REUTERS/Mick Tsikas
If you hear the faint sound of something shattering, don’t fret: Julia Gillard has just kicked through Australia’s glass ceiling.
Following the nation’s inconclusive elections on Aug. 21, Gillard finally won the support of two independent MPs on Sep. 7, giving her Labour Party the 76-74 majority in Parliament that will allow it to form a minority government. The victory makes Gillard Australia’s first elected female Prime Minister.
An atheist and her country’s first unmarried head of state, Gillard came to power on June 24 by ousting Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in a party coup.
“I’m well aware that I am the first woman to serve in this role,” she said at the time. “But can I say to you, I didn’t set out to crash my head on any glass ceilings.”
Regardless of her motive, Gillard joins a growing list of women who have made it to the top. This year alone voters in Costa Rica and Trinidad & Tobago have swept women into power, following in the footsteps of voters in Iceland, Croatia and Lithuania who did the same in 2009.
(Check out TIME’s list of the Top 10 Female Leaders to learn more about Gillard’s political sisters who are doing it for themselves.)