Female Leader: Angela Merkel

       The political leader I chose to write about was Angela Merkel, who is the chancellor (head of government) in Germany. She grew up in the rural area of Northern Berlin, and she was born to a pastor and teacher. She was born on July 17th in 1954, and was born in Hamburg. She went on the study physics at the University of Leipzig. She then later on went to work as a chemist in the Academy of Sciences in the Physical Chemistry unit.  For introduction to politics actually occurred when she a political party named the Christian Democratic Union and then went on to be a cabinet minister for women and youth. She then ran in 2002 for her current position, yet she failed. She was then victorious, in 2005, when she then beat Gerhard Schroder by three seats, so a very close defeat. She then gained her current position and has been the first female leader of Germany since it became a modern state. She is broke tradition by being divorced, but then remarrying a chemistry professor from Berlin named Joachim Sauer and she also has no children and has been on the Forbes list peaking at #1 most powerful women and #4 most power people. Her earliest award was in 2006 called the Vision for Europe Award for he contribution toward more integration is Europe. One of the latest awards she received for her achievements, is the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which was given to her by Barack Obama in 2011. This award is awarded specifically to those who people who have made an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, or cultural or other significant public or private endeavours. She has been compared frequently to Margaret Thatcher, a British Prime Minister who was also known as the "The Iron Lady".