Eleven Most Powerful Women In The Word

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was born in central Monrovia in 1938 and has led a distinguished career spanning nearly four decades in the private and public domain in Liberia and internationally.

After years of fighting for freedom, justice and equality in Liberia, spending time in jail and being forced into exile more than once, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is now entrusted with the most challenging task any Liberian leader has ever faced – rebuilding a post-conflict nation.

Sirleaf attended the College of West Africa in Central Monrovia, and holds a Masters in Public Administration from the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. She has received seven honorary doctorate degrees from universities around the world and is founder and chief supporter of Measuagoon, a community development NGO in Liberia.

She is the mother of four sons and has seven grandchildren.

Doris Leuthard, President of Switzerland

Doris Leuthard (born 10 April 1963) is a Swiss politician and lawyer. Since 1 August 2006, she has been a member of the Swiss Federal Council and head of the Federal Department of Economic Affairs (the Swiss economics minister). She was elected President of the Confederation for 2010.

In 2009, Leuthard was elected Vice President of the Swiss Confederation, virtually assuring her election as president in 2010. Due to a large amount of turnover on the Council in recent years, she was the longest-serving councillor.

Dalia Grybauskaite, Lithuania president

Born in 1956, Dalia Grybauskaite trained as an economist at Leningrad University.

She is a politician and the current president of Lithuanian inaugurated on July 12, 2009.

She was finance minister of Lithuania and before that a senior diplomat

She was a leading critic of the British rebate from the EU budget, and publicly accused the Treasury of "creative accounting" in the way it worked out Britain's contributions to EU funds.

Rosa Otunbayeva, President of Kyrgyzstan

Rosa Otunbayeva was sworn in as caretaker president of Kyrgyzstan, three months after her predecessor, Kurmanbek Bakiyev, was ousted in a popular uprising.

The 59-year-old took the oath of office at Bishkek. Otunbayeva, a former ambassador to Britain and the US, is the first woman to hold the highest office in the Central Asian country.

Otunbayeva played a leading role in Bakiyev's overthrow, which preceded ethnic unrest involving Kyrgyz and the Uzbek minority in the south of the country and leaving about 2,000 people dead.

Laura Chinchilla, President of Costa Rica

Costa Rica inaugurated Laura Chinchilla as its first woman leader, replacing Nobel laureate, Oscar Arias.

Chinchilla, a 51-year-old Georgetown University graduate, is a social conservative who opposes abortion and gay marriage. She appealed both to Costa Ricans seeking a fresh face and those reluctant to risk the unknown.

And in recent months, she attempted to mediate between Honduran leaders during a coup.

Tarja Halonen, President of the Republic of Finland

Tarja Halonen is the 11th President of the Republic of Finland and Finland's first female head of state. She acceded office on 1 of March 2000 and was re-elected 2006.

Tarja Halonen was born in Helsinki at the Christmas Eve in 1943. She graduated from the University of Helsinki in 1968 and has a Master of Laws degree. Her professional career started in the National Union of Finnish Students, where she worked as the Social Affairs Secretary in 1969-70.

She started as a lawyer in the Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions in 1970 and held this position throughout her political career.

Pratibha Patil, India president

Pratibha Patil,  born December 19, 1934, in Jalgaon, Maharashtra, India, Indian lawyer and politician who was the first woman to serve as president of India 2007 to date.

Her longtime association with the Gandhi family made her a favourite of Congress Party leader Sonia Gandhi, and Patil’s name was brought forward as a candidate for the largely ceremonial role of president in 2007. Patil’s status as a relative unknown worked to her advantage, and she took office on July 25, 2007.

Dilma Vana Rousseff, President of Brazil

Dilma Vana Rousseff (Brazilian Portuguese), born December 14, 1947 in Belo Horizonte, Brazil) is an economist, politician and current President-elect of Brazil.

She was appointed Chief of Staff by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in June 2005, becoming the first woman to assume the position. Rousseff was Lula's designated successor and the winning candidate in the 2010 presidential election.

Mary McAleese, President of Ireland

McAleese was born Mary Patricia Leneghan on 27th June, 1951 in Belfast. She was educated at St. Dominic's High School, Queen's University, Belfast (from which she graduated in 1973), and Trinity College in Dublin. She was called to the Northern Ireland Bar in 1974 and is today also a member of the Bar in the Republic of Ireland. In 1975 she was appointed Reid Professor of Criminal Law, Criminology and Penology in Trinity College, succeeding Mary Robinson (a succession that would repeat itself 20 years later, when McAleese assumed the presidency).

McAleese's initial seven year term of office ended in November 2004, but she announced on 14th September of that year that she would be standing for a second term in the 2004 presidential election.

Cristian Fernández de Kirchner (Argentina)

When Cristina Fernández de Kirchner won the Argentinian presidency by a landslide in 2007, her campaign may have benefited from the popularity of the outgoing president - her husband, Néstor.

But the current President Kirchner is a veteran politician in her own right, long established as an independent Argentinian voice.

Kirchner was born in La Plata, near Buenos Aires. As a student, she gravitated towards the left wing of the Justicialist Party, founded by Juan and Eva Perón.

Angela Merkel , German Chancellor

Angela Merkel was born Angela Dorothea Kasner in Hamburg on 17 July 1954, the daughter of Horst Kasner.

Merkel was educated in Templin and at the University of Leipzig, where she studied physics from 1973 to 1978. While a student, she participated in the reconstruction of the ruin of the Moritzbastei, a project students initiated to create their own club and recreation facility on campus. Merkel worked and studied at the Central Institute for Physical Chemistry of the Academy of Sciences in Berlin-Adlershof from 1978 to 1990. After being awarded a doctorate for her thesis on quantum chemistry[10] she worked as a researcher.

Angela Merkel was sworn in on November 22, 2005.