The World's Smart and Beautiful Politicians

In every known society, whether past or present, women have not been treated as the full equal of men. Over time, women have made inroads in their struggle and women have been recognized for what they can do and what they contribute to society. Still there are so many places, so many instances, so many situations and especially the existing culture in different countries, does not treat women equally with men. What is worse is that some women in other countries do not even want to change the status quo and seem to think that feminism as wrong. While I don’t subscribe to some of the ideas of other forms of feminism, I certainly believe that women have rights – political, economic, and social – and they have the right to equal opportunities.

When I was young I often heard the question, would you rather have beauty or brains? Though some chose to be smart more often you would hear that girls would rather be beautiful. Being beautiful is having all the advantages, given more opportunities, attention and the boys. And of course the smart are usually described as lonely, an outcast and a social klutz. I used to wonder then if it was not possible to be both beautiful and intelligent. There are so many misconceptions regarding women, it would take more than a day to list it down. One of the more popular ones is that if ever you do get to the top of the company’s hierarchy it’s either you did it lying down or you are married to the boss. We never question how one intelligent and smart man could climb up the ladder in the same time.

The patriarchal system is one reason why we believe business, politics, economy, is a man’s world. There are only few smart and beautiful women who dared showed their true mettle and be women and get to the top. And more often some would say they had to be a man, and forget their femininity, to get there. Politics is one world full of men and men’s ego and though women have made inroads there are only really few who stayed. As early as 1940 there have been a woman President but currently there are only 12 powerful women leading their nation as President or a Member of the Swiss Federal Council in the case of Switzerland. There are some who are holding key positions in a smaller scale but the number is really minimal compared to the number of male politicians. No doubt these women are intelligent, hardworking and smart to get to that position and often treated as men as they have tried to play down their feminine side, even in their business apparel and business casual. Some goes to great lengths to appear non-sexy as they say it could undermine their credibility. That’s why I am really in awe of those women who though they have not used their beauty as bartering asset but they have not tried to reduce their beauty either.

Here is my list of the powerful women who have reached the pinnacle of success without sacrificing their beauty. This is the combination of brains and beauty which every woman desires to have.

Hillary Clinton is probabaly one of the most accomplished woman and she could have been the President of the United States had all women have voted for her. Despite not winning over President Barack Obama as the Democrat’s candidate, Hillary Clinton was appointed as the 67th United States Secretary of State, serving in the administration of President Barack Obama. It depends on where you are standing from but you can either idolize Hillary or hate her. She was the First Lady from 1993-2001 as the wife of the 42^nd President of the United States, Bill Clinton. Amidst the Whitewater controversy and the Lewinsky scandal, Hillary never cowered, she stood up for what she believed in and that is something we don’t often see. Honestly, I always felt she could run the government better than her husband did. She certainly has made a lot of firsts in her career in politics. At 63, she is not only one of the most powerful and influential person in the world but she is definitely one of the most beautiful woman in the world, and I am not just talking about her face. Obviously I am a fan and though some may not agree with me but we all have something we believe in.

Julia Gillard is the 27th and current Prime Minister of Australia since June 2010. She was born in Wales but grew up in Australia. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Melbourne and also a Bachelor of Laws degree in 1986. She worked in a law firm working on industrial law before she was elected to as Member of the Division of Lalor in the House of Representatives in 1998. Since then she has worked in different ministerial positions until she became the first woman deputy minister and the first woman Prime Minister. In an interview, Gillard has maintained that she never consciously sought to make political history because of her gender. Although, she also acknowledges that her ascension to the highest political office in Australia is a milestone for the sisterhood. Needless to say, it hasn’t always been a smooth sail because she has had to shrug off different labels from oppositions and detractors.

The State Senator Gretchen Whitmer was born and raised in Michigan, grew up and attended school in East Lansing and Grand Rapids. She earned her undergraduate degree in Communications and her law degree in Michigan State University where she graduated magna cum laude. She was first elected to the State Senate in 2006 but previously she served as a member of the Michigan House of Representatives from 2000 to 2006. She serves on four standing committees: Judiciary (Ranking Democrat); Education (Ranking Democrat); Agriculture, and Finance. On Nov 2010, her Democratic colleagues chose her to be the Senate Democratic Leader starting January 1, 2011.

The current President of Argentina is the first elected female President of Argentina and the second female President to ever serve after Peron. Like almost all female politicians, she is a lawyer and practiced law before she was elected to the provincial legislature in May 1991. Since then, she has been repeatedly elected to the Argentine National Congress, both as a National Deputy and National Senator. When her husband Nestor Kirchner became the President of Argentina, she acted as the First Lady then in 2007 she was chosen as the candidate and in the general election won and was inaugurated as President in December of same year. Although her administration has seen a strong economic growth and social progress, still she and her government has not been exempt from criticisms and issues with other politicians in Argentina where the political system is full of macho chauvinism.

The very pretty Luciana was born in Lima, June 30 1978; she is a lawyer and a Peruvian politician. She is the Congresswoman representing Lima for the 2006-2011 term and the youngest of the current Parliament at only 31 years. She studied at the Villa Maria College and took law at the University of Lima between 1994 and 1999. She earned a Masters in Governance and Public Policy at the Institute of Government at the University San Martin de Porres, in July 2005 after two years of study and where her mentor and teacher was former President Alan García. She worked as a legal technical advisor of the Directorate General of Road Traffic, Ministry of Transport and Communications. And for two years she worked as a legal technical advisor in the Congress in the Committee on Women and Human Development, next to Mercedes Cabanillas. She also worked as Second Vice-President, in the area of research, planning and development of legislative proposals and legal studies.

Kate Ellis is an Australian politician, representing the federal division of Adelaide since 2004 and is currently the Minister for Employment Participation and Childcare and the Minister for the Status of Women in the Gillard Government. The big difference between Kate and the others is the fact that she is not a lawyer, and though she studied international relations at Flinders University, she wasn’t able to finish her degree. She became a member of the Australian Labor Party and started working for state and federal parliamentarians as a research officer. She also became the ministerial adviser to South Australian state minister Rory McEwen then afterwards for the Deputy Premier of South Australia, Kevin Foley. At the 2004 federal election, she was elected to the House of Representatives for the Division of Adelaide, South Australia. After the election in 2007, then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd appointed Kate Ellis, Minister for Youth and Minister for Sport, the youngest person ever to become an Australian government minister. In the 2009 reshuffling of ministers, she remained as Minister for Sport but also became the Minister for Early Childhood Education, Childcare and Youth. She was reelected in the 2010 federal election and under the Julia Gillard government she was appointed to her current positions.

Joanna Mucha is a Polish politician born in April 12, 1976 in Plonsk.  In the 2007 parliamentary elections she became a member of the Polish Parliament and is now on her sixth term of office. She graduated in 2001 from the University of Warsaw and received a PhD in economics in 2007 and since then has taught at the Catholic University of Lublin.

These are the few who hold key positions in their respective countries. As you can see from their pictures (in their professional and casual business wear) and biography that they made no concessions in their femininity but still managed to hold through to their careers, though I believed that it also took then a lot of sacrifices. Of course there would always be people who would think that their beauty certainly helped, especially during elections. The ones below are also politicians, past and present, but do not hold key positions.

Before becoming the first female Prime Minister of Ukraine, she was a successful albeit controversial businesswoman in the gas industry. She became the Prime Minister of Ukraine twice, first for only 9 months and the next for almost 3 years. Although she participated in the 2010 presidential elections in 2010, she lost her bid to Yanukovych, the current President.

She is a Mexican politician affiliated to the National Action Party (PAN) who has served as head of Miguel Hidalgo in 2006 and as a federal deputy in the lower house of the Mexican Congress in 2009.

She is the junior State Senator from New York who replaced Hillary Clinton. She is currently the youngest member of the US senate.She believes that few women join politics because it is such an adversarial profession where you can expect to hear mean things said to you almost every day.

She is the president of the Poitou-Charentes Regional Council, a former member of the National Assembly, a former government minister, and a prominent member of the French Socialist Party.

She is a member of the German Bundestag, the national parliament of the Federal Republic of Germany since 2005. She is the spokeswoman for the FDP parliamentary group on human rights and humanitarian aid.

Sabine is a Dutch politician of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) party. She has been a Member of the House of Representatives since September 3, 2008.

She is the current Minister for the Environment, Land and Sea of Italy. A graduate of Public Administration, she started out young and was a member of the House of Representatives at only 28 years old.

Ferris serves as a full-time Sinn Féin Councillor on Kerry County Council and Tralee Town Council. Found some comments on her regarding which side she is linked too. Her politics is her beliefs and her prerogative, still we cannot deny the fact that she is a beauty.

The 43-year-old politician is one of the most popular politicians in Lebanon. She earned a BS in Political Science in 1994 and it is in the university that her political activism started. Sethrida Geagea led the party in the 2005 parliamentary elections, which resulted into a bloc of six MPs from the LF Party and the freedom of Samir Geagea. She is a member of the Lebanese Maronite League and she remains a potent force in Lebanon’s Christian political scene.

While these politician might not be of the same political wavelength as you, still we can say that they are really some of the most beautiful and more than that they are smart women.

“Development cannot be achieved if fifty percent of the population is excluded from the opportunities it brings.” – Helen Clark, UNDP Administrator