Barbara Prammer, First Female President of Austrian Parliament

Barbara Prammer, a Social Democrat and modern feminist, is the first woman to become speaker of the Austrian parliament, the third highest position after the federal president and the chancellor.

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The 52-year-old Prammer, an energetic woman with short black hair, hails from a small rural town in Upper Austria, where she first started working with the Social Democrat (SPOe) party at the age of 20.

She brought the SPOe a modern and liberal concept of women's affairs, combining femininity and charm with exemplary combativity and skills.

After completing a sociology degree and working with the local SPOe in her hometown, Prammer was elected to the Upper Austria Landtag, the provincial council, in 1991.

Divorced with two children, she stood up especially for single women.

Moving into national politics, she was named SPOe vice-president in 1995, before taking the long-coveted position of minister for women's affairs in 1997, which she kept until 2000 when the Social Democrats joined the opposition.

That same year, she entered parliament and in 2004, she was named as second parliament president.

In a majority Catholic country, Prammer did not hesitate last year to defend a woman teacher of religion, who had been fired from a Catholic school after getting a divorce, the media also commented Monday.

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