Janet Rosenberg Jagan was elected president of the South American country of Guyana in 1997, at the age of 77. A Jewish woman from Chicago, she became the first American-born woman to lead a nation, and the first and only woman to serve as president of Guyana.
Considered by some to be the "mother of the nation," Janet moved to Guyana in the 1940s with her husband, Guyana native Dr. Cheddi Jagan, and together they founded the socialist People's Progressive Party. A documentary film, Thunder in Guyana, has been made about her life.