Croatian Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor is among "Women of the Year" chosen by the women's magazine "Glamour", the U.S. magazine with a circulation of 2.4 million reported on its web site on Tuesday.
PM Kosor is among 18 female heads of state or government awarded this title in 2010. The magazine is celebrating the 20th anniversary of its Women of the Year Awards this year.
The 18 female heads of state or government are honoured for having remained "focused on the issues of women's empowerment".
"Thanks to them, girls now have powerful models at the very top. With these women leaders inspiring the next generation, perhaps the concerns of today -- girls' under-education, maternal mortality, rape as a weapon of war -- will, by the fortieth Glamour Women of the Year Awards, have been resolved," Condoleezza Rice, a former U.S. Secretary of State and 2008 Woman of the Year, was quoted as saying about this year's award recipients.
Apart from Kosor, the other award-recipients are German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Argentinian President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite, Slovak Prime Minister Iveta Radicova, Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla, Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Icelandic Prime Minister Johanna Sigurqardottir, Kyrgyz President Roza Otunbayeva, Finnish President and Prime Minister Tarja Halonen and Mari Johanna Kiviniemi, Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Bosnian Federation President Borjana Kristo and some other female office-holders.
"Not so long ago, the prime ministers and presidents were almost all men," the United Nations' Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, was quoted as saying.
"Women have a fresh outlook on our most difficult problems, whether it is climate change or peace in the Middle East. This is a sea change," he said.
Glamour quoted Prime Minister Kosor as saying that "the media continued to ask 'feminine' instead of 'political' questions."
"When I became prime minister, the question that I had to answer most often was 'Are you afraid?' " Kosor said and Glamour's comment is "Hardly -- Kosor has fearlessly battled government corruption, domestic violence and even gender stereotyping in school."
The award-giving ceremony will be held next week in New York.
