnh is a Vietnamese politician who served as the Vice President of Vietnam, in office from 2016 to 2021. In this capacity she was the Acting President of Vietnam from the death of President Trần Đại Quang on 21 September 2018 until the election and swearing-in of his successor Nguyễn Phú Trọng on 23 October 2018. Thịnh was the first woman in Vietnamese history to become President or Acting President of Vietnam. She was the first female head of state in a communist country since Soong Ching-ling of China.
WRuth Dreifuss is a Swiss politician affiliated with the Social Democratic Party. She was a member of the Swiss Federal Council from 1993 to 2002, representing the Canton of Geneva.
WCristina Elisabet Fernández de Kirchner, often referred to by her initials CFK, is an Argentine lawyer and politician who is serving as the 37th Vice President of Argentina since 2019. She also previously served as the President of Argentina from 2007 to 2015 and the first lady during the tenure of her husband, Néstor Kirchner. She was the second woman to have held the Argentine presidency, the first directly elected female president, and the first woman re-elected to the office. Ideologically, she identifies herself as a Peronist and a progressive, with her political approach called Kirchnerism.
WVigdís Finnbogadóttir is an Icelandic politician who was the fourth president of Iceland, a position in which she served from 1980 to 1996. She was the world's first woman who was democratically elected as president. With a presidency of exactly sixteen years, she also remains the longest-serving elected female head of state of any country to date. Currently, she is a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador, and a member of the Club of Madrid. She is also to-date Iceland's only female president.
WKolinda Grabar-Kitarović is a Croatian politician and diplomat who served as President of Croatia from 2015 to 2020. She was the first woman to be elected to the office since the first multi-party elections in 1990 and independence from Yugoslavia in 1991. At 46 years of age, she also became the youngest person to assume the presidency.
WDalia Grybauskaitė is a Lithuanian politician who served as the eighth President of Lithuania from 2009 until 2019. She is the first woman to hold the position and became in 2014 the first President of Lithuania to be reelected for a second consecutive term.
WDr. Bibi Ameenah Firdaus Gurib-Fakim GCSK, CSK is a Mauritian politician and biodiversity scientist who served as the 6th President of Mauritius from 2015 to 2018. In December 2014, she was selected to be the presidential candidate of the Alliance Lepep. After Kailash Purryag resigned on 29 May 2015, both Prime Minister Sir Anerood Jugnauth and Leader of the Opposition Paul Berenger positively welcomed her nomination, which was unanimously approved in a vote in the National Assembly.
WHalimah Binte Yacob is a Singaporean politician. She is the incumbent President of Singapore since the 2017 Singapore presidential election.
WTarja Kaarina Halonen is a Finnish politician who served as the 11th President of Finland, and the first woman to hold the position, from 2000 to 2012. She first rose to prominence as a lawyer with the Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions (SAK), and as the Prime Minister's parliamentary secretary (1974–1975) and a member of the City Council of Helsinki (1977–1996). Halonen was a Social Democratic Party member of parliament from 1979 until her election to the presidency in 2000. She also served as a minister at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health from 1987 to 1990, as Minister of Justice from 1990 to 1991, and as Minister for Foreign Affairs from 1995 to 2000.
WHilda Cathy Heine is a Marshallese educator and politician, who served as the eighth President of the Marshall Islands. Prior to assuming office, she served as the Minister of Education. She was the first individual in the Marshall Islands to earn a doctorate degree, and the founder of the women's rights group Women United Together Marshall Islands (WUTMI).
WJanet Rosenberg Jagan was a U.S.-born Guyanese politician who served as the President of Guyana, serving from December 19, 1997, to August 11, 1999. She was the first female President of Guyana. She previously served as the first female Prime Minister of Guyana from March 17, 1997, to December 19, 1997. The wife of Cheddi Jagan, whom she succeeded as president, she was awarded Guyana's highest national award, the Order of Excellence, in 1993, and the UNESCO Mahatma Gandhi Gold Medal for Women's Rights in 1998.
WAtifete Jahjaga is a Kosovar politician and stateswoman who served as the third President of Kosovo. She was the first female President of the Republic of Kosovo, the first non-partisan candidate and the youngest female head of state to be elected to the top office. She served as Deputy Director of the Kosovo Police, holding the rank of General Lieutenant Colonel, the most senior among women officers in Southeastern Europe.
WKersti Kaljulaid is an Estonian politician who is the fifth and current president of Estonia, in office since 10 October 2016. She is the first female head of state of Estonia since the country declared independence in 1918, as well as the youngest president, age 46 at the time of her election.
WChandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga is a Sri Lankan politician who served as the fifth President of Sri Lanka, from 12 November 1994 to 19 November 2005. The country's only female president to date, she is the daughter of two former prime ministers and was the leader of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) until the end of 2005.
WIsabel Martínez de Perón is an Argentine politician who served as President of Argentina from 1974 to 1976. She was the first female president in the world, although other nations had had queens or female prime ministers.
WMary Patricia McAleese ; née Leneghan is an Irish politician who served as the eighth president of Ireland from November 1997 to November 2011. She is an academic and author and holds a licentiate and doctorate in Canon law. McAleese was first elected as president in 1997, having received the nomination of Fianna Fáil. She succeeded Mary Robinson, making her the second female president of Ireland, and the first woman in the world to succeed another woman as president. She nominated herself for re-election in 2004 and was returned unopposed for a second term. McAleese is the first president of Ireland to have come from either Northern Ireland or Ulster.
WDiah Permata Megawati Setiawati Sukarnoputri is an Indonesian politician who served as the fifth president of Indonesia from 2001 to 2004. She previously served as the eighth vice president from 1999 to 2001.
WMireya Elisa Moscoso Rodríguez de Arias is a Panamanian politician who served as the President of Panama from 1999 to 2004. She is the country's first female president.
WVjosa Osmani-Sadriu is a Kosovar jurist and politician serving as the fifth president of Kosovo since 4 April 2021.
WRoza Isakovna Otunbayeva is a Kyrgyz diplomat and politician who served as the President of Kyrgyzstan from 7 April 2010 until 1 December 2011, becoming the first female Central Asian head of state. She was sworn in on July 3, 2010, after acting as interim leader following the 2010 April Revolution, which led to the ousting of President Kurmanbek Bakiyev. She previously served as Minister of Foreign Affairs and as head of the parliamentary caucus for the Social Democratic Party of Kyrgyzstan.
WPark Geun-hye is a former South Korean politician who served as President of South Korea from 2013 until 2017, when she was impeached and later convicted and removed on related corruption charges.
WPratibha Devisingh Patil is an Indian politician who served as the 12th president of India from 2007 to 2012. A member of the Indian National Congress, Patil is the only woman to have held the office. She had previously served as the Governor of Rajasthan from 2004 to 2007.
WMary Therese Winifred Robinson is an Irish independent politician who served as the seventh president of Ireland from December 1990 to September 1997, becoming the first woman to hold this office. She also served as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights from 1997 to 2002 and a Senator for the University of Dublin from 1969 to 1989. She first rose to prominence as an academic, barrister and campaigner. She defeated the Fianna Fáil party's Brian Lenihan and the Fine Gael party's Austin Currie in the 1990 presidential election, becoming the first Independent candidate nominated by the Labour Party, the Workers' Party and Independent Senators. She was the first elected President in the office's history not to have had the support of Fianna Fáil.
WDilma Vana Rousseff is a Brazilian economist and politician who served as the 36th president of Brazil, holding the position from 2011 until her impeachment and removal from office on 31 August 2016. She is the first woman to have held the Brazilian presidency and had previously served as chief of staff to former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva from 2005 to 2010.
WSahle-Work Zewde is an Ethiopian politician and diplomat who is the 5th and current President of Ethiopia since 2018, being the first woman to hold the office. She was elected president unanimously by members of the Federal Parliamentary Assembly on 25 October 2018.
WKaterina Sakellaropoulou is a Greek politician who has served as President of Greece since 13 March 2020. She was elected by the Hellenic Parliament to succeed Prokopis Pavlopoulos on 22 January 2020. Prior to her election as President of Greece, Sakellaropoulou served as President of the Council of State, the highest administrative court of Greece. She is the first female President of Greece.
WMaia Sandu is a Moldovan politician and the current President of Moldova since 24 December 2020. She is the former leader of the Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) and former Prime Minister of Moldova from 8 June 2019 until 14 November 2019. On 12 November 2019, Sandu's government collapsed after a vote of no-confidence, with 63 of the 101 MPs having voted on the motion submitted by the PSRM.
WEllen Johnson Sirleaf is a Liberian politician who served as the 24th President of Liberia from 2006 to 2018. Sirleaf was the first elected female head of state in Africa.
WSamia Suluhu Hassan is a Tanzanian politician who is serving as the sixth and current president of Tanzania. She is a member of the ruling social-democrat Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party. Suluhu is the third female head of government of an East African Community (EAC) country, after Sylvie Kinigi in Burundi and Agathe Uwilingiyimana in Rwanda, and is also the first female president of Tanzania. She took office on 19 March 2021 after the death of President John Magufuli on 17 March 2021.
WTsai Ing-wen is a Taiwanese politician and academic serving as the seventh President of the Republic of China (Taiwan) since 2016. A member of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), Tsai is the first female president of Taiwan. She has served as Chair of the DPP since 2020, and previously from 2008 to 2012 and 2014 to 2018.
WVaira Vīķe-Freiberga is a Latvian politician who served as the sixth President of Latvia from 1999 to 2007. She is the first woman to hold the post. She was elected President of Latvia in 1999 and re-elected for the second term in 2003.
WPaula-Mae Weekes is a Trinidadian judge who is the sixth President of Trinidad and Tobago. She is the only incumbent female President in the Americas since 8 November 2020, the first female President of Trinidad and Tobago, as well as the second female head of state in Trinidad and Tobago after Elizabeth II and the second female president of African descent in the Americas following Ertha Pascal-Trouillot. She took office on 19 March 2018.
WSalome Zourabichvili is a French–Georgian politician and former diplomat who currently serves as the fifth President of Georgia, in office since December 2018. She is the first woman to be elected as Georgia's president, a position she will occupy for a term of six years. As a result of constitutional changes coming into effect in 2024, Zourabichvili is expected to be Georgia's last popularly elected president; all future heads of state are to be elected indirectly by a parliamentary college of electors.