Women in Power

Sirimavo Bandaranaike, Sri Lanka
Fifty years ago, Sirimavo Bandaranaike was elected, becoming the first female head of government the world had ever known. Her victory was so groundbreaking, no one knew what to call her. "There will be need for a new word," London's Evening News wrote the day after she was elected as Prime Minister in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka).



Indira Gandhi, India
She was the nation's daughter, brought up under the close watch of both her father, who was India's first Prime Minister after decades of British rule, and her country. The TIME magazine cover not long after her election in January 1966 read, "Troubled India in a Woman's Hands."




Margaret Thatcher, England
Called Britain's Iron Lady, Margaret Thatcher was a woman with high standards, a short temper and a taste for whiskey. A suburban housewife turned one of the world's most powerful women, she ruled from 1979 to 1990. Thatcher was Europe's first female Prime Minister and the only British Prime Minister to win three consecutive terms, giving her the longest spell in office since 1827.




Golda Meir, Israel
Once called "the only man in the Cabinet," Golda Meir was a formidable figure in Israeli politics. Tall, gaunt, blunt and determined, to the world she embodied the steely stubbornness of the Israeli spirit. "There is a type of woman," she once said, "who does not let her husband narrow her horizon."



Angela Merkel, Germany
Angela Merkel is a rarity in German politics: she's the first Chancellor to have grown up in communist East Germany, the first female to lead and the youngest-ever incumbent. She spent decades being underrated but never took it to heart. "You could say I've never underestimated myself," Merkel told TIME in January 2010.



Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Liberia
In April 2006, First Lady Laura Bush described Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf as a woman who has never stopped working for her country. "[Her] courage and commitment to her country are an inspiration to me and women around the world," Bush wrote in TIME. Johnson-Sirleaf started her political career as a Liberian Cabinet Minister in the 1970s, went on to become a senior United Nations administrator in the 1990s and, when elected President of Liberia in 2006, became the first African woman to be elected head of state.

Jacked from TIME.