The Most Powerful Women in Politics

2. Dilma Rousseff

As the first woman to be President in Brazil, Dilma Vana Rousseff sure had a lot to prove, not only in terms of her political skills, but also in terms of her determination to lead to the country into the best possible future. Stemming from an upper middle class family in Belo Horizonte, Dilma studied economics, but was firmly involved in left-wing and Marxist urban guerrilla groups as a young adult, due to her socialist conviction. However, she put her rebellious nature to good use and in 2005 became the first female Chief of Staff to Lula da Silva, before taking on the Presidency herself.