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Leading ladies Latin America: in less than four decades, these commendable females have advanced and influenced the role of women, transcending the typically male-dominated political realm.

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AS of 2008--a year when Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton evoked global admiration for her campaign to become the first female standard-bearer of a major US political party--eleven women had served as presidents or prime ministers of independent Latin American nations. Each one has a story as remarkable as that of Senator Clinton. Their trail-blazing paths to power demonstrate how far a region often stereotypically thought of as behind in matters of gender has progressed toward embracing equality of the sexes in the political arena.

Two of the women rose to the presidency from the vice presidency, one, following the death of her husband in office. Three were widows of former leaders. Two others--one of them the head of the national Chamber of Deputies, the other the chief justice of her country's Supreme Court--were selected by their respective legislatures as compromise interim presidents at moments of political crisis. Another, who had been selected as the leader of her political party, was sworn in as prime minister following the resignation of the incumbent. Four more women, two of whom are still serving, won elections in their own right. One of them succeeded her husband in office.

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The Western Hemisphere's first female president was Maria Estela "Isabel" Peron of Argentina. She was elevated to the presidency from the vice presidency on July 1, 1974 upon the death of her husband, President Juan Domingo Peron. Isabel, who was Peron's third wife (and 36 years younger than him) lasted in power less than two years, until 1976. After her ouster by a military coup d'etat, she was held under house arrest in Buenos Aires for five years, while awaiting trial on vague charges that were never specified with any legal precision.

Ironically, in 1978, Isabel, who was once a cabaret dancer, was living in confinement under military rule when the musical about Peron's second wife, Evita, opened to rave reviews at the Prince Edward Theatre in London's West End. Three years later, Isabel was permitted to go into exile in Spain, where she is still living today. She was briefly in the news in January 2007, when Spanish authorities detained her at the request of the Argentine government. At issue was a belated official appeal for...

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