As of July 2023, 17 women have served or are serving as the president of a Spanish Autonomous Community (including three acting presidents) and none have served or are serving as presidents of the autonomous cities. Currently, five women are serving as regional presidents.
The first woman to act as regional president was María Antonia Martínez, who served as Acting president of Murcia for almost a month after former president Andrés Hernández Ros was forced to resign. She would be later, in 1993, elected as President of the region after once again another former president, Carlos Collado, was also forced to resign.
The first woman to assume office as regional president following a regional election was Esperanza Aguirre, who was elected on November 21, 2003, by the Assembly of Madrid, also becoming the first woman to held the position since María Antonia Martínez, and she also became the first woman to resign from her position following a corruption scandal. Since then, apart from the Region of Murcia and the Community of Madrid, eight other Autonomous Communities have elected female regional Presidents after their respective regional elections.
On 20 June 2023, Mae de la Concha became the first woman not to belong to one of the two main nationwide Spanish political parties to be appointed as regional president, although serving only in acting capacity.
To date, no woman has ever changed parties during her presidential term.
To date, ten Autonomous Communities have elected women as regional presidents, and only Navarre and the Balearic Islands have elected women from different political parties to hold the position. Navarre was also the first community where a woman followed another woman as president, and is the first and to date only community to have three women in a row being elected as president - although the Balearic Islands have also have three women in a row as president. The Community of Madrid and Navarre are the communities that have elected the most women to the position, with three each.
As of 2021, a total of 7 autonomous communities have never had a woman as president. Those regions are: Asturias, the Basque Country, the Canary Islands, Castile and León, Catalonia, Galicia and the Valencian Community and the two autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla. Only one autonomous community (Castile and León) has never seen a major party nominate a woman in a regional election.
No women of color have been elected as regional president.
Esperanza Aguirre from the Community of Madrid has been the longest-serving female regional president, with a mandate of 8 years and 301 days while María Antonia Martínez from the Region of Murcia has been the shortest-serving female president.
From June 25 to July 1, 2015, from April 4 to May 3, 2017, and since July 14, 2023 there was a total of five women serving as regional presidents, making these the periods with the greatest number of women serving at the same time.
| Starting | Total | Graph |
|---|---|---|
| March 9, 1984 | 1 (5.3%) | ❚ |
| April 1, 1984 | 0 (0%) | |
| May 3, 1993 | 1 (5.3%) | ❚ |
| July 5, 1995 | 0 (0%) | |
| November 21, 2003 | 1 (5.3%) | ❚ |
| June 22, 2011 | 2 (10.5%) | ❚❚ |
| June 28, 2011 | 3 (15.8%) | ❚❚❚ |
| July 14, 2011 | 4 (21.1%) | ❚❚❚❚ |
| September 18, 2012 | 3 (15.8%) | ❚❚❚ |
| September 6, 2013 | 4 (21.1%) | ❚❚❚❚ |
| June 25, 2015 | 5 (26.3%) | ❚❚❚❚❚ |
| July 5, 2015 | 4 (21.1%) | ❚❚❚❚ |
| April 4, 2017 | 5 (26.3%) | ❚❚❚❚❚ |
| May 4, 2017 | 4 (21.1%) | ❚❚❚❚ |
| April 26, 2018 | 3 (15.8%) | ❚❚❚ |
| January 19, 2019 | 2 (10.5%) | ❚❚ |
| August 17, 2019 | 3 (15.8%) | ❚❚❚ |
| August 29, 2019 | 4 (21.1%) | ❚❚❚❚ |
| June 30, 2023 | 3 (15.8%) | ❚❚❚ |
| July 4, 2023 | 4 (21.1%) | ❚❚❚❚ |
| July 14, 2023 | 5 (26.3%) | ❚❚❚❚❚ |
| Portrait | Name (lifespan) | State | Term start | Term end | Tenure | Party | Notes | Departure | Ref | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| María Antonia Martínez García | Region of Murcia | March 9, 1984 | March 31, 1984 | Spanish Socialist Workers' Party | First woman serving as President of the Region of Murcia (in acting capacity). | Not reelected | [1] | |||
| May 3, 1993 | July 4, 1995 | First woman serving as President of the Region of Murcia.Shortest-serving woman in the post. | ||||||||
| Esperanza Aguirre y Gil de Biedma | Community of Madrid | November 21, 2003 | September 17, 2012 | People's Party | First woman elected President of the Community of Madrid. First woman elected president in a regional election.First woman to resign from her post. Longest-serving woman in the post. First woman to be reelected. First woman to be reelected twice. First woman to win by absolute majority. | Resigned | [2] [3] | |||
| María Dolores de Cospedal García | Castilla-La Mancha | June 22, 2011 | July 1, 2015 | People's Party | First and only woman elected as President of Castilla-La Mancha.First woman to defeat an incumbent president. | Not reelected | ||||
| Yolanda Barcina Angulo | Navarre | June 28, 2011 | July 22, 2015 | Navarrese People's Union | First woman elected as President of Navarre. | Not up for reelection | [4] | |||
| Luisa Fernanda Rudi Úbeda | Aragon | July 14, 2011 | July 4, 2015 | People's Party | First and only woman elected as President of Aragon.Oldest woman to be elected as president. | Not reelected | [5] | |||
| Susana Díaz Pacheco | Andalusia | September 6, 2013 | January 18, 2019 | Spanish Socialist Workers' Party | First and only woman elected President of Andalusia.Youngest woman to be elected as President (39). | Not reelected | [6] [7] | |||
| Cristina Cifuentes Cuencas | Community of Madrid | June 25, 2015 | April 25, 2018 | People's Party | Resigned | [8] [9] | ||||
| Uxue Barkos Berruezo | Navarre | July 22, 2015 | August 6, 2019 | Geroa Bai | First woman to succeed another woman in office. | Not reelected | [10] | |||
| Francina Armengol Socias | Balearic Islands | July 2, 2015 | June 20, 2023 | Spanish Socialist Workers' Party | First woman elected President of the Balearic Islands.Defeated an incumbent president. | Resigned following electoral defeat | [11] [12] | |||
| María Dolores Pagán Arce | Region of Murcia | April 4, 2017 | May 3, 2017 | People's Party | Only serving in acting capacity | |||||
| María Chivite Navascués | Navarre | August 6, 2019 | Incumbent | Spanish Socialist Workers' Party | Defeated an incumbent president. Third woman in a row to be elected President of Navarre. | Serving | [13] | |||
| Isabel Díaz Ayuso | Community of Madrid | August 17, 2019 | Incumbent | People's Party | Serving | [14] | ||||
| Concha Andreu Rodríguez | La Rioja | August 29, 2019 | June 29, 2023 | Spanish Socialist Workers' Party | First and only woman elected President of La Rioja.Defeated an incumbent president. | Not reelected | [15] | |||
| Mae de la Concha | Balearic Islands | June 20, 2023 | July 6, 2023 | Unidas Podemos | Oldest woman to serve as President (68). Succeeded another woman in office. | Only serving in acting capacity | [16] | |||
| María José Sáenz de Buruaga | Cantabria | July 4, 2023 | Incumbent | People's Party | First and only woman elected President of Cantabria.Defeated an incumbent president. | Serving | [17] | |||
| Marga Prohens | Balearic Islands | July 6, 2023 | Incumbent | People's Party | Third woman in a row to serve as president of the Balearic Islands.Defeated an incumbent President | Serving | ||||
| María Guardiola | Extremadura | July 14, 2023 | Incumbent | People's Party | First and only woman elected President of Extremadura. | Serving | ||||
As of January 2023, since the approval of the Statues of Autonomy for Ceuta and Melilla, no woman has held the role of president.
DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyyPeriod = from:01/01/1990 till:30/06/2024TimeAxis = orientation:horizontalScaleMajor = unit:year increment:5 start:1990
Colors = id:canvas value:rgb(0.97,0.97,0.97) id:PP value:blue id:PSOE value:red id:UPN value:darkblue id:GBai value:orange
Backgroundcolors = canvas:canvas
BarData = barset:Governors
PlotData= width:5 align:left fontsize:S shift:(5, -4) anchor:till barset:Governors from:03/04/1993 till:04/07/1995 color:PSOE text:"María Antonia Martínez (1993–1995)" from:21/11/2003 till:17/09/2012 color:PP text:"Esperanza Aguirre (2003–2012)" from:22/06/2011 till:01/07/2015 color:PP text:"María Dolores de Cospedal (2011–2015)" from:28/06/2011 till:22/07/2015 color:UPN text:"Yolanda Barcina (2011–2015)" from:14/07/2011 till:04/07/2015 color:PP text:"Luisa Fernanda Rudi (2011–2015)" from:06/09/2013 till:18/01/2019 color:PSOE text:"Susana Díaz (2013–2019)" from:25/06/2015 till:25/04/2018 color:PP text:"Cristina Cifuentes (2015–2018)" from:22/07/2015 till:06/08/2019 color:GBai text:"Uxue Barkos (2015–2019)" from:02/07/2015 till:20/06/2023 color:PSOE text:"Francina Armengol (2015–2023)" from:06/08/2019 till:end color:PSOE text:"María Chivite (2019–present)" from:17/08/2019 till:end color:PP text:"Isabel Díaz Ayuso (2019–present)" from:29/08/2019 till:29/06/2023 color:PSOE text:"Concha Andreu (2019–2023)" from:04/07/2023 till:end color:PP text:"María José Sáenz de Buruaga (2023–present)" from:06/07/2023 till:end color:PP text:"Marga Prohens (2023–present)" from:14/07/2023 till:end color:PP text:"María Guardiola (2023–present)" barset:skip