When the rest of the world elected women leaders

By Christine Zhang and Andrea Roberson

How the Los Angeles Times covered the elec­tion of wo­men lead­ers across the world. See the full timeline here.

Los Angeles Times cov­er­age of Sirimavo Bandaranaike’s elec­tion as prime min­is­ter of Sri Lanka (formerly known as Ceylon).

Los Angeles Times cov­er­age of Mar­garet Thatch­er’s elec­tion as prime min­is­ter of the United King­dom. “The man she de­feated, Prime Min­is­ter James Callaghan, called it a great mo­ment in Brit­ish his­tory.”

Los Angeles Times cov­er­age of Vigdís Fin­nbogadóttir as pres­id­ent of Ice­land.

Los Angeles Times cov­er­age of Eu­genia Charles’ elec­tion as pres­id­ent of Domin­ica.

Los Angeles Times cov­er­age of Corazon Aquino’s elec­tion as pres­id­ent of the Phil­ip­pines. “Corazon Aquino star­ted her polit­ic­al ca­reer as a re­luct­ant can­did­ate but be­came a de­term­ined cam­paign­er who ral­lied mil­lions of her coun­try­men be­hind a drive to end Ferdin­and E. Mar­cos’ 20 years as pres­id­ent.”

Los Angeles Times cov­er­age of Benazir Bhutto’s elec­tion as prime min­is­ter of Pakistan. “Bhutto’s cru­sade to avenge her ex­ecuted fath­er, Prime Min­is­ter Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, ended 107 days after the death in a plane crash of her foe, Zia.”

Los Angeles Times cov­er­age of Vi­ol­eta Chamorro’s elec­tion as pres­id­ent of Nicaragua. “Vi­ol­eta Bar­rios de Chamorro cap­tured Nicaragua’s pres­id­ency in a his­tor­ic and de­cis­ive elect­or­al de­feat of a left­ist re­volu­tion­ary move­ment that had seized power by force of arms…”

Los Angeles Times cov­er­age of Mary Robin­son’s elec­tion as pres­id­ent of Ire­land. “For the wo­man who star­ted the cam­paign as a 1,000-to-1 out­sider, it was a stun­ning vic­tory against the well-oiled elec­tion ma­chine of the rul­ing Fianna Fail Party that has dom­in­ated Ir­ish polit­ics for 60 years.”

Los Angeles Times cov­er­age of Khaled Zia’s elec­tion as prime min­is­ter of Bangladesh.

Los Angeles Times cov­er­age of Chandrika Ku­mara­tunga’s elec­tion as pres­id­ent of Sri Lanka. “The huge ma­jor­ity the prime min­is­ter won in the so-called battle of the wid­ows showed that the UNP gam­bit mis­car­ried badly.”

Los Angeles Times cov­er­age of Sheikh Has­ina Wa­jed’s elec­tion as prime min­is­ter of Bangladesh. “For Has­ina Wa­jed of Bangladesh, the last days have been ones to sa­vor — a vin­dic­a­tion of the bit­ter struggle she has waged over the last two years against her chief polit­ic­al rival.”

Los Angeles Times cov­er­age of Mary McAleese’s elec­tion as pres­id­ent of Ire­land. “‘It would be nice to find our way back to a sense of one com­munity,’ she said after an elec­tion that drew four fe­male can­did­ates and sent power­ful sig­nals of ac­cel­er­at­ing mod­ern­iz­a­tion in this na­tion of 3.5 mil­lion.”

Los Angeles Times cov­er­age of Janet Jagan’s elec­tion as pres­id­ent of Guyana. “The Chica­go-born wid­ow of a former pres­id­ent scorned by the United States for his left­ist views was the lead­ing con­tender…”

Los Angeles Times cov­er­age of Mireya Mo­scoso’s elec­tion as pres­id­ent of Panama. “The pres­id­en­tial elec­tion is only the second since U.S. forces in­vaded Panama to eject mil­it­ary strong­man Manuel Noriega, who had can­celed 1989 elec­tion res­ults…”

Los Angeles Times cov­er­age of Helen Clark’s elec­tion as prime min­is­ter of New Zea­l­and.

Los Angeles Times cov­er­age of Tarja Halonen’s elec­tion as pres­id­ent of Fin­land. “Finnish voters elec­ted their first fe­male pres­id­ent after a tight run-off race that fo­cused more on per­son­al­it­ies than is­sues.”

Los Angeles Times cov­er­age of An­neli Jäätteenmäki’s elec­tion as prime min­is­ter of Fin­land. “Fin­land is set to be­come the first coun­try in Europe to have wo­men serving as prime min­is­ter and pres­id­ent…”

Los Angeles Times cov­er­age of An­gela Merkel’s elec­tion as chan­cel­lor of Ger­many. “When asked how she felt about the seem­ingly cer­tain pro­spect of be­com­ing chan­cel­lor, a tired-look­ing Merkel smiled and re­spon­ded: ‘I’m do­ing well. I’m in a good mood, but I have a lot of work ahead of me.’”

Los Angeles Times cov­er­age of El­len John­son-Sir­leaf’s elec­tion as pres­id­ent of Liber­ia. “‘We have shattered the glass-ceil­ing the­ory, and I hope wo­men will seize the mo­ment to be­come act­ive in civil and polit­ic­al af­fairs here at home and abroad,’ she said.”

Los Angeles Times cov­er­age of Michelle Bachelet’s elec­tion as pres­id­ent of Chile. “‘We have shown a coun­try can be pros­per­ous without los­ing its soul.’ Her re­marks high­lighted the changes that have over­taken this na­tion of 16 mil­lion people, con­sidered among the most so­cially and eco­nom­ic­ally con­ser­vat­ive coun­tries in Lat­in Amer­ica.”

Los Angeles Times cov­er­age of Prat­ibha Pat­il’s elec­tion as pres­id­ent of In­dia. “Fed­er­al and state le­gis­lat­ors elec­ted Prat­ibha Pat­il to the largely ce­re­mo­ni­al post, mak­ing this coun­try the world’s largest to boast a fe­male head of state. The last wo­man to serve that func­tion for In­dia was Queen Vic­tor­ia, dur­ing the days of the Brit­ish Raj.”

Los Angeles Times cov­er­age of Cristina Fernández de Kirch­ner’s elec­tion as pres­id­ent of Ar­gen­tina. “Fernan­dez’s ap­par­ent elec­tion marks an un­usu­al and pos­sibly un­pre­ced­en­ted trans­fer of power between spouses in a demo­cracy.”

Los Angeles Times cov­er­age of Dalia Gry­bauskaitė’s elec­tion as pres­id­ent of Lithuania.

Los Angeles Times cov­er­age of Laura Chinchilla Mir­anda’s elec­tion as pres­id­ent of Costa Rica.

Los Angeles Times cov­er­age of Dilma Rousseff’s elec­tion as pres­id­ent of Brazil. “What made the dif­fer­ence was the strong back­ing of out­go­ing Pres­id­ent Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, enorm­ously pop­u­lar for his lead­er­ship over eight years of eco­nom­ic growth, so­cial gains and Brazil’s emer­gence as a play­er on the glob­al stage.”

Thai opposition wins election (July 2011)

By Mark Magnier and Simon Roughneen

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Los Angeles Times cov­er­age of Yin­gluck Shinawatra’s elec­tion as prime min­is­ter of Thai­l­and. “Yin­gluck is an un­abashed stand-in for her bil­lion­aire broth­er, former Prime Min­is­ter Thaksin Shinawatra, who has called the shots and footed the bills for her party’s cam­paign from Dubai, United Ar­ab Emir­ates.”

Los Angeles Times cov­er­age of Helle Thorn­ing-Schmidt’s elec­tion as prime min­is­ter of Den­mark.

S. Korea elects first female president (December 2012)

By Barbara Demick and Jung-Yoon Choi

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Los Angeles Times cov­er­age of Park Geun-hye’s elec­tion as pres­id­ent of South Korea. “Des­pite the ro­bust demo­cracy in this coun­try of 50 mil­lion people, the irony was not lost that both Koreas will now be gov­erned by the off­spring of auto­crat­ic lead­ers.”

Los Angeles Times cov­er­age of Erna Sol­berg as prime min­is­ter of Nor­way.

Los Angeles Times cov­er­age of Kolinda Gra­bar-Kit­arović’s elec­tion as pres­id­ent of Croa­tia. “The vote was seen as a ma­jor test for Croa­tia’s cen­ter-left gov­ern­ment, which is fa­cing par­lia­ment­ary elec­tions later this year un­der a cloud of cri­ti­cism over its hand­ling of the eco­nom­ic crisis.”

Los Angeles Times cov­er­age of Aung San Suu Kyi’s win in My­an­mar. “The scope of the party’s vic­tory in Sunday’s elec­tion — the freest in the South­east Asi­an na­tion since the army took power in 1962 — has sur­prised even the NLD’s most op­tim­ist­ic pro­jec­tions.”

Los Angeles Times cov­er­age of Tsai Ing-wen’s elec­tion as pres­id­ent of Taiwan. “China’s state-run me­dia has in the past de­nounced Tsai as a ‘trouble­maker’ and warned that her elec­tion could plunge cross-straight re­la­tions in­to ru­in…”