ISSUE 45: MARCH-MAY 2007

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Slow progress in improving status of women, says Liberian leader

Progress in improving the status and rights of African woman over the past two decades has been slow but steady, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said in a speech at UNU Centre, Tokyo, March 13.

Liberian President Sirleaf at UNU Centre.

Speaking on The Role of Women in African Development before an audience of 200 at the U Thant conference hall, President Sirleaf noted that throughout history, the women of Africa have played significant roles as “custodians of culture” and in consensus-building and traditional decision-making processes. 

But with modernization in the colonial and post-colonial periods and upheavals in traditional economic and social systems, African women were marginalized and victimized. Liberia was an unfortunate example of this protracted cycle of violence and self-immolation.

But Africa is changing, she declared, and the past two decades have seen economic reform, the rule of law and a trend toward democracy. Although women continue to confront economic and social disadvantages, progress in improving the status and rights of women has been steady, albeit slow. Throughout Africa , women are a growing presence in the labour market as well as in the political sphere. It is this ongoing progress, she said, that enabled her to become the first democratically elected woman president in Africa .

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