Liberia had Africa’s first elected female president: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf won the country’s 2005 presidential election.
Sirleaf was declared the winner on 23 November 2005 after defeating former football star George Weah in a runoff. She was inaugurated on 16 January 2006, becoming Liberia’s 24th president and Africa’s first elected female head of state.
Her victory came after Liberia’s devastating civil wars, which lasted from 1989 to 2003 and killed roughly 250,000 people. The election was held as part of a peace process designed to restore civilian government. Sirleaf had previously served as Liberia’s finance minister and worked for the World Bank and Citibank.
She is sometimes confused with other pioneering African women leaders, including Ruth Perry, who chaired Liberia’s transitional government, and Joyce Banda, who later became Malawi’s president. Sirleaf also shared the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize for her work promoting women’s rights and peacebuilding.