MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Election of President Cristina Kirchner sets several records

An iron will behind the makeup and the french perfumes

The Argentine presidential calendar will remember 2007 for several events: the 53rd president is the first elected woman to reach the highest office, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, and possibly the only country in the world where a husband (President Nestor Kirchner) hands over the blue and white sash to his wife.

Not many women in Latinamerica have reached so far: Isabel Martinez de Peron, Argentina; Lidia Guelier in Bolivia; Violeta Chamorro in Nicaragua; Ertha Pascal Troullot, Haiti; Mireya Moscoso in Panama; Janet Rosemberg in Guyana; Rosalía Arteaga in Ecuador and Michelle Bachelet in Chile. And at the end of 2006, only eleven women were heads of government among the 192 countries that make up the United Nations. They are: Germany's Angela Merkel; Finland's Tarja Jalonen; Ireland's Mari McAleese; Lithuania's Vaira Vike Freiberga; Michelle Bachelet in Chile; Ellen Johnson Sirlea in Liberia; Mozambique's Luisa Diogo; St Tomé PM María Do Carmo Silvana; New Zealand's Helen Clark; Philippines' Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and South Korea's Myung-sook. But not all are similar stories: Isabel Martinez de Peron took office following the death of her husband. Bolivia's Lidia Guelier was caretaker president for seven months in 1979/1980 and Ecuador's Rosalía Arteaga for five days in the midst of a political crisis. Philippines' Corazon Aquino and Nicaragua's Violeta Chamorro were outsiders but followed on their husbands crusades when they were killed by the local regimes and were finally voted in. Another outstanding widow was Panama's Mireya Moscoso who after her husband was ousted from office on three occasions she run on her own and was elected in 1999. The longest ruling elected woman was India's Indira Ghandi who was Prime Minister between 1966 and 1977 and later from 1980 until she was killed in 1984. Sir Lank was the first country to have an elected woman, Sirimavo Bandaranaike in three different periods, 1960/65; 1970/77 and 1994/2000. In her last mandate she was succeeded by her daughter Chandrika Kumaratunga. Other outstanding elected women leaders includes Israel's Golda Meir in 1969 who also had to conduct her country during the 1973 Yon Kipur war against Arab countries. In 1979 Margaret Thatcher became the first woman Prime Minister in the UK and was victorious in the 1982 Falkland conflict. She helped set the foundations to transform Britain into one of the fastest growing economies in Europe. Three heads of state are women monarchs: Elizabeth II in the UK; Margarita in Denmark and Beatrix in the Netherlands.