From All Africa:
On the eve of the formal opening of the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD), President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said the achievement of gender equality and parity must start with the girl child, who has been left behind in receiving the education that is required for competing, and contributing to Africa’s development. Too often, the President observed, the girl child has accompanied the mother in the fields and market places and neglected in favor of the boy child when resources are inadequate to send all to school. Addressing a symposium Tuesday on Africa’s Development and Girls’ Education, the President also spoke of the plight of the African girl child, who often gets married off too young, most times involuntarily.
How true, it’s why I do what I do for a living, provide funding to groups that primarily work with female empowerment. In light of this, I thought I would profile Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the exceptional leader of a war-torn country and one with deep ties to the United States, Liberia. Liberia was founded in 1822 by emanacipated slaves returning to Africa from the United States. Its capital is Monrovia, named for the fifth President of the United States, James Monroe.
Ethnic and deep social cleavages plunged Liberia into a decade long civil war. Mrs. Johnson Sirleaf is attempting to heal those cleavages and provide a measure of stability to country in sore need of peace and tranquility. She overcame sexism to become Liberia’s and Africa’s first democratically elected female President. Here is what one of her detractors noted:
“Only a man can be strong enough to deal with all the ex-combatants. Liberia just isn’t ready to have a woman leader yet.”
Now Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is fondly called the “Iron Lady” by her supporters and she is having an impact.
One year and five months after becoming Africa’s first elected female head of state, President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, has started the massive job of rebuilding war-shattered Liberia, her government has made a good start but still faces huge challenges. Peace is tenous but assisted by the presence of 15,000 United Nations Peacekeeping troops. The electricity is back on. The government is still recruiting a new police force and a national army. Corruption in Liberia has been rampant for years and as promised, President Sirleaf has led moves to deal with it – some members of the former transitional government have been arrested. She has also renegotiated a controversial deal with the world’s largest steel maker, Mittal, worth almost $1bn, which should ensure a few thousand jobs. That’s welcome news in a country with an 85% unemployment rate.
She is extremely well-prepared, perhaps the best educated African leader there is today. She received a Bachelor of Science in Accounting at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Wisconsin, U.S. in 1964, a Masters in Economics from the University of Colorado in 1970, and a Master of Public Administration from Harvard University in 1971. During her career, she has served in the Liberian government at various levels as well as in the private sector for Citibank in Nairobi, Kenya but she best known for her tenure at the World Bank, where she spearhead rural development projects throughout the world.
Other Profiles of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
BBC
Time Magazine