Women aren’t just breaking glass ceilings anymore — they are running the whole building. Right now, in 2026, there are more female presidents around the world than at any point in history, with 17 women serving as head of state and 13 more leading as prime minister. This current list of female world leaders spans every inhabited continent, from island nations in the Pacific to powerhouse economies in Latin America — and Africa is very much in the room.
So who is actually holding the power right now? Here is the full, up-to-date list of all the female presidents (and prime ministers) around the world today (as of August 2026):
1. Keiko Fujimori — President of Peru — since July 2026
2. Laura Fernández Delgado — President of Costa Rica — since May 8, 2026
3. Iliana Iotova — President of Bulgaria — since January 23, 2026 (Bulgaria’s first-ever female president)
4. Catherine Connolly — President of Ireland — since November 11, 2025
5. Sanae Takaichi — Prime Minister of Japan — since October 21, 2025 (Japan’s first-ever female PM)
6. Inga Ruginienė — Prime Minister of Lithuania — since September 25, 2025 until July 2026
7. Jennifer Geerlings-Simons — President of Suriname — since July 16, 2025 (Suriname’s first female president)
8. Kamla Persad-Bissessar — Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago — since May 1, 2025
9. Brigitte Haas — Prime Minister of Liechtenstein — since April 10, 2025 (Liechtenstein’s first female PM)
10. Sara Zaafarani — Prime Minister of Tunisia — since March 21, 2025
11. Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah — President of Namibia — since March 21, 2025 (Namibia’s first female president)
12. Kristrún Frostadóttir — Prime Minister of Iceland — since December 21, 2024
13. Claudia Sheinbaum — President of Mexico — since October 1, 2024 (Mexico’s first female president)
14. Halla Tómasdóttir — President of Iceland — since August 1, 2024
15. Yulia Svyrydenko — Prime Minister of Ukraine — since July 17, 2024 until July 2026
16. Judith Suminwa Tuluka — Prime Minister of the DRC — since June 12, 2024
17. Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova — President of North Macedonia — since May 12, 2024
18. Myriam Spiteri Debono — President of Malta — since April 4, 2024
19. Hilda Heine — President of the Marshall Islands — since January 3, 2024
20. Sylvanie Burton — President of Dominica — since October 2, 2023
21. Evika Siliņa — Prime Minister of Latvia — since September 15, 2023 until May 2026
22. Christine Kangaloo — President of Trinidad and Tobago — since March 20, 2023
23. Nataša Pirc Musar — President of Slovenia — since December 23, 2022
24. Giorgia Meloni — Prime Minister of Italy — since October 22, 2022
25. Droupadi Murmu — President of India — since July 25, 2022
26. Samia Suluhu Hassan — President of Tanzania — since March 19, 2021
27. Robinah Nabbanja — Prime Minister of Uganda — since June 21, 2021
28. Maia Sandu — President of Moldova — since December 24, 2020
29. Mette Frederiksen — Prime Minister of Denmark — since June 27, 2019
30. Mia Mottley — Prime Minister of Barbados — since May 25, 2018 (longest-serving woman currently in office)
This list will keep changing — that is the nature of politics — but here is why it’s still worth stopping to notice every single name on it: as of 2026, only 30 of the world’s 193 countries are led by a woman, and more than 100 nations have never had a female head of state or government at all. Bookmark this page, because we will be updating it as new leaders take office. Representation still starts with visibility — and in 2026, that visibility still is not guaranteed.
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