This book, which is a series of case studies of women who have headed governments across the globe, discusses the conditions and situations under which women rose to power and give a brief biography of each woman . A special chapter on why no U.S. woman has risen to the top, and a review of the political campaigns of Hillary Clinton, Michele Bachmann and others are included. In this new volume the editors and contributors provide a clearer understanding of the impact of gender on political leadership by examining the lives and careers of women who became heads of government. These women are not the universe of women heads of goverment in the past sixty years, but were selected because they illustrate a variety of paths to power, offer examples of both very short and very long tenure in office, are drawn from countries with greatly differing levels of eceonomic and political development, and experienced vary degrees of success in office. Analysis and comparison of their careeers contribute to identifyling the central questions to be addressed as research continues.