The world witnessed a number of major political achievements for women in 2005, from the election of Africa's first female president to the first polls in Saudi Arabia to include women, according to the Boston Globe. "This has been a year in which women have taken grassroots struggles and transformed them into something bigger by developing a very considered political strategy," said Kavita Ramdas, president of the San Francisco-based Global Fund for Women, which provides grants to women's rights groups around the world.