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When President Park Geun-hye stepped into South Korea’s Blue House on 25th February, she became the 17th female head of state presiding in the world today.
In 2013, we have women at the helm of Brazil, Germany, Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh – some of the world’s largest, most populous and economically successful countries on Earth. We have women heading up the European Union, the International Monetary Fund, the US’s Homeland Security. There is, it would seem, a rising number of shrewd, driven and gutsy women adept at playing the political game and scoring some serious wins.
Here are 5 female politicians inspiring us the most…
1. WHO: Angela Merkel, 65
JOB: German Chancellor and Leader of the European Union
KEY CHALLENGES: Keeping the Euro in circulation and other EU economies afloat.
WHY SHE’S INSPIRING…
Ranked the world’s second most powerful person by Forbes (the highest ranking ever for a woman), Angela Merkel has no children, a dislike for dogs and a penchant for physics (she started out as a quantum chemist and went on to marry one). The lady’s clearly hard as nails. In fact she’s often likened to the “Iron Lady” herself, Margaret Thatcher.
For the past few years, she’s been fighting for the Euro, helping nations out of debt, and pushing multiculturalism in a major way. Unsurprisingly, it’s done her popularity no harm at all.
2. WHO: Aung San Suu Kyi, 67
JOB: General Secretary of the National League of Democracy in Burma
KEY CHALLENGES: Bringing democracy to the people of Burma and all across the world
WHY SHE’S INSPIRING…
This is a woman who spent over 15 years in detention, suffered physical attacks at the hands of her political opponents, was kept from her family for decades, subjected to countless injustices by the Burmese government – and yet on being released from house-arrest jumped straight back into parliament to resume her pro-democracy fight. This Nobel Peace Prize winner is a true icon of our time.
3. WHO: Hillary Clinton, 65
JOB: Former U.S. Secretary of State
KEY CHALLENGES: Promoting US policies, international peace and women’s issues globally
WHY SHE’S INSPIRING…
Hillary has been battling for women’s causes right across the world – and no one can dispute she’s done an incredible job to date. She may have stepped down from office on February 1, but we suspect her days as a stalwart politician are far from over. From the time she famously cut a reporter down for asking what designers she liked to wear (“would you ask a man that question?”) to her support for rape victims in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, she’s pushed women’s issues right to the top of the political agenda. The fact that she refused to be broken by her husband’s scandalous affair, or indeed be overshadowed by him at all throughout her career – puts us in even greater awe of this incredible former First Lady.
4. WHO: Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, 74
JOB: President of Liberia
KEY CHALLENGES: Rebuilding Liberia; fighting corruption and poverty in the aftermath of the civil war.
WHY SHE’S INSPIRING…
The list of this 74-year-old’s achievements is long and quite frankly, formidable. In her 6 years in office, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf has negotiated major debt relief for Liberia, quadrupled the national budget, opened full-scale investigations into corruption, and addressed crimes committed during the civil war. And it doesn’t end there. School enrolment has risen by 40 per cent under her leadership, women are now employed at senior levels in the cabinet, and a surge of female recruits have joined the police and military. “I look at those societies where women have been given the opportunity, and those are the societies that succeed,” she says.
5. WHO: Dilma Rousseff, 65
JOB: President of Brazil
KEY CHALLENGES: Stabilising the Brazilian economy, reducing poverty and improving education and healthcare.
WHY SHE’S INSPIRING…
This tough-talking, no-nonsense South American leader has promised to improve the lot for the women of her country and is already making steady progress towards that goal. She’s put women into nine of her 37 ministerial posts and inspired a new generation of startups and female entrepreneurs. With her chequered and embattled past (she was captured, tortured and imprisoned as a former Marxist in the early 70s) this twice-divorcee has a grit and determination that will serve her well in the testing political landscape of Latin America.
And the list could well continue… Sonia Gandhi leads the Indian National Congress Party, which has recently condemned violence in the Assam region; Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra is, at 45, the youngest Prime Minister Thailand has had in 60 years; and the President of Argentina, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, is splitting the critics with her efforts to move her country forward. Only time will tell how South Korea’s new leader will fare – and indeed when and where our next female sovereign may emerge.
About the Author
Zoe Smith is a freelance writer based in Sydney, specialising in Lifestyle and Arts & Entertainment content. Zoe has written for Australian Women’s Weekly, CLEO, Grazia, Woman’s Day, NW, ninemsn Travel, ninemsn Food, Health & Wellbeing, Shop til you Drop, Ralph, Your Beauty Spot, and has interviewed Gordon Ramsay and Catherine Zeta Jones. She has also written reviews for restaurants, cookbooks and films.