Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir (Icelandic), or Johanna Sigurdardottir (as generally printed in the English press), became prime minister of Iceland in 2009-the first woman to hold that position in the country's history and the world's first openly homosexual head of state. Iceland's longest-serving member of parliament, SigurÐardóttir brought three decades of legislative experience to her new position, along with a reputation for championing social issues such as gender equality and rights for the disabled and elderly. A member of the Social Democratic Alliance party, she won support across the political spectrum. Polls gave her a 73 percent approval rate at a time when Iceland was in the midst of an economic meltdown and government ministers were scorned as contributors to the crisis.

SigurÐardóttir was born in Reykjavik in ...