On this day in 2020, Tsai Ing-Wen was re-elected president of Taiwan

On this day in 2020, Tsai Ing-Wen was re-elected president of Taiwan (officially the Republic of China). Tsai became the country’s first female president when she was elected in 2016. She has supported government action to reduce unemployment, youth entrepreneurship, the expansion of public housing and childcare support. She is also supportive of Taiwanese indigenous peoples and LGBTQ groups. 

Also on this day 11 January

In 1055, Theodora Porphyrogenita was crowned Empress of the Byzantine Empire. She was first crowned co-Empress in 1042, ruling with her older sister Zoë for eight years. After Zoë’s death in 1050, Theodora retired to a convent. She returned to power in 1055, when Constantine IX died. Determined to centralise power into her hands as much as possible, she presided in person at the Senate and heard appeals as supreme judge in civil cases.

In 1935, American aviation pioneer and writer Amelia Earhart became the first female aviator to fly solo from Hawaii to California. Three years earlier, she had flown solo non-stop across the Atlantic, the first woman to do so. She was also one of the first aviators to promote commercial air travel, writing best-selling books about her flying experiences, and she was instrumental in the formation of The Ninety-Nines organisation for female pilots.

In 1938, Frances Moulton was the first woman elected president of a US national bank, the Limerick National Bank in Maine.

Read more about women’s achievements through history here