21st-century women prime ministers

chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021 (born 1954)

former State Counsellor of Myanmar and Leader of the National League for Democracy

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2016 to 2019

Giorgia Meloni is an Italian politician who has served as Prime Minister of Italy since October 2022. She is the first woman to hold the office and the head of the third-longest government in the history of the Italian Republic. A member of the Chamber of Deputies since 2006, she has been president of the right-wing to far-right party Brothers of Italy (FdI) since 2014, and was president of the European Conservatives and Reformists Party from 2020 to 2025.

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in 2022

Prime Minister of Australia from 2010 to 2013

Sheikh Hasina Wazed is a Bangladeshi politician who served as Prime Minister of Bangladesh from 1996 to 2001 and again from 2009 to 2024. A daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the first president of Bangladesh, she is Bangladesh's longest-serving prime minister and one of the longest-serving female heads of government globally. She has also served as president of the Awami League since 1981.

Ukrainian politician, former Prime Minister

Prime Minister of New Zealand (2017–2023)

President of Moldova since 2020

29th Prime Minister of Norway

Sanae Takaichi is a Japanese politician who has been Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) since October 2025. She is the first woman to hold either of these positions in Japanese history. A member of the House of Representatives from 1993 to 2003 and since 2005, she also held ministerial posts during the premierships of Shinzo Abe and Fumio Kishida.

Prime Minister of Thailand from 2011 to 2014

Prime Minister of Norway from 2013 to 2021

Prime Minister of New Zealand from 1999 to 2008

28th Prime Minister of Iceland

Icelandic politician

Danish retired politician, former Prime Minister of Denmark

Finnish politician

Begum Khaleda Zia was a Bangladeshi politician who served as the prime minister of Bangladesh from 1991 to 1996 and again from 2001 to 2006. She was the first female prime minister of Bangladesh and the second female prime minister in the Muslim world after Benazir Bhutto. She was the wife of the former president of Bangladesh and army chief, Ziaur Rahman. She was the longest serving chairperson of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) from 1984 until her death in 2025.

prime minister of Barbados since 2018

Businesswoman and former Prime Minister of Thailand

Ukrainian politician, Prime Minister of the Government of Ukraine since 2025

Croatian politician

Sushila Karki is a Nepalese lawyer and stateswoman who served as Chief Justice of Nepal from 2016 to 2017 and as interim prime minister of Nepal from 2025 to 2026. She became prime minister following the Gen Z-led protests of September 2025 that led to her predecessor’s resignation. Karki is the first woman in Nepal’s history to serve both as prime minister and as chief justice of the Supreme Court of Nepal.

Prime Minister of Namibia

Slovenian politician

12th Prime Minister of Latvia (born 1951)

former prime minister of Jamaica

Finnish politician

Moldovan politician

politician from Trinidad and Tobago

Vice President of Gabon in 2023

Tunisian engineer, academic and politician

Prime Minister of Togo (2020-present)

Icelandic politician

Prime Minister of Samoa from 2021 to 2025

Senegalese prime minister

Senegalese politician

Liechtenstein lawyer and politician (born 1964)

Haitian Prime Minister

Santomese politician, first female prime minister

South Korean politician (1944-)

Prime Minister of Northern Cyprus (born 1960)

Santomese banker and politician, second female prime minister

Peruvian economist and politician

Prime Minister of Mali

4th Prime Minister of Aruba (born 1966)

Peruvian politician

Transnistrian politician

Peruvian politician

Prime Minister of the Republic of Tunisia

Peruvian lawyer and politician

Dutch Antillean politician

Bahamian politician

Equatorial Guinean politician

Prime Minister Appointed of South Korea

Peruvian lawyer and politician

Haitian politician

Peruvian lawyer and politician