Female Heads of State Past and Present 1
Know Them
Ours is a predominantly patriarchal society where women have, more often than not, been overlooked when it comes to holding the reins of power. It doesn’t matter whether these women (have) demonstrate(d) high-quality leadership skills or (had) achieved some remarkable feat, as long as she was a woman, that was all that was needed to disqualify her from leadership roles.
Many times, women who fought alongside men for a worthy cause were given very little spotlight in history books. While some societies have been favourable towards their womenfolk, treating them with equality and fairness, these numbers are small when compared to that of their male counterparts.
Yet, women remain resilient and continue to fight the good fight: to be seen, heard and treated fairly. While there is still so much work to be done, there are women who have fought their way to be able to hold significant leadership positions and these stories are worth telling over and over again.
Today’s newsletter will be the first in a series on women who have held/are presently holding the highest political position in a state.
Did you know?
Only 44 of the 196 countries in the world have ever had a woman as head of state.
As of the time of publishing this newsletter, only 10 women are currently serving as presidents/heads of state.
What do you think?
Khertek Anchimaa-Toka of the Tuvan People’s Republic (1912 - 2008)
Born January 1, 1912, in the Tuvan People's Republic now a constituent of the Russian Federation, Khertek Anchimaa-Toka was the third child in a family of poor hunters. At the age of 18, she and 76 others were given the opportunity by the state to study in Moscow. Khertek made the best out of it, becoming one of 11 students who graduated from the Communist University of the Toilers of the East.
Due to the education she received in Moscow, upon the completion of her programme, she returned to her country where she was placed in the corridors of political power within the Tuvan People’s Revolutionary Party (TNRP).
A force to be reckoned with, Khertek headed the propaganda department of Revsomol in 1935. In 1938, she held the position of Tuvan Zhenotdel and Chair of the Women’s Section of the Central Committee of the TNRP. She eventually became the Chair of the Presidium of Little Khural in April 1940, thus making her the first non-hereditary (this means she did not inherit the position either from her father or husband) female head of state in the modern era for the Tuvan People's Republic. As the ruler of her country, Khertek achieved a great deal including taking up the lead role during World War II to mobilize the resources of the republic to aid the Soviet Union in their fight against the German invasion.
At the time, the Tuvan Republic did not have much diplomatic recognition and so, for a while, Khertek's achievements did not get international attention.
Khertek was more than just a political leader, she actively and successfully saw to the improvement of the education, employment and all-round development of fellow Tuvan women and was a delegate at the International Congress of Women (now the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom).
Her rule ended when she stepped down in 1944 after the Tuvan People’s Republic was annexed by the Soviet Union.
In 1940, Khertek got married to Salchak Toka, the General Secretary of the TNRP. Although she did not change her maiden name after marriage – this was the common practice – she eventually hyphenated her husband's name Toka with hers, Anchimaa after his death in 1973. Khertek also suffered a personal tragedy during her lifetime as all her three children predeceased her.
The last leader of the Tuvan Republic, Khertek led a quiet life in retirement until she died on November 4, 2008, at the good old age of 96.
Maria Estela 'Isabel' Martinez Cartas de Perón of Argentina (1931 - present)
Born on February 4, 1931, Isabel, a school dropout and former nightclub dancer, first came into power in 1973 when she served as Vice President to her husband, President Juan Perón. As president of Argentina, Isabel's husband fell ill often and this made her assume the position of acting president on many occasions. Eventually, he died in 1974 and she succeeded him in office, thus becoming the world's first-ever female president.
During her time in office, Isabel encountered a lot of difficulties most of which had been inherited from the preceding administration. These included foreign debts, inflation, bombings, kidnappings, unemployment, political violence and instability and terrorism. As president, she was often accused of favouring right-wing Peronists (hers and her late husband's supporters) over left-wing groups and this exacerbated the political instability of the country to a state of almost total anarchy. The messy state of affairs put Isabel at the centre of stiff resistance, opposition and harsh criticism.
The last straw came when her minister of social welfare and personal secretary, a fellow Peronist, was exposed to be complicit in illicit financial and terrorist activities and as a result, was sent into exile. Isabel was then asked to resign but she declined, insisting that she would instead serve out the remainder of her term which would have ended in May 1977. However, on March 24, 1976, she was overthrown from office by the military in a bloodless coup.
Vigdís Finnbogadóttir of Iceland (1930 - present)
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Born on April 15, 1930, in Reykjavík, the country’s capital, Vigdis was the daughter of Finnbogi Rútur Þorvaldsson, a civil engineer and a professor at the University of Iceland and Sigríður Eiríksdóttir, a nurse and the chairperson of the Icelandic Nurses Association.
Vigdís was quite the scholar: she had her tertiary education at the University of Grenoble and the Sorbonne in Paris where she studied French and French literature from 1949 to 1953 and later on, the history of theatre at the University of Copenhagen. Furthermore, she acquired a Bachelor of Arts in French and English and then a Professional Graduate Certificate in Education, at the University of Iceland. In 1954, she married a physician but the marriage came to an end in 1963. At the age of 41, she adopted a daughter, becoming the first single woman in Iceland to do this.
Vigdis also occupied many leadership positions including becoming the founding chair of the Council of Women World Leaders at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in 1966 and in 1998, she was appointed president of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization World Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology.
In 1975, during the International Women's Year, the women of Iceland protested against the unfair treatment of Icelandic women in the workforce by organising a strike and this was noticed by international communities. As the Icelandic election drew near in 1980, the Icelandic women threw their weight towards electing a woman. Vigdis became a candidate in the presidential elections contesting alongside three male candidates. She won and became the first democratically-elected female president in the world. Vigdis’ win was a huge victory for the Icelandic women as it was a validation that their voices mattered.
As president, Vigdis got to work by promoting and improving the education of the girl child and the development of Icelandic women and other minorities. She also promoted the Icelandic culture before international communities and in 1986, hosted the Reykjavik Summit between U.S. President, Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev (link to photo)
As the leader of her country, Vigdis was loved and respected. She was reelected three times (1984, 1988, and 1992), thus, bringing her political term to 16 years and making her the longest-serving female head of state of a country.
In 1996, after leaving office, she founded the Council of Women World Leaders and continued to be involved in humanitarian work.
To this day, Vigdis remains a source of motivation and inspiration for women all over the world. Her motto: 'Never let the women down' is one that the world should continue to take seriously.
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You can also read here the story of an African army of all-female soldiers.
See you in a bit! 💜