Dilma Rousseff candidacy. Rousseff won the Presidency by an approximate margin of 56% to 44%, and took office on 1 January 2011, as the first woman president of the country. She became the third female head of government ever in the history of Brazil, and the first "de jure" female head of state since the death of Maria I, Queen of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves in 1816. During her presidential campaign, Rousseff underwent a makeover, replacing glasses with contact lenses, undergoing plastic surgery and adopting a different hairstyle. On 26 October 2014, Rousseff was re-elected president of
Dilma Rousseff Secretary of Energy of Rio Grande do Sul under both Collares and Olívio Dutra. In 2000, after an internal dispute in the Dutra cabinet, she left the PDT and joined the Workers' Party (PT). In 2002, Rousseff became an energy policy advisor to presidential candidate Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who on winning the election invited her to become his minister of energy. Chief of Staff José Dirceu resigned in 2005 in a political crisis triggered by the Mensalão corruption scandal. Rousseff became chief of staff and remained in that post until 31 March 2010, when she stepped down to