When Kim Campbell was elected leader of the Progressive Party of Canada on June 13, 1993, she became the first woman to serve as Prime Minister of the country. Her term as Prime Minister was very brief, however. In October 1993 Canadians elected a new Liberal government, and in December 1993 she resigned her leadership of the party and retired from electoral politics.

Kim Campbell was born Avril Phaedra Campbell in March 1947 in Port Alberni, British Columbia, but soon after moved to Vancouver with her father and mother and older sister Alix. Her mother left the family when she was 12, and that was when Campbell renamed herself Kim. Her interest in politics surfaced early when she became the first girl ever elected as class president at Prince of Wales Secondary School. In 1964 she began to study political science at the University of British Columbia, and achieved another first when she was elected the first female freshman president. After she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1969, she won a scholarship to begin a PhD program in Soviet Studies at the London School of Economics. In 1972, however, Campbell married and moved to Vancouver where she taught political science at the University of British Columbia and the Vancouver Community College until she returned to university to study law in 1980.

At law school Campbell became active in politics. From 1980 to 1984 she served on the Vancouver School Board, and in 1984 the Social Credit Party invited her to run in the 1984 provincial election. Although she lost the seat, the following year Campbell became a policy advisor to British Columbia's Premier Bill Bennett. In 1985-86 she was Director of the office of the Premier of British Columbia and the next year she ran again for a seat in the British Columbia legislature. Once elected, she made her mark in the legislature by publicly opposing the premier's restrictive stance on abortion.

In 1988 Kim Campbell moved from the Social Credit Party to the Progressive Conservative Party, and from the British Columbia provincial legislature to the House of Commons in Ottawa when she was elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for Vancouver Centre. From 1989 to 1990 she was Minster of State(Indian Affairs and Northern Development). In 1990 she was appointed the first woman to serve as Minister of Justice and Attorney General in the Mulroney cabinet. As Minister of Justice, Campbell responded to the widespread demand for stricter gun controls in Canada in the aftermath of the "Montreal Massacre," the shocking murder of 14 young women engineering students at a Montreal polytechnical institute. Although she faced considerable opposition to her plan for tighter restrictions on guns in Canada, even from opponents within in her own party, she succeeded.

In 1992 Campbell introduced another amendment to the Criminal Code of special concern to women. It was an amendment designed to strengthen women's protection from sexual assault. In 1991 the Supreme Court eliminated the complainant's right to keep private her past sexual history when testifying in sexual assault cases. As Justice Minister, Campbell was concerned about this, noting in her autobiography that in the past, many victims felt "a sexual assault trial was as much a trial for the victim as it was for the accused." In preparing the new legislation Campbell took the unusual step of consulting with women's groups and law associations, as well as ministry officials. The resulting political debate raised the profile of sexual assault in public opinion and the new law reaffirmed the principle that evidence of complainant's prior sexual activity was only admissible under particular circumstances. This legislation also clarified the definition of sexual assault and was dubbed the "no means no" law.

In 1993 Campbell was the first woman appointed as Minister of National Defence and Veterans Affairs, and the first women to serve as prime minister. Her brief tenure as Minister of National Defence confronted her with more controversy. The first involved conflict about the government's plan to purchase helicopters; the second was the inquiry into the behaviour of members of the Canadian Armed Forces serving in Somalia. Then on June 13, 1993, Kim Campbell was elected leader of the Progressive Conservative Party. As the leader of the party in power in the House of Commons, Kim Campbell automatically became the first woman Prime Minister of Canada. Her major achievement as Prime Minister was a massive reorganization of government departments creating such departments as Canadian Heritage and others. She served only a few months before a federal election was called in which she was not re-elected. In fact the Progressive Conservative Party was badly beaten by the Liberals. Some political commentators blamed Campbell for the defeat. Most argued that she was not able to overcome the political unpopularity of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney. In December Kim Campbell resigned the leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party and retired from electoral politics. Following a fellowship at the Harvard Institute of Politics at the Kennedy School, Campbell was appointed Consulate General for Canada in Los Angeles.

Despite the political gains made by the women of the first wave of feminism, Canadian women are still working toward achieving equal representation with men in elected political office. It is through the efforts of able, determined and ambitious women politicians such as Campbell that gains continue to be made.