When women made it to the top: overview, variation, trends

When Sirimavo Bandaranaike became the world’s first woman prime minister of what was then Ceylon in 1960 it caused worldwide concern. How could a woman cope with such a demanding task? Half a century later, the woman president of Liberia, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, received the Peace Prize from an impressed Nobel Committee for her contribution to ‘ensuring peace, promoting economic and social development and strengthening the position of women’ (Norwegian Nobel Institute, 2011). After Sirimavo Bandaranaike, 72 women have been presidents and prime ministers in 53 countries up to the end of 2010.1 They were top leaders in great and small nations, rich and poor, in north and south, east and west. They exercised power during crises and economic growth,…