AFRICA: Previous women political leaders in Africa include:
Carmen Pereira (1937 -): Acting president of Guinea Bissau for three days in May 1984 as chairwoman of the National People's Assembly. She continued as head of the assembly until 1992.
Sylvie Kinigi (1952 -): Kinigi was appointed prime minister of Burundi in July 1993. Months later she became the rallying point for surviving ministers of the ousted government after the democratically elected president, Melchior Ndadaye, an ethnic Hutu, and six cabinet ministers were assassinated in a coup attempt on October 21st, 1993, sparking civil war.
Agathe Uwilingiyimana (1953 - 1994): Rwandan prime minister at the time of the genocide. She was killed by Hutu soldiers in April 1994 as hapless UN forces watched. She had lost the battle for ethnic reconciliation and an end to oppression of women in the African state. She became prime minister in July 1993, the second African woman to hold a prime minister's job.
Ruth Perry (1939 -): Perry was appointed leader of Liberia's transitional State Council in September 1996 and was given the task of guiding the country's armed factions to disarmament and elections scheduled in 1997. She was modern Africa's first woman head of state. Charles Taylor took over in August 1997.
Elisabeth Domitien (1926 - 2005): In January 1975, Central African Republic dictator Jean-Bedel Bokassa formed a new government and appointed Domitien prime minister. She became the first woman to serve as prime minister of an African nation. Her relationship with Bokassa soured after he began discussing the possibility of instituting a monarchy with himself as emperor. She was fired in April 1976. - (Reuters)