Women’s leadership in Africa is not a recent phenomenon. Throughout history, there has always been some influential, yet rare, occurrences of women leaders, notably great scholars, influential queens, military commanders, independence fighters, and transitional leaders. Retrospection on the legacy left by women leaders in Africa provides us researchers with a culturally nuanced paradigm about the specificities of the region’s recent developments in gender equality; the triggers, outcomes and implications of public policies targeting women’s empowerment; and finally, the reasons for the lingering gender gaps in leadership positions and practices on the African continent. This introductory chapter examines, from a multi-sectoral perspective, some of the recent developments of women’s participation in a number of elective and selective institutions in Africa; and it provides some explanatory factors on why African women’s leadership is still lagging behind despite major structural and gender-inclusive changes. It also discusses discourses surrounding women’s empowerment and the value of women’s presence in leadership positions. Women’s leadership in Africa is not a recent phenomenon. Throughout history, there has always been some influential, yet rare, occurrences of women leaders, notably great scholars, influential queens, military commanders, independence fighters, and transitional leaders. The presence of powerful female figures across various civilizations, namely Ishtar, Queen of Sheba, Queen Nandi, Queen Nefertiti, Cleopatra, Al-Kahina, and Fatima Al-Fihriya, demonstrates the longstanding tradition of women’s leadership (Zaatari 2010). In the seventh century Arabian Peninsula, the legacy of Aisha daughter of Abu Bakr Siddiq R.A. and the Prophet’s (S.A.W.) third and youngest wife is worth mentioning in this regard. She was a politician, a warrior with a sharp mind and an exceptional memory keeper, as she was renowned for narrating 2210 hadiths. She was able to trespass her private space and time as her knowledge of Islamic jurisprudence was notorious during her lifetime, and scholars still refer to her judgments and opinions today. Fatima Al-Fihriya was also a significant leader. Her strong devotion to education and her unwavering sense of responsibility towards society urged her to establish the University o,.