15 Women Shaping The World

It's International Women's Day, and so here is a list of some of the women that are changing the world thanks to the rights women have fought for over the years.

1. Dilma Rousseff (Brazil)

Who is she?: President of Brazil

How does she run the world?: She grew up in an upper-middle class family and became a socialist in her youth, eventually joining various urban guerrilla groups fighting the military dictatorship in the 1960s. She was jailed and reportedly tortured between 1970 and 1972. She slowly worked her way up through the world of Brazilian politics, working as Minister of Energy from 2002 until a corruption scandal in 2005 resulted in her taking over the position of Chief of Staff. She was elected President in late 2010, as the result of support from many high profile figures both inside and out of Brazil. Due to her Bulgarian heritage, there was also a media frenzy in that country surrounding her election. She is now leading the country through one of its most exciting and turbulent periods, as it prepares fro the FIFA World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics.

2. Aung San Suu Kyi (Burma)

Who is she?: Burmese opposition leader

How does she run the world?: Between 1989 and 2010, she spent 15 years under house arrest, being held as a political prisoner by the military government due to her revolutionary activities. Her National League for Democracy party took 59% of votes and 81% of parliament seats in the 1990 election but the government refused to concede power. She received numerous awards while in detention, including the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize. She was released from detention for real in 2010, was elected to parliament in 2012 and is currently fighting for the right to run for President in 2015 (the current constitution, adopted in 2008, bans widows and mothers of foreigners from office. Her late husband was English, as are her children.)

3. Michelle Bachelet (Chile)

Who is she?: President-Elect of Chile

How does she run the world?: In 1973 her father was detained for charges of treason in 1973 by Augusto Pinochet's forces and eventually died from cardiac arrest in 1974. In early 1975, her and her mother were also kidnapped and tortured by government forces. She eventually went into exile in Australia, then East Germany. All of these helped to develop her political ambitions, eventually becoming Chile's Health Minister in 2000. While in that position, she took on the task of eliminating hospital wait lines, which she managed to reduce by 90%. In 2002, she became the first woman in Latin America to be named Minister of Defence and used her position to promote reconciliation betweent he former dictatorship and their victims. In 2006, she officially became President of Chile. After her term ended in 2010, she became the first head of the newly created UN Women, and has recently returned to Chile and been elected for a second term as President.

4. Christine Lagarde (France)

Who is she?: Director of the International Monetary Fund

How does she run the world?: A seasoned anti-trust and labour lawyer, she eventually became France's Trade Minister, then Minister of Agriculture, and eventually Minister of Economic Affairs, Finance and Employment, making her the first woman to be in charge of France's economic policy. She declared herself a candidate to become managing director of the IMF and was later appointed in 2011 to a five-year term, right in the middle of the Euro crisis. She has fiercely gone after Greek tax evaders to help fight the crisis in that country, showing that she's not afraid to do the dirty work that others won't do.

5. Fatou Bensouda (Gambia)

Who is she?: Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court

How does she run the world?: Mrs. Bensouda first gained a passion for justice when she was a child and police refused to investigate her aunt's complaints of spousal abuse, claiming the master of a house has the right to beat his wife. This led her to start obsessing over local cases she heard at the courthouse.

Serving as the Chief Legal Adviser to the President of Gambia, she took part in numerous negotiations and treaties in West Africa. She then became Legal Adviser and Trial Attorney at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, eventually rising to become the head of the Legal Advisory Unit. She became Deputy Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in 2004, and then became the Chief Prosecutor in 2012. She has been praised for her handling of trials, including her current handling of the prosecution of former Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta.

6. Angela Merkel (Germany)

Who is she?: Chancellor of Germany

How does she run the world?: She's the head of Germany, the strongest economy in Europe, and has been helping steer Europe through the ongoing financial crisis. Forbes has placed her #1 on their annual "Most Powerful Women" list three years in a row. Her handling of the Euro crisis has seen her approval skyrocket to a high of 77% in 2012. She is currently in her third term after a decisive election victory.

7. Portia Simpson-Miller (Jamaica)

Who is she?: Prime Minister of Jamaica

How does she run the world?: Currently serving her second non-consecutive term as Prime Minister of Jamaica, she also serves as Minister of Defence, Development, Information and Sports. She is the first woman to be Prime Minister, and only the second to ever serve non-consecutive terms. She is opposed to the monarchy and hopes to see Jamaica eventually become a republic. She has endorsed LGBT rights in her country, controversial due to the rampant homophobia that plagues the nation.

8. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (Liberia)

Who is she?: President of Liberia, first elected female head of state in Africa

How does she run the world?: In 1985, she ran for Vice President of Liberia but was arrested and sentenced to 10 years in prison on charges of sedition because of a speech she made insulting the regime running the country. International pressure saw her released but she ended up running for the Senate instead. She won her seat, but refused to accept to protest election fraud. She eventually lost the 1997 Presidential election to war lord Charles Taylor and went into exile. She returned to run again in 2005 following the end of the Civil War, this time winning. In 2011, she was re-elected and also won the Nobel Peace Prize.

9. Dalia Grybauskaitė (Lithuania)

Who is she?: President of Lithuania

How does she run the world?: In 2009, this unmarried woman with a black belt in Karate was dubbed the "Lithuanian Iron Lady" after she won the Presidential election with the largest margin in Lithuanian history and became the first female leader. She has fought to increase transparency in government and challenged corruption and fear. Before running for President, she served as EU Commissioner for Financial Programming and the Budget and shook things up by criticizing the previous budget's emphasis on agriculture and presented a new budget focusing on growth and employment.

10. Joyce Banda (Malawi)

Who is she?: President of Malawi

How does she run the world?: An activist for women's rights, she has three children from her first marriage, which she ended due to abuse, and two from her current husband. She was Vice President from 2009 up until 2012 when the President died and she took the office. Her relationship with the President was very volatile due to her fighting for reform, which resulted in him attempting to remove her from office unsuccessfully. She averted a potential crisis after the President's death (because his cabinet didn't want her taking over power) by phoning up the commander of the military and having him station troops around her house to protect her. This prevented the country from falling into chaos and saw a smooth transition.

She has made huge strides to repair the damage to international relations her predecessor caused. She devalued the currency; her predecessor's refusal resulted in foreign aid being completely cut. She worked hard to restore regional ties and refused to host an African Union summit (because the AU insisted on her promising to not arrest Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who has an International Criminal Court warrant out on him). She also cut her salary, sold the presidential jet and cars (to raise money for the struggling country), and suspended anti-gay laws. All of this led to Forbes naming her "Africa's Most Powerful Woman".

11. Helen Clark (New Zealand)

Who is she?: Former Prime Minister of New Zealand, Current Administrator of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

How does she run the world?: After spending three terms as the first female Prime Minister of New Zealand, Helen Clark took the position of Administrator of the UNDP (the first woman to hold the position), which is the third highest position in the United Nations. She has been named one of the most powerful women in the world and has been praised for her work in implementing strategies to help the developed world achieve the United Nation's Millennium Development Goals, especially in reducing poverty, HIV/AIDS, and maternal and infant mortality.

12. Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka (South Africa)

Who is she?: Former Deputy President of South Africa, Current Executive Director of UN Women

How does she run the world?: From 2005-2008 she served as the Deputy President of South Africa, the highest position any woman has ever held in South Africa's history. She later was appointed by Ban Ki-Moon to be head of UN Women (United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women) in 2013, replacing Michelle Bachelet. She is in charge of overseeing policies which impact the fight for women's rights all over the world.

13. Park Geun-hye (South Korea)

Who is she?: President of South Korea

How does she run the world?: She is not only the first female Head of State in South Korea, but the first in all of modern North Eastern Asia. She has stood firm in the face of increased aggression from North Korea and worked hard to gain the support of the USA, China, and Russia to help defend her country. Her policies towards North Korea have gained her tremendous support in South Korea and made her one of the most influential leaders in the country's history. However, she is controversial because her father was a dictator that previously ran the country.

14. Yingluck Shinawatra (Thailand)

Who is she?: Prime Minister of Thailand

How does she run the world?: Thailand's first female PM, and the youngest in 60 years at only 45 years old, she has been highly controversial. There are presently major protests going on in Thailand as there are many that feel she is only a puppet of her brother, a controversial former leader. She has had to reshuffle her cabinet five times since she took office in 2011 and now also serves as Minister of Defence. The protests have resulted in the dissolving of parliament and a call for early elections, so it is unknown how much longer she will keep her embattled post.

15. Yulia Tymoshenko (Ukraine)

Who is she?: Former Prime Minister of Ukraine

How does she run the world?: In 2004, Yulia Tymoshenko became one of the leaders of the Orange Revolution which brought democratic reforms to the former Soviet state. Following the revolution she becomes Prime Minister and is named the 3rd most powerful woman in the world for 2005. Ongoing political crisis sees her first term end after only a few months, but she is elected back into power in 2007 and stays there until 2010 when she makes a run for the Presidency. The election was fraught with controversy over how free it actually was and Yulia concedes defeat. Now in opposition, she is currently being held on abuse of power charges, which many believe to be false charges to keep her out of office.

16. Some others:

Norway, Senegal, Slovenia, Denmark, Trinidad & Tobago, Bangladesh, San Marino, Kosovo, Switzerland, Costa Rica, and Argentina all have women in leadership positions presently. Many more have previously had females in the top job, and there are an increasing number of women climbing the ranks.