THREE NEW WOMEN PRIME MINISTERS

THREE NEW WOMEN PRIME MINISTERS

Julia Gillard
Prime Minister of Australia

Julia Gillard is the first woman to serve as Prime Minister of Australia, who also heads up a major political party in her country. A career politician, she served as Deputy Prime Minister prior to this appointment  as well as Minister with three distinct portfolios – Education, Employment and Workplace Relations and Social Inclusion.  First elected to Parliament in 1998, Ms. Gillard is a lawyer by profession and is a native of Wales, making her the first foreign-born Prime Minister of Australia.  She came to politics through the Labour Party, and she served for some time as a Shadow Minister and Leader of the Opposition.

Mari Kiviniemi
Prime Minister of Finland

A parliamentarian for 15 years, Finland’s new Prime Minister, Mari Kiviniemi, served previously as Minister for Local Government and Administration for three years.  A career politician like her Australian counterpart, she had held the portfolio of Minister of Foreign Trade and Development.  First elected to Parliament in 1995, Ms. Kiviniemi’s political skills were honed through various leadership roles in the Student Union early in her career.

Kamla Persad Bissessar
Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago
Known as a groundbreaker throughout her political life, Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar is also a lawyer by training, who graduated at the top of her law school class.  A former member of the Senate, Ms. Persad-Bissessar served as her country’s Attorney General from 1995-2000, then as Minister of Education in 2001.  In 2010, she won election as Leader of the United National Congress, beating the founder of the party who was her former mentor.  She then won as Prime Minister when the incumbent PM Patrick Manning called snap elections.  ustralia in the Asia Pacific region, Finland in Europe and Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean Islands all now have women at the helm running these countries.  There are currently 9 women presidents and 6 women Prime Ministers among the 191-member nations of the United Nations.  Finland is the only country with a woman President and a woman Prime Minister.