Despite their electoral success, the 68 women who sit in Afghanistan’s lower house of the National Assembly, or Wolesi Jirga, face restrictive social pressures and occasional violent intimidation along their path to equality.

Two days before January's swearing-in of Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf – Africa’s first female head of state – more than 250 women met in Monrovia to discuss the role of women in African politics, business and economics.