Nyimasata Sanneh-Bojang
Nyimasata Sanneh-Bojang was a Gambian politician and activist. She became the first woman to be elected to the Gambian National Assembly when she won the seat of Northern Kombo for the People’s Progressive Party in 1982.
Category Archives: Politics
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Jemimah Gecaga
Jemimah Gecaga was the first woman to serve in the legislature of Kenya. In 1952, she founded Maendeleo Ya Wanawake, an organisation that continues to advocate for women’s rights and gender equity in Kenya to this day. In 1958, she was nominated to the Legislative Council in Kenya and became the first woman to serve in the country’s parliament of the country, serving until 1962. She later served as President of the YWCA in Kenya, lectured in home economics at Jeanes School (The Kenya School of Government) and worked as a director at Skyline Advertising. In 1969, she was again nominated as a member of parliament in 1969, serving until 1974.
Alba Roballo
Alba Roballo was a prominent Afro-Uruguayan lawyer, poet and politician, who was Uruguay’s first woman Cabinet member, first woman Culture Minister, and first woman elected to the (then collective) Municipal Council of Montevideo, Uruguay.
Tawakkol Karman
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Tawakkol Karman is a Yemeni journalist, politician, and human rights activist.
Zinaida Greceanîi
Zinaida Greceanîi is a Moldovan politician who was the country’s first female prime minister (31 March 2008 to 14 September 2009) and later became Speaker of the Parliament on 8 June 2019. She is the leader of the Party of Socialists of the Republic of Moldova (PSRM) and was previously a member of the Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova (PCRM). She was also the second female Communist head of government in Europe, the firstbeing Premier Milka Planinc of Yugoslavia, and has been referred to by her collogues in PSRM as the “Moldovan Margaret Thatcher”. While prime minister, Greceanîi increased the number of women ministers in her Cabinet from 2 to 5 and followed up on laws of gender equality, but resigned after only a year and a half, saying she coudl not hold the posts of prime minister and member of parliament at the same time.
Yennenga
A legendary figure in West Africa, Yennenga has come to symbolise the epitome of the female warrior, a free and independent woman.
Zhang
Empress Zhang was the second wife of Emperor Suzong during China’s Tang Dynasty. Through intrigue and plotting, she gained significant power during his reign, thanks in part to her alliance with a eunuch named Li Fuguo. Emperor Suzong elevated her to the status of empress in spring 758. Eventually she and Li Fuguo turned against each other late in the emperor’s reign, as he grew gravely ill. Zhang tried to have Li Fuguo put to death, but instead was captured and killed by her former ally and was posthumously demoted to commoner rank by Emperor Daizong, the stepson whom she had tried to depose as heir and also tried to have killed before he could take the throne.
Agrippina the Younger
Julia Agrippina was a powerful Roman empress and one of the most prominent and effective women in the Julio-Claudian dynasty.
Thung Sin Nio
Betsy Thung Sin Nio was an Indonesian-Dutch women’s rights activist, medical doctor, economist and politician.
Michelle Bachelet
Chilean politician who served as the United Nations’ High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2018 to 2022