Women on Top: Prominent Female World Leaders

Jamaican PM Portia Simpson Miller (since Jan 5, 2012) has also served as minister of labour, minister of social security, minister of tourism and sports, and minister of local government throughout the years.

Hillary Clinton, the former US Secretary of State, has recently announced her candidacy for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination.

Queen Elizabeth II is the Head of State of the UK and 15 other Commonwealth realms. The elder daughter of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, she was born in 1926 and became Queen at the age of 25, and has reigned through more than five decades of enormous social change and development.

Bangladeshi PM Sheikh Hasina (since Jan 6, 2009) is the daughter of the first president of Bangladesh. As opposition leader, she was the target of an assassination attempt in 2004. In 2007, she was arrested for corruption charges by the caretaker government.

The Queen consort of Jordan, Queen Rania, who is married to King Abdullah bin Al-Hussein, is known for her active work in education, health and community empowerment.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff (since Jan 1, 2011) is the first woman to hold the office. She became a Socialist during her youth, and joined groups that fought against the military dictatorship. Rousseff was captured and jailed between 1970 and 1972.

Danish PM Helle Thorning-Schmidt (since Oct 3, 2011) is the leader of the Social Democrats. She is the first woman to hold either post. Before being elected to the parliament she served as a Member of the European Parliament for Denmark.

Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (since Jan 16, 2006) is the first elected female head of state in Africa. In 2011 she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for recognising "the non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work".

Angela Merkel (since Nov 22, 2005) is Germany's first woman Chancellor. In 2007, Merkel chaired the G8, the second woman after Margaret Thatcher to do so. Described as 'the de facto leader of the EU' she has been ranked as the world's second most powerful person by Forbes magazine in the past, the highest ranking ever for a woman.

Argentinian President Christina Fernandez de Kirchner (since Dec 10, 2007) is the country's first elected female president and the second woman to hold the position after Isabel Martinez de Perón. She is the widow of former president Néstor Kirchner.