Born in Wales, her parents moved to Australia for its warmer climate after she contracted a severe lung infection as a child
Julia Gillard's rise to the top job in Australian politics has not been a smooth one.
When she entered Parliament in 1998, the Welsh-born Gillard was mocked for her nasal voice, her bad hairstyle, her poor dress sense and her failure to embrace domestic life.
But the unmarried and childless Gillard rose above it, and today, afterbecoming Australia's first female prime minister, said: "I'm aware I'm the first woman to sit in this role but I didn't set out to crash my head against any glass ceilings".
Her toughness and willingness to stand up for herself, is perhaps derived from her working class background. Born in Barry in 1961, she counts Welsh Labour leader Nye Beven as one of her political heroes.
As a baby she contracted a severe lung infection and spent weeks in a oxygen tent in hospital, prompting her parents, Moira and John, to look for warmer climes.
They decided to join the thousands of other "Ten Pound Poms" moving to Australia, and arrived in Adelaide in 1966. Her father worked as a nurse and her mother cooked at a refuge for women.
At high school, Gillard was a high achiever and was not afraid to stand up to men in authority - at one point she lambasted her physics teacher for favouring male students.
