Break the Glass Ceiling With This Women World Leaders Quiz

In 1960, Sirimavo Bandaranaike was named the first female prime minister of Sri Lanka — and by proxy became the first female to ever hold that title around the world. After five years, she left office only to return for two more terms from 1970 to 1977 and 1994 to 2000. As the leader of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, Bandaranaike worked to reform the country into a modern socialist republic.

From 1986 to 1992, Corazon Aquino served as the first female president of the Philippines. Winning a contested election against Ferdinand Marcos, Aquino was tasked with reintroducing a proper democracy to the Philippines, which eventually earned her the nickname "The Mother of Democracy." Aquino's son, Benigno Aquino III, was elected to the presidency in 2010, just one year after her death.

In June 1993, after current Prime Minister Brian Mulroney retired, the reigning Progressive Conservative Party chose Kim Campbell to replace him, which made her Canada's first — and so far only — female prime minister. Her term ended 132 days later in November when she lost the general election. Campbell was also the first woman to serve as a Canadian minister of justice and to be a minister of defense for a NATO country.

Located opposite the city of Luxor is a mortuary temple built during the reign of Egyptian Queen Hatshepsut in the 1400s BCE. Modeled after the temple of Mentuhotep II, Hatshepsut ordered her structure to be built on a much grander scale to reflect her reign as a strong, powerful ruler. The temple has three levels of granite, limestone, and sandstone and is covered with columns, statues, and reliefs.

The House of Stuart was the ruling house of Scotland from 1371 until 1649 and included Mary, Queen of Scots among its many monarchs. Originally the house was spelled "Stewart," but French influence led Mary to alter the spelling to "Stuart." Robert II, Robert III, and James I-V all led Scotland from the House of Stuart before Mary took the crown in 1542.

Indira Gandhi was the only child of India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. Following in her father's footsteps, Indira pursued a political career and was elected as the country's first — and so far only — female prime minister in 1966. She served in that role until March 1977 and again from 1980 to 1984. Though she was a power-hungry and controversial leader, a 1999 BBC poll named her "woman of the millennium."

Isabel Perón was the third wife of Argentine president Juan Perón and served as the country's first lady and vice president during the final years of her husband's presidency. After his sudden death in 1974, Isabel rose to Argentina's highest office, though her term, too, was troubled. After just two years her leadership was overthrown in a military coup and she was exiled to Spain.

When Peter III took the Russian throne in 1762, one of his first acts was to end the country's war with Prussia. That angered Russia's military class and they began to look toward his wife, Catherine, to replace him. Six months into his reign, Peter abdicated and Catherine became empress, a title she held for 34 years.

Queen Victoria took the throne at the age of 18 in 1837. She would serve as Great Britain's monarch for the next 64 years until her death in 1901, which made her the longest-reigning ruler in British history at the time. It would be another 100 years before Victoria's record was broken by Queen Elizabeth II, whose reign as of February 2022 stands at 70 years.

Margaret Thatcher was the first woman to be prime minister of the U.K. and is also the longest-serving British prime minister of the 20th century. In office from 1979 to 1990, Thatcher was known as the "Iron Lady" for her uncompromising politics and leadership style. The nickname was given to her by a Soviet propagandist in 1976 when Thatcher was still an up-and-coming leader of the U.K.'s Conservative Party.