Eugenia Charles

Dame Mary Eugenia Charles was a Dominican politician who was Prime Minister of Dominica from 21 July 1980 until 14 June 1995. The first woman lawyer in Dominica, she was Dominica's first, and to date only, woman prime minister. She was the second woman prime minister in the Caribbean after Lucina da Costa of the Netherlands Antilles. She was the first woman in the Americas to be elected in her own right as head of government. She served for the second longest period of any Dominican prime minister, and was the world's fifth longest-serving woman prime minister or head of government, behind Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh, Sirimavo Bandaranaike of Sri Lanka, Angela Merkel of Germany and Indira Gandhi of India.