12 Most Inspiring Women Politicians of All Time

Meir and Thatcher ... but what about Smith?

Who are the most inspiring women politicians of all time? We cannot overlook Pakistan’s Benazir Bhutto, India’s Indira Gandhi, Israel’s Golda Meir or Britain’s Margaret Thatcher. Nor can we ignore Americans Margaret Chase Smith, Jeannette Rankin or Victoria Woodhull.

Bhutto and Gandhi both served as prime ministers and were assassinated, giving their lives for the homelands they loved. Meir and Thatcher led their nations through periods of deadly conflict, impossible challenge … and astonishing victory.

Smith, a U.S. Senator from Maine, repeatedly sought the nomination for the presidency on a road paved by Rankin, the first woman to serve in the U.S. Senate, and Woodhull, pictured at left, the first woman to make a serious bid for the U.S. presidency.

Jiang Qing

The wife of China’s Chairman Mao wielded tremendous power during some of the most tumultuous years in the world’s largest nation. Jiang Qing (1914-1991) has been blamed for some of the worst outrages of the Cultural Revolution – particularly the brutal campaigns of the Red Guard, roving gangs of young, fanatical Maoists who publicly humiliated, imprisoned and frequently executed anyone suspected of not being radical enough – targeting those they identified as “intellectual” or “artistic,” which they saw as bourgeois decadence. Jiang claimed she was only following Mao’s orders, but abused her position to take revenge on political enemies and advance her vast power. Together with Mao's, her multi-million death toll has been compared to that of Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin and Pol Pot.

Golda Meir

Born in Czarist Russia, but raised in Milwaukee and Denver, Golda Meir emigrated to a Israeli kibbutz in the 1920s. In 1948, when Jewish leaders despaired over raising money to finance the means for Israel to defend itself, she traveled to the United States and came back with $50 million. Founding Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion wrote that history would remember her as the "woman who got the money which made Israel possible." On May 10, 1948, four days before the official establishment of Israel, she met secretly with Jordan’s King Abdullah who asked her not to hurry to proclaim a state. Meir replied: "We've been waiting for 2,000 years. Is that hurrying?" She was elected to the Knesset in 1949 and became Prime Minister on March 17, 1969. Ben-Gurion liked to call her "the best man in our government." The press portrayed her as the strong-willed, straight-talking, grey-bunned grandmother of the Jewish people who led her people to an impossible victory in the 1973 Yom Kippur War .

Margaret Thatcher

The first female Prime minister of Great Britain, Margaret Thatcher was known as Great Britain's "Iron Lady" for her refusal to be intimidated, her emphasis on individual responsibility and her deep belief in the free market system. She developed a close relationship with U.S. President Ronald Reagan and is credited with him in bringing the Cold War to a close with the collapse of the Soviet Union. She was also intensely skeptical of allowing Britain to merge with the European Union. She campaigned successfully to preserve the British pound when other European nations adopted the Euro as their currency. Today she is credited with keeping Great Britain aloof of much of the EU's fiscal problems while enjoying the benefits of the continent's open borders and markets.

Benazir Bhutto

The first female prime minister of a Muslim country, Benazir Bhutto (1953-2007) helped to move Pakistan from a dictatorship to democracy in 1977. She sought to implement social reforms, in particular helping women and the poor. She was forced out of office on corruption charges which she adamantly denied – and of which she was absolved. The eldest child of the late Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, she studied law at Oxford. She was sworn in as Prime Minister in 1988, but left office 20 months later. In 1993 she was re-elected but again removed in 1996 by political opponents resisting her human rights stance. She went into self-imposed exile in Dubai in 1998. She returned on October 18, 2007, but was assassinated on December 27, 2007, two weeks before an election she was expected to win. Although she suffered significant frustration as she fought to bring democracy and freedom to Pakistan, she remains an inspiration for her determination to improve conditions in her homeland – in the face of impossible odds.

Obama: A Rare Breed of Christian Convert?

Christians expect converts to renounce, worship and witness, but Obama is reticent Read next feature >