Norwegian political leader Gro Harlem Brundtland (born 1939) was the first Scandinavian woman to serve as a prime minister (1981; 1986-1989; 1990-1997). Brundtland also paved the way for women in the United Nations when she was asked by UN Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar to establish and chair the World Commission for Environment and Development in 1983. She was elected director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1998, the first woman to lead the agency.

Norwegian prime minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, born in Oslo in 1939, was both the first woman and the youngest person ever to hold Norway's highest ranking political office. Her father, Gudmund Harlem, Norway's Minister of Social Affairs (1955-61) and Minister of Defense (1961-63, 63-65) was a strong influence on her early political development and as a young adult Brundtland was actively involved in the Labour party's student movement.

Brundtland earned her medical degree from the University...