Nicola Sturgeon is a Scottish politician who became the first woman to be elected as the First Minister of Scotland and the Leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP); she achieved this feat in November 2014 and is currently serving her second term as the First Minister. Joining the party at the age of 16, she entered the Scottish Parliament as an additional member for the Glasgow electoral region in 1999 before becoming a member for Glasgow Govan in 2007. She served in the Shadow Cabinets of Alex Salmond and John Swinney prior to being appointed Deputy First Minister of Scotland under Salmond. A law graduate, she briefly worked as a solicitor before joining politics fulltime. She has actively campaigned against replacing the Trident nuclear weapons system, vigorously argues for Scottish independence, is a self-proclaimed feminist, and also supports environmental issues. Acknowledging how she benefitted from free tuition, she has pledged never to re-introduce fees. She is very vocal about her opinions and had strongly criticized Donald Trump prior to the 2016 United States presidential election.
