Although not the first female head of state in Africa nor even in her own country – as Ruth Perry led the 1996-1997 interim government that ended with warlord Charles Taylor’s ascendance to the presidency – what woman’s 2005 election following the second Liberian Civil War made her the first woman to be elected president in Africa? She won reelection in 2011 shortly after being awarded a share of the Nobel Peace Prize.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf