In 1947, the British Colonial office created the role of Prime Minister of Ceylon, in preparation for the island's Dominion status and independence, which was granted a year later. The first three incumbents of the position all represented the conservative United National Party (UNP), but following the 1956 elections, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) formed a coalition government, with the party's founder, Solomon Bandaranaike, as Prime Minister. Three years later a Buddhist monk assassinated Solomon Bandaranaike for reasons that are still not clear, consequently his wife, Sirimavo Bandaranaike, took over as president of the SLFP.On 21st July 1960, following a campaign in which she became known as 'the weeping widow' because of the amount of tears she shed on the campaign trail while vowing to continue her husband's policies, Sirimavo Bandaranaike, led the SLFP to an election victory and became the world's first elected woman Prime Minister. Her pro-Sinhalese policies alienated the Tamil population creating a conflict that rages to this day. In 1965, the UNP took power once more but they were again defeated by the SLFP in 1970, and Bandaranaike became Prime Minister for her second term, during which she oversaw Ceylon transformation into the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka 1972.
To learn more about the world's first woman Prime Minister, see the BBC website page dedicated to Sirimavo Bandaranaike following her death in 2000.
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