Portia Simpson Miller is greeted by supporters, Feb. 25, 2006. (AP Photo/Collin Reid)

"When they see me, they see themselves," she told a reporter. "I think I am a true representative of the majority of Jamaicans."

That she would be the Caribbean nation's first woman prime minister was not lost on her supporters, who played up her gender in the campaign leading up to her election as president of the ruling People's National Party (PNP) – a win that would automatically make her the country's seventh prime minister in March 2006.

"It's Woman Time Now," her campaign declared. And when delegates picked her as the winner in the race for the party presidency, the Miami Herald reported that the reggae tunes, "The Strength of a Woman" and "Thank You Momma" were booming in the background.

Portia Simpson Miller was drawn to politics in the early 1970s (when she was known as Portia Simpson) by the man who was leading the PNP at the time – the charismatic Michael Manley, Jamaica's fifth PM. Manley was a socialist who tried to narrow the wide gap between rich and poor – a goal Simpson shares. She was a fiery speaker, known for her ability to stir crowds.

She won election in a local government race in 1972 and entered national politics four years later, as the MP running on the PNP ticket. She won every election she contested after that and was appointed to Manley's cabinet. When an ailing Manley stepped down in 1992, she tried to replace him but lost badly to P.J. Patterson. But her popularity soared and he appointed her to his first cabinet and re-appointed her in subsequent shuffles.

She married Errald Miller in 1998 and added his surname to hers.

Simpson Miller has her detractors, both inside and outside the party she now leads. The Jamaican media have sometimes accused her of not being bright enough. She tried to address that by heading off to a college in Florida for a degree in public administration.

The ministries she presided over have sometimes been embroiled in controversy. In 2005, she came under fierce attack for a major scandal in a waste management authority under her jurisdiction. But she remained enormously popular, with some polls showing her as the most popular politician in the country. Jamaicans identified with her working-class rural roots.

Her challenges as the head of government are immediate and daunting. Jamaica's drug and violent crime problem is immense, with more than 1,600 murders in 2005. She has promised to make that her first priority and outlined a six-step program to break the influence of gangs. And then there's the economy. Jamaica's national debt exceeds its annual GDP. Inflation and unemployment are high.

Jamaicans will have more than a year to assess her performance as prime minister before the country's next election expected in late 2007.