Australia has its first female chief executive in Prime Minister Julia Gillard and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton remains hopeful that America will soon elect its first woman head of state.

In her official stop to Kolkata, India, Ms Clinton admitted on Monday that her vision remains in place that the United States in the near future will eventually go for its first woman present just like it did in 2007 when U.S. President Barack Obama was swept into the White House via a landslide electoral victory.

Mr Obama made history then as the first African-American to lead the world's biggest economy.

"I think that there will be an election that will elect a woman," Ms Clinton was reported by The Associated Press (AP) on Monday in Kolkata, where she was engaged in a town hall dialogue with the locals.

She added that the proverbial glass ceiling was first shattered when Mr Obama was elected as president in an election that also saw the White House aspirations of Ms Clinton dashed as the Democratic nomination was awarded to the present U.S. leader.

Ms Clinton, however, intimated that while she longed to see the breaching of the final glass ceiling that has so far prevented a woman from assuming leadership of the world's most powerful country, her participation in future U.S. presidential elections will remain a dream.

Unlike in Australia and other countries, the U.S. President is elected by popular votes in 52 states, which then would be an electoral college in each state.

Ms Gillard and other Prime Ministers like her took office by securing the leadership of their respective Parliaments' ruling parties.

The U.S. system, according to Ms Clinton, was more costly because a particular candidate's chances of being elected rely heavily on fundraising.

Only a chosen few gets to actually see the White House as President, one of which was her husband, Bill Clinton, who served two terms from 1992 to 2000.

Ms Clinton made her declarations amidst swirling speculations that she plans to make a run for the White House on 2017, just in time for his fellow Democrat, Mr Obama, to have completed his second term if re-elected on November this year.

Earlier, she has expressed her intents to relinquish her cabinet post if Mr Obama gets to secure a fresh mandate for another four-year term, sparking talks that she seeks to take a break from the demands of a high-profile duty to plot her future run for the U.S. presidency.

Yet Ms Clinton has so far brushed aside the stories surrounding her political plans, preferring instead to perform her current job as America's foremost diplomat.

She's having a busy week so far trying to ease the rising tension in the South China Sea between the Philippines and China then swinging over to India on follow through mission to convince New Delhi to further reduce its oil purchases from Iran.

The United States, according to Ms Clinton, is under the impression that India has sufficient sources for all the energy it needs to fuel its ramped up industrialisation and does not need the additional oil supplies that the Islamic republic can provide.

America has spearheaded global efforts, mostly anchored on trade sanctions and embargo, to force Iran to open up its nuclear programme.