"on the London School of Economics website), Williams (and her co-author Robtel Neajai Pailey) were critical of Liberia's President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Africa's first elected woman head of state. They stated that in her 12 years in charge, she had achieved ""next to nothing to position women favorably to win votes"". Korto Reeves Williams Korto Reeves Williams is a Liberian feminist activist. She is the country director and women's rights coordinator of ActionAid Liberia, a board member of Urgent Action Fund (Africa), and a member of the Liberia Feminist Forum and the African Feminist Forum. Williams has a master's degree"
"Sirleaf became the first democratically elected female Head of State in the history of the African Continent, and the first native female African Head of State since Empress Zauditu, who ruled Ethiopia from 1916 to 1930 and not including Queen Elizabeth II who reigned over many Commonwealth countries upon their independence and still reigns as Queen of the United Kingdom over the Atlantic African Islands and British Overseas Territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha . As no Senate existed prior to the elections, each voter was eligible to cast two ballots for different candidates. The two candidates"
"In addition to helping bring an end to 14 years of warfare in Liberia, this women's movement led to the 2005 election of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf as president of Liberia, the first elected woman leader of a country in Africa. Sirleaf is co-recipient of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize along with Gbowee and Tawakel Karman. The three were awarded the prize ""for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace-building work."" In Sirleaf's re-election campaign of 2011, Gbowee endorsed her. Recognizable when wearing their white WIPNET T-shirts, Gbowee and the other"
"removed the current leader, Charles Taylor, and with the help of the United Nations deployed a new democratic form of government that stands for equal rights and even has a women president in Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. This change in government was also apparent in Rwanda in 1993 when the genocide finally stopped. The country had shifted from dictatorship to pure democracy and gave both men and women the right to vote. The country also installed a quota system where a certain number of government seats must belong to women. The country's quota was 30% of seats, however women now hold"
"Mission in Liberia began arriving in September 2003 to provide security and monitor the peace accord, and an interim government took power the following October. The subsequent 2005 elections were internationally regarded as the most free and fair in Liberian history. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, a Harvard-educated economist and former Minister of Finance, was elected as the first female president in Africa. Upon her inauguration, Sirleaf requested the extradition of Taylor from Nigeria and transferred him to the SCSL for trial in The Hague. In 2006, the government established a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to address the causes and crimes of"
"government to prioritize education and health care. A few days later, President Sirleaf issued an Executive Order making education free and compulsory for all elementary school aged children. On 4th, October 2010, Sirleaf signed into law a Freedom of Information bill, the first legislation of its kind in West Africa. In recognition of this, she became the first sitting head of state to receive the Friend of the Media in Africa Award from The African Editor's Union. On 1 April 2011, Sirleaf told reporters that she planned to charge an opposition candidate with sedition for organizing a rally protesting corruption"
"and Muslims in Liberia, specifically Monrovia. The Christian and Muslim women joined forces to create Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace. They wore white, to symbolize peace. For her leadership, Leymah Gbowee has received international recognition, including the 2009 John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award and the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, The president of Liberia during the duration of the Mass Action for Peace. She often promoted women's rights and promised to increase women's rights in her two campaigns for presidency. She inspired many Liberian women to push for mass movement in order to obtain"
"have been black women. For instance, Queen Qalhata and Candace of Meroe are important, early African queens. In the United States, Toni Morrison was the first black woman Nobel laureate. Shirley Chisholm was an important Democratic candidate for U.S. President in the 1970s. In Africa, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf served as President of Liberia for 12 years. Black women The term 'Black' is used world wide and has different meanings in different places.. It is used to describe those of African and Afro-diaporic descent. The term Black women is both a multi-faceted cultural identity and a powerful social construct with"
"served briefly as South Africa's acting president in 2005, when both President Thabo Mbeki and the Deputy President were outside the country. Furthermore, she was chosen by the cabinet to be the constitutional and official head of state in an interim capacity for 14 hours from 24 until 25 September 2008, between the resignation of Thabo Mbeki and the taking of office by Kgalema Motlanthe. She was the first and to date only woman to have held the post of President in South Africa and the first woman to be head of state of South Africa since Elizabeth II's reign"
"2005 and 2011 elections, both won by President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, began a democratic environment more conducive to building a free and independent press. Sirleaf signed West Africa's first freedom of information law in 2010, granting journalists and the general public the right to access any public document with the exception of records sensitive to national security. Libel, however, remained a criminal offense and there were cases of government press intolerance between 2005 and 2011 two elections. A spike in attacks against the media in 2009 included police-led assaults and unlawful detentions. The PUL spoke out in a 2010 case"
"In 2010, ""Newsweek"" listed her as one of the ten best leaders in the world, while ""Time"" counted her among the top ten female leaders. That same year, ""The Economist"" called her ""arguably the best president the country has ever had."" In 2010, Sirleaf released her first book, ""This Child Will Be Great: Memoir of a Remarkable Life by Africa's First Woman President"". In 1956, Sirleaf married James Sirleaf, whom she later divorced. She grew up as a Presbyterian, but later joined her husband's Methodist faith. Sirleaf is the mother of four sons, and she has ten grandchildren. She is"
"hat and tails and modeled their homes on those of Southern slaveowners. Most Americo-Liberian men were members of the Masonic Order of Liberia, which became heavily involved in the nation's politics. Liberia has a rich history in textile arts and quilting, as the settlers brought with them their sewing and quilting skills. Liberia hosted National Fairs in 1857 and 1858 in which prizes were awarded for various needle arts. One of the most well-known Liberian quilters was Martha Ann Ricks, who presented a quilt featuring the famed Liberian coffee tree to Queen Victoria in 1892. When President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf"
"States (Barack Obama was elected president in 2009, becoming the first African-American to hold that office), France (Nicolas Sarkozy, a president of France of Hungarian descent), Germany (Angela Merkel, the first female leader of that nation), and Australia (Julia Gillard, also the first female leader of that nation). Following 1991, Western nations provided troops and aid to many war-torn areas of the world. Some of these missions were unsuccessful, like the attempt by the United States to provide relief in Somalia in the early 1990s. A very successful peace-making operation was conducted in the Balkans in the late 1990s, however."
"peace agreement in 2003 led to democratic elections in 2005, in which Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was elected President. Recovery proceeds but about 85% of the population lives below the international poverty line. Liberia's economic and political stability was threatened in the 2010s by an Ebola virus epidemic; it originated in Guinea in December 2013, entered Liberia in March 2014, and was declared officially ended on May 8, 2015. The Pepper Coast, also known as the Grain Coast, has been inhabited by indigenous peoples of Africa at least as far back as the 12th century. Mende-speaking people expanded westward from the"
"The country's president was Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf. All were women and all supported the women's national team. In 2007, Izetta Wesley was named a member of the FIFA Women's Football Committee and that of FIFA Women's World Cup, with her term starting in 2008. She has also served as the Match Commissioner of CAF and FIFA, and Vice President of the West African Football Union (WAFU). In 1985, almost no country in the world had a women's national football team, including Liberia who did not play in their first FIFA recognised match until February 2007 though the team played three non-recognised"
"century. In modern times, Liberian presidents would present quilts as official government gifts, and when current Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf moved into the Executive Mansion, she reportedly had a Liberian-made quilt installed in her presidential office. A literary tradition has existed in Liberia for over a century. Liberia had no written tradition until the 19th century. Numerous Liberian authors throughout the years have contributed to the writings of various genres. They have written on folk art, ancient proverbs, everyday life in countryside, city life, religion and observation of their own lives. Culture, tradition, identity, society, taboo subjects, human rights,"
"the urban areas, but to all parts of Sierra Leone. The inauguration ceremony was attended by several African Head of State and representatives of other world leaders and organisations, including Nigerian president Umaru Yar'Adua, Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Senegalese president Abdoulaye Wade, Gambian president Yahya Jammeh, Burkina Faso's president Blaise Compaoré, Malian president Amadou Toumani Touré, Guinean Prime Minister Lansana Kouyaté and United States Assistant Secretary for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer. The Koroma presidency has focused upon rebuilding the country's national infrastructure after the Civil War, fighting corruption and improving the country's health care system. In April 2010, Koroma"
"Democratic Republic of Congo in March that year through an open letter. In an interview with ""Africa Review"", she referred to the work completed by Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of Liberia, and added ""the solution to the instability in the DR Congo is not the exclusive preserve of men. Women can even do it better. Women have proven to be good managers during periods of strife and conflict."" She remains the sole woman, out of the five candidates who have nominated themselves for the election. She was critical of the changes President Joseph Kabila has made to extend his rule"
"agriculture 2010 to March 2013, owned a million-dollar flat near Harrods in London through an offshore she told Appleby was funded by her flower-export company. Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is listed in the papers as a director of the Bermuda company Songhai Financial Holdings Ltd. a subsidiary of Databank's finance, fund management and investment company Databank Brokerage Ltd., from April 2001 until September 2012. The Ghanaian Minister for Finance and Economic Planning, Ken Ofori-Atta, was a co-founder of Databank and a co-director, with Johnson Sirleaf, of Songhai Financial Holdings. Aliko Dangote, Africa's richest man with an estimated wealth of"
"Spanish and Swedish embassies. A team from the Carter Center was led by former Nigerian President Yakubu Gowon. Additionally, 3,851 local observers from 68 national organizations and media outlets were accredited by the NEC to observe the elections. In January 2010, incumbent President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf confirmed that she would run for a second term in office while speaking to a joint session of the Legislature. Sirleaf was renominated as the Unity Party's (UP) presidential candidate at the party's national convention on 31 October 2010. That same day, Vice President Joseph Boakai was nominated by Sirleaf and confirmed by the"
"six weeks it featured interviews with Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga, Malawian President Joyce Banda, African Development Bank President Donald Kaberuka, and former President of the African National Congress Youth League Julius Malema. In May 2017 various early-morning editions of the programme were replaced by half-hour editions of ""The Newsroom"". Newsday interviews are often written up as online stories for BBC News Online. Newsday invites listeners to comment on issues covered in the programme on social media. On Twitter, it uses the hashtag #BBCNewsday and tweets from the @bbcworldservice and @BBCAfrica Twitter profiles. On Facebook,"
"family are serving in other positions in government. She has been accused of interfering with a criminal investigation involving her stepson Fombah and the agency he leads. On resigning in October 2014, her Minister of Justice Christiana Tah, accused President Sirleaf of interference with criminal investigation into the illegal seizure of money from Korean businessmen by the NSA in a warrantless hotel raid in July 2014. In November 2017 an investigation conducted by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalism cited her name in the list of politicians named in ""Paradise Papers"" allegations. Speeches Profiles and interviews Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Ellen"
"2012. She was the youngest mayor in the country when appointed by President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf to the position. Waste issues have dominated much of her tenure as Mayor of the city. While she has pushed many different trash initiatives, some of these have been criticized by citizen groups for not addressing the problem. Much of the focus has been on the commercial center of the Monrovia region, known as Red Light Market. In April 2014, she called for greater attention to waste issues from the Liberia Marketing Association. With limited funding, she was able to enlist the support of"
"Sandra Roelofs Sandra Elisabeth Roelofs–Saakashvili (; born 23 December 1968) is a Dutch–Georgian activist and diplomat who was the First Lady of Georgia from 2004 to 2013, when her husband Mikheil Saakashvili was president of the country. Sandra Roelofs was born in Terneuzen, Netherlands. In 1991 she graduated in French and German languages from the Erasmushogeschool in Brussels and in 1993 attended courses at the International Institute of Human Rights in Strasbourg. She met Mikheil Saakashvili in 1993 in Strasbourg and later that year moved to New York City where she worked at Columbia University and a Dutch law firm."
"Sirimavo Bandaranaike Sirima Ratwatte Dias Bandaranaike (, ; 17 April 1916 – 10 October 2000), commonly known as Sirimavo Bandaranaike, was a Sri Lankan stateswoman. She became the world's first non-hereditary female head of state or government in modern history, when she was elected Prime Minister of Sri Lanka in 1960. She served three terms: 1960–1965, 1970–1977 and 1994–2000. Born into an aristocratic Kandyan family, Bandaranaike was educated in Catholic, English-medium schools, but remained a Buddhist and spoke Sinhala as well as English. On graduating from secondary school, she worked for various social programmes before marrying and raising a family."
"buried in Bayview Cemetery, Middletown, New Jersey. A special issue of ""Liberian Studies Journal"", published in 2005, was dedicated to her memory. Mary Antoinette Brown-Sherman Mary Antoinette Brown Sherman (October 27, 1926 – June 3, 2004) was a Liberian educator, and the first woman to serve as president of a university in Africa. Mary Antoinette Hope Grimes was born in Monrovia, the daughter of Louis Arthur Grimes and Victoria Elizabeth Jellemoh. Her father was a government official who became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Liberia. Her brother Joseph Rudolph Grimes was Liberia's Secretary of State from 1960 to"
"Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee. Before their prizes were awarded, only 12 other women had ever been granted the award. Yemeni protesters wore pink ribbons to symbolise the ""Jasmine Revolution"" and indicate their non-violent intent. Shawki al-Qadi, a lawmaker and opposition figure, said pink was chosen to represent love and to signal that the protests would be peaceful. The preponderance of pink ribbons in the demonstrations showed the level of planning that went into the protests. According to Al Jazeera in late February, the deeply fractured opposition includes the Joint Meeting Parties (JMP; formed in 2002),"
"Tshepo Motsepe Tshepo Motsepe is the First Lady of South Africa as the wife of Cyril Ramaphosa, the President of South Africa. Tshepo Motsepe studied as a medical doctor. She graduated from the University of KwaZulu-Natal with an MBChB (Bachelor of Medicine & Bachelor of Surgery) and went on to complete her Master of Public Health (MPH) in Maternal Child Health and Aging at Harvard School of Public Health. In 2012, she completed a Social Entrepreneurship Certificate Program (SECP) at the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS). She is the current chairperson of the African Self Help Trust (ASHA Trust),"
"Prize by Indian President Pranab Mukherjee on 12 September 2013. In 2016, she was listed as the 83rd-most powerful woman in the world by ""Forbes"" magazine. Sirleaf's father was Gola and her mother had mixed Kru and German ancestry. While not Americo-Liberian in terms of ancestry, because of her education in the West, Sirleaf is considered culturally Americo-Liberian by some observers, or assumed to be Americo-Liberian. Sirleaf does not identify as such. Sirleaf's father, Jahmale Carney Johnson, was born into a Gola family in an impoverished rural region. He was the son of a minor Gola chief named Jahmale and"
"an undisclosed illness. Olubanke King Akerele Olubanke King Akerele (born May 11, 1946) is a Liberian politician and diplomat who served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs in the cabinet of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf from October 2007 until her resignation on 3 November 2010. She is the granddaughter of Liberia's 17th president, Charles D. B. King. Akerele studied at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria and graduated from Brandeis University in Massachusetts, United States with a B.A. in economics. She earned her first M.A. from Northeastern University in manpower economics, then a second M.A. from Columbia University in economics of"
"president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf to issue Azango protection and guarantee her safety. Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders also issued statements of support, as did the Columbia Journalism School and the International Federation of Journalists. Radio journalist Tetee Gebro of the Liberian station Sky FM broadcast a version of Azango's story in a show of solidarity. Before the end of the month, in part due to domestic and international pressure sparked by the incident, Sirleaf's government announced that it had agreed with traditional leaders that the practice of FGM would be officially suspended. The statement was the first time Liberian"
"by her husband . First Lady of Nigeria (2010 - 2015). She and her husband have two children - Arewera Adolphus Jonathan (a boy) and Aruabi Jonathan (a girl). Patience Faka Jonathan has been recognized locally, nationally and internationally for her philanthropic work and political pragmatism. She received the ""Beyond The Tears"" International Humanitarian Award New York, USA, in 2008, for her role in the global fight against HIV/AIDS; the African Goodwill Ambassador Award (Los Angeles, USA, 2008) and was the recipient of the ""Wind of Change"" Award from the South/South Women’s Organization. When Goodluck Jonathan served as Governor between"
"University. He worked at Vanguard Group of Investment Companies, a Fortune 500 Company in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania where he was recruited into the highly competitive and prestigious Smart Leadership Program upon graduation. After more than a decade of working with development foundations and as a policy, financial systems analyst and project manager in Guinea and the United States, Konneh returned to Liberia to serve his country in 2006. In 2014, Konneh received the Minister of Finance of the Year for Africa, presented by The Banker Magazine. Upon the election of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in 2005, Mr. Konneh was named"