Jenny Shipley of the Council of Women World Leaders, an international network of current and former women presidents and prime ministers. Shipley led the National Party into the 1999 election, hoping to become the first woman to be elected prime minister in her own right. However, she was defeated by the Labour Party, also led by a woman, Helen Clark. This election was a significant moment in history for New Zealand as it was the first (and to date, only) New Zealand election in which the leaders of both major parties were women. Shipley served as the Leader of the Opposition until
Helen Clark ordered a military deployment to the 2006 East Timorese crisis alongside international partners. After three successive election victories, her government was defeated in the ; Clark resigned as Prime Minister and party leader on 19 November 2008. She was succeeded as Prime Minister by John Key of the National Party, and as Leader of the Labour Party by Phil Goff. Clark resigned from Parliament in April 2009 to become the first female head of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). "Forbes" magazine ranked her the 22nd most powerful woman in the world in 2016, down from 20th in 2006. In