Female defence ministers

Prime Minister of India (1966-1977; 1980-1984)

11th and 13th prime minister of Pakistan (1953–2007)

president of Chile from (2006–2010; 2014–2018)

Ursula Gertrud von der Leyen is a German politician and physician who has served as President of the European Commission since 2019. She served in the German federal government between 2005 and 2019, holding positions in Angela Merkel's cabinet, most recently as Federal Minister for Defence. She is a member of the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its affiliated European political party, the European People's Party (EPP). On 7 March 2024, the EPP elected her as its Spitzenkandidat to lead the campaign for the 2024 European Parliament elections. She was re-elected to head the Commission in July 2024.

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.

Prime Minister of Ceylon (later Sri Lanka) from 1960–65, 1970–77, 1994–2000

Filipino politician, president of the Philippines from 2001 to 2010

president of Nepal

Prime Minister of Thailand from 2011 to 2014

19th Prime Minister of Canada in 1993

President of Sri Lanka from 1994 to 2005

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.

President of Nicaragua from 1990 to 1997 (1929–2025)

Slovak politician and sociologist, former prime minister

German politician, former federal minister of defence

Swiss politician

former prime minister of Jamaica

Indian politician

Vice President of Gabon in 2023

British politician (born 1973)

Prime Minister of Dominica

Japanese politician (born 1952)

German politician (born 1965)

French politician

Senegalese politician

politician from North Macedonia

Spanish Defense Minister (1971–2017)

Dutch politician (born 1977)

French politician

Spanish politician (born 1965)

Ecuadorian politician and poet

Norwegian politician (Conservative Party)

Spanish judge and politician (born 1956)

Australian politician

Dutch former politician and diplomat

Latvian politician and journalist

Italian politician

Japanese politician (born 1959)

Canadian politician and professor (born 1967)

Dutch politician

New Zealand politician (born 1959)

French politician

Finnish defence minister 1990–1995 and UN undersecretary general

Colombian politician

Albanian politician

Austrian politician

Malagasy Prime Minister

South African politician

Czech politician

Icelandic Minister of Education, Science and Culture 2017-

Bahamian politician

Maldivian Democratic Party politician

Norwegian politician

Icelandic politician

Danish politician

Lithuanian politician (born 1958)

Norwegian jurist and politician

Georgian politician and lawyer

Kenyan diplomat

Guinea-Bissauan politician and prime minister