Female defence ministers

BRUSSELS (AP):

NATO has registered a first in its long history, with five women among the defence ministers who turned up Wednesday to attend a policymaking meeting at the alliance's headquarters.

The latest woman to join the ministerial ranks was Italy's Roberta Pinotti, who was sworn in Saturday as her country's first female defence minister. The 52-year-old served as an undersecretary for defence in the just-ended government of Enrico Letta. First elected to Parliament in 2001, she is now a senator. She began her political career two decades ago as a lower-ranking official in what was then Italy's Communist Party.

Pinotti joined Albania's Mimi Kodheli, Germany's Ursula von der Leyen, Norway's Ine Marie Eriksen Soreide and Jeanine Hennis-Plasshaert of the Netherlands. A NATO official said the five constituted the largest number of women defence ministers to serve at one time since the 28-nation alliance was founded in 1949.

Before getting down to business with US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel and their other male colleagues last Wednesday afternoon, the women posed together for news photographers.

With International Women's Day being celebrated this Saturday, March 8, 2014, Flair Magazine took the liberty of featuring a few of our nation's women who celebrated firsts in their career fields. We have the first female head of Scotiabank Jamaica, the first model and contestant on America's Next Top Model who suffers from vitiligo, and the first female principal of the Norman Manley Law School. We have all this and more as we celebrate the firsts for women on The Rock!