Nobel Peace Prize 2011 Winners: 5 Things to Know

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is the sitting President of Liberia. She is the first and only democratically elected female head of state in Africa. The 72 year-old's resume also includes the founding of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2006, drastically reducing Liberia's debt and reconciling with the Ivory Coast.

She has also earned degrees from the University of Colorado at Boulder, the University of Wisconsin and Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. She got her start in the field of finance, working for the World Bank in Washington D.C., then moving to Nairobi for a job at Citibank. Sirleaf got started in politics in 1985, when she moved home to run for vice president, and then for president in 1987. Sirleaf finally won her current seat in 2005.

Leymah Gbowee is a Liberian peace advocate. As the founder of the Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace, she became a non-violent force against civil war.

"In the past we were silent, but after being killed, raped, dehumanized, and infected with diseases, and watching our children and families destroyed, war has taught us that the future lies in saying NO to violence and YES to peace! We will not relent until peace prevails," the Women in Peacebuilding Network said to President Charles Taylor.

Tawakkul Karman is a human rights activist and politician in Yemen, a country currently experiencing a large-scale popular movement against the government. Karman organized student rallies in the capital of Sanaa, after which she was arrested. When she was released, she immediately went back to protesting.

"I am very very happy about this prize," Karman told The Associated Press. "I give the prize to the youth of revolution in Yemen and the Yemeni people."

4) Liberia:

Two of the three winners are from Liberia, and for good reason. The African country was ripped apart by civil war and political instability for almost three decades.

Both Sirleaf and Gbowee played a role in ending the Second Liberian Civil War in 2003. Gbowee's Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace, which started as a grassroots women's movement devoted to non-violent protest and prayer, convinced President Charles Taylor to meet with them and then made him promise to attend peace talks with Ghana.