On November, 11th Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf became the first elected African female head of state. Her victory over soccer star and popular favorite George Weah will leave her with the tremendous task of running a country that has been robbed by former kleptocratic leaders, mainly Charles Taylor, and torn apart by civil war. As a Harvard trained economist President Johnson-Leaf will have her hands full trying to implement her plans for reconciliation and development with a meager budget of $80million. This week Ms. Johnson Sirleaf was officially installed as President. But, most importantly as she stated she hopes to raise the profile of women across the continent.
This week also saw Chile elect it's first female president, Michelle Bachelet. She becomes the third female head of state in Latin America and the first who is not the widow of a prominent male. Her victory was not as dramatic as Ms. Johnson-Sirleaf's, but shows that constituencies across all socio-economic backgrounds are prepared to accept female heads of state (Liberia, Chile, and Germany, most recently)SO.......
In the Land of Founding Fathers turned Single Mothers are we finally ready to break up the dominance of white male patriarchal leadership?? Hillary 20008??
2 comments:
This country won't budge that quickly... maybe another 50 years.
Can't you come up with something better? There's got to be a female equivalent of Barack out there somewhere.
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