Women Leaders in Latin America and Elsewhere

Did you hear the news that Costa Rica’s new president is a woman? Laura Chinchilla, the former vice-president, won by a landslide 47 percent of the vote.

Her election this week caught my attention because I recently led a couple of workshops for high-potential IBM women in Latin America and I will probably lead similar sessions there later this year.  I thought I might use Ms. Chinchilla’s election as an inspiring example.

As it turns out, Ms. Chincilla joins two other women who are leading nations in Latin America:   Michelle Bachelet in Chile and Cristina Fernandez in Argentina.  Clearly, these women leaders in Latin America are facing and surmounting many obstacles in order to achieve their influential positions.  Wow! 

It turns out that there is quite a global sisterhood of national leaders.  They even have their own official organization, The Council of Women World Leaders.  With just a little digging, I turned up a roster of other women who are leading their countries:

Bangladesh’s Hasina Wajed

Finland’s Tarja Halonen

Germany’s  Angela Merkel

Iceland’s Johanna Sigurdardottir

Ireland’s Mary McAleese

Liberia’s Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf

Lithuania’s Dalia Grybauskaitė

Mozambique’s Luisa Dias Diogo

Netherlands-Antilles’ Emily de Jongh-Elhage

The Philippines’ Gloria Arroyo

Ukraine’s Yulia Tymoshenko

What a list!  I’m inspired.