Sirimavo Bandaranaike
Prime Minister, Sri Lanka, 1960 - 1977, 1994 - 2000, d.2000

Sirimavo Bandaranaike served three terms (1960-1965, 1970-1977, 1994-2000) as the Prime Minister of the Republic of Sri Lanka. She was the first woman to hold a prime ministerial post. At age 24, she married Solomon Bandaranaike, founder of the nationalist Sri Lankan Freedom Party who led his party to victory in 1956. Following her husbands’ assassination in 1959, Bandaranaike assumed the leadership of the Sri Lankan Freedom Party. Under her leadership the country became a republic in 1970.