This is a list of political offices which have been held by a woman, with details of the first woman holder of each office. It is ordered by the countries in Africa and by dates of appointment. Please observe that this list is meant to contain only the first woman to hold of a political office, and not all the female holders of that office.
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: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)Michèle Yvette Marie-Thérèse Jeanne Honorine Alliot-Marie, known in France as MAM, is a French politician and Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from France. She is a member of the Republicans, part of the European People's Party. A member of all right-wing governments formed in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, she was the first woman in France to hold the portfolios of Defense (2002–2007), the Interior (2007–2009) and Foreign Affairs (2010–2011); she has also been in charge of Youth and Sports (1993–1995) and Justice (2009–2010), and was granted the honorary rank of Minister of State in her last two offices.
Laurent Esso is a Cameroonian politician who is currently serving in Joseph Ngute's government.
Nadine Morano is a French politician of the Republicans who has been serving as Member of the European Parliament since 2014. She previously was a member of the National Assembly and a minister.
Aïchatou Boulama Kané is a Nigerien politician. She served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Niger and later served as Minister of Planning, both in 2016. Six years later in 2022, she was Niger's ambassador to France.
Patrice Guillaume Athanase Talon is a Beninese politician and businessman who has been president of Benin since 6 April 2016.
Joséphine Ouédraogo is a Burkinabé sociologist and politician. She served as Minister of Justice of Burkina Faso from 2014 to 2016.
Umaro Mokhtar Sissoco Embaló is a Bissau-Guinean politician serving as the president of Guinea-Bissau since February 2020. He is a political scientist and military officer who previously served as prime minister between November 2016 and January 2018.
Marlène Schiappa is a French writer and politician who served as State Secretary for the Social and Solidarity Economy and Associative Life, attached to the Prime Minister, in the Borne government (2022-2023), as Minister Delegate in charge of Citizenship, attached to the Minister of the Interior, in the government of Prime Minister Jean Castex (2020–2022) and as Secretary of State for Gender Equality in the government of Prime Minister Édouard Philippe (2017–2020).
Euphrasie Kandeke was a Burundian politician. She was named Minister for Women's Questions by Jean-Baptiste Bagaza in 1982 She served alongside Caritas Mategeko Karadereye, who at the time was the Minister of Social Affairs; the two were the first women to serve in the Burundian cabinet. She remained in her position until 1987. During her career she also served as the secretary general of the Burundian Women's Federation, and was a member of the political bureau of the Union for National Progress. Later she was imprisoned, being taken into custody the night before the 1987 coup; among her offenses was held to be making the suggestion that the army should be smaller. While in jail she was served Fanta lemonade mixed with salt, among other hardships. Kandeke was a Tutsi.
Clotilde Niragira was a Burundian politician and lawyer. She served as head of three separate ministries in Pierre Nkurunziza's government and was Secretary-General of Burundi's Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Félix Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo is a Congolese politician who has been the President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo since 24 January 2019. He is the leader of the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS), the DRC's oldest and largest party, succeeding his late father Étienne Tshisekedi in that role, a three-time Prime Minister of Zaire and opposition leader during the reign of Mobutu Sese Seko. Tshisekedi was the UDPS party's candidate for president in the December 2018 general election, which he was awarded, despite accusations of irregularities from several election monitoring organisations and other opposition parties. The Constitutional Court of the DRC upheld his victory after another opposition politician, Martin Fayulu, challenged the result, but Tshisekedi has been accused of making a deal with his predecessor, Joseph Kabila. The election marked the first peaceful transition of power since the state became independent from Belgium in 1960.
Kamissa Camara is a Malian political analyst and politician. She is the former chief of staff to the President of Malian Republic after she resigned from the position on September 24, 2020.
Kais Saied is a Tunisian politician, jurist and retired professor of law currently serving as the seventh president of Tunisia since October 2019. He was president of the Tunisian Association of Constitutional Law from 1995 to 2019.
Aïssata Tall Sall is a Senegalese lawyer and politician who has been the country's Foreign Minister since November 2020.
Marie Tumba Nzeza is a Congolese politician and diplomat. She served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Democratic Republic of Congo in Prime Minister Sylvestre Ilunga's cabinet from September 2019 to April 2021. Previously, she was deputy secretary general of the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS), responsible for foreign affairs.
Kandia Camara is an Ivorian teacher and politician who is the President of the Senate of Ivory Coast since 12 October 2023. She is the former minister of foreign affairs in the government of President Alassane Ouattara.
Isabelle Housna Kassire is a Chadian politician currently serving as secretary of state for foreign affairs appointed on 14 October 2022 following the creation of the secretariat for Chadian in diaspora and international cooperation. Previously, she was minister of Vocational Training before being moved to foreign affairs in a cabinet reshuffle.