Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
Sirleaf in 2015
24th President of Liberia
In office January 16, 2006 – January 22, 2018
Vice President(s)	Joseph Boakai
Preceded by	Gyude Bryant
Succeeded by	George Weah
Minister of Finance
In office 1979 – April 12, 1980
President	William Tolbert
Preceded by	James T. Phillips Jr.
Succeeded by	Perry Zulu
In office 1990 – 1990
President	Amos Sawyer
Preceded by	Emmanuel Shaw
Succeeded by	Stephen Byron Tarr
Born	October 29 1938 (1938-10-29) Monrovia, Liberia
Political party	Liberian Action Party (1985–1996) Unity (1997–2018) Independent (2018–present)
Spouse	James Sirleaf (m. 1956; div. 1961)​
Children	4
Signature

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (October 29, 1938 - ) served as the 24th president of Liberia from 2006 to 2018, Africa's first elected female head of state and Liberia's first elected female president. Referred to as the "Iron Lady," this is an intended comparison with Great Britain's first woman Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. For anyone to become head of their state is a significant achievement, regardless of their gender. However, few women have been elected to comparable office elsewhere in the world, so as the first ever women head of a modern African state, Sirleaf has assured herself a place in history.

She came to office promising peace and stability after fourteen years of war, violence, and civil strife. Her own life tells a story of personal courage, including imprisonment and exile. Her success in the private sphere means that she could have remained outside of politics. However, she has chosen public service because she believes that her skills, especially in the economic field, equip her for leadership. She was also convinced that in a nation ravaged by a war largely waged be men, a woman might help to heal the people's wounds. She is an advocate of women's role in peacemaking, arguing that women bring a particular sensitivity to peace negotiations, and should be represented by right. Together with Leymah Gbowee of Liberia and Tawakkol Karman of Yemen, Sirleaf was jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their non-violent struggle for women's full participation in peace-building work. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor from the United States, where she attended University.

Life

Ellen's grandfather was a German who married a rural market woman. The grandfather was forced to leave the country during the war in 1917.

Two of Sirleaf's grandparents were indigenous Liberians. Her father, the son of the Gola Chief Jahmalae and Jenneh, one of his many wives, was born in Julejuah, Bomi County. As a result of her grandfather's friendship and loyalty to President Hilary Richard Wright Johnson, and on the advice of the President, her father was brought to the capital, his name changed to Johnson, and he was given to the settler family, McCritty.

Sirleaf graduated from the College of West Africa (Monrovia), a United Methodist high school. She received a Bachelor of Science in Accounting at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Wisconsin, U.S., in 1964, an economics diploma from the University of Colorado in 1970, and a Master of Public Administration from Harvard University in 1971. She is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, a social action organization and the first collegiate sorority founded by and for Black women (1908).

On November 5, 2007, President George W. Bush awarded Sirleaf the Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award given by the United States.

In 2011, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize with Leymah Gbowee of Liberia and Tawakkol Karman of Yemen. The three women were recognized "for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace-building work."

Personal life

Sirleaf is the mother of four sons (two live in the United States and two live in Liberia) and has eight grandchildren. Some of her grandchildren live in Atlanta, Georgia, Florida, and London. She is also married and also divorced.

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

Early career

Returning to Liberia after Harvard, Sirleaf became Assistant Minister of Finance in President William Tolbert's administration (1972-1973). In 1980, Tolbert was overthrown and killed by army sergeant Samuel Doe, ending decades of relative stability. Doe was a member of the Krahn ethnic group and was the first Liberian president not to be descended from the elite ex-American slave community. For the next ten years, Doe allowed the Krahn people to dominate public life. She was placed under house arrest in 1985, for criticizing the regime, and has been imprisoned on several occasions.

After the overthrow of Tolbert, Sirleaf went into exile in Nairobi, Kenya, where she worked for Citibank. She returned to run for Senate in 1985, but when she spoke out against Doe's military regime, she was sentenced to ten years in prison. Released after a short period, she moved to Washington, D.C. She returned to Liberia again, in 1997, in the capacity of an economist, working for the World Bank, and Citibank in Africa. From 1992-1997, she worked for the UNDP with the equivalent rank of an Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations.

Initially supporting Charles Taylor's bloody rebellion against President Samuel Doe in 1990, she later went on to oppose him, and ran against him in the 1997 presidential election. She managed only 10 percent of the votes, as opposed to Taylor's 75 percent. Taylor charged her with treason. She campaigned for the removal of President Taylor from office, playing an active and supportive role in the transitional government, as the country prepared itself for the 2005 election. With Taylor's departure, she returned to take over the leadership of the Unity Party.

In 1999, she was one of seven "eminent persons" nominated by the Organization of African Unity to investigate the Rwandan Genocide.

Presidency

Sirleaf campaigning in Monrovia in 2005, shortly before she was elected

After the end of the Second Liberian Civil War and the establishment of a transitional government, Sirleaf was proposed as a possible candidate for chairman of the government. Ultimately, Gyude Bryant, a political neutral, was chosen as chairman, while Sirleaf served as head of the Governance Reform Commission.

Sirleaf stood for president as the candidate of the Unity Party in the 2005 general election. During the election campaign, the grandmother figure was often dwarfed by her party officials and bodyguards. One veteran of Liberia's political scene said Ellen Johnson Sirleaf's nickname comes from her iron will and determination.

It would have been much easier for her to quit politics and sit at home like others have done but she has never given up.

She stressed that if elected she would combat corruption and work for national reconciliation and that she would include her opponent in her government. She argued that as a woman who had played no role in the war she could help to heal the wounds of war, bringing motherly "sensitivity and emotion to the Presidency." Although much of her support came from women, she also attracted men who agreed that it might be time to give a woman a chance, as one male voter said, "We need a woman to out things right." She promised to reform the land tenure system, a source of dispute between different ethnic groups.

In the first round of 2005 voting, she came second, with 175,520 votes, putting her through to the runoff vote on November 8, against former soccer player George Weah. On November 11, the National Elections Commission of Liberia declared Sirleaf to be president-elect of Liberia. On November 23, they confirmed their decision, saying that Sirleaf had won with a margin of almost 20 percent of the vote. Independent, international, regional, and domestic observers declared the vote to be free, fair, and transparent. Her supporters said she had two advantages over the man she faced in the run-off: She was better educated and a woman. She also promised to "encourage woman across Africa to seek high political office." Her inauguration took place on January 16, 2006; foreign attendees of the ceremony included Condoleezza Rice, Laura Bush, and Michaëlle Jean.

She began her inaugural address with a period of silent commemoration for those who died in the civil war, then promised change:

This occasion, held under the cloudy skies, marks a celebration of change and a dedication to an agenda for a socio-economic and political reordering; indeed, a national renewal.

Today, we wholeheartedly embrace this change. We recognize that this change is not change for change sake, but a fundamental break with the past, thereby requiring that we take bold and decisive steps to address the problems that for decades have stunted our progress, undermined national unity, and kept old and new cleavages in ferment.

As we embrace this new commitment to change, it is befitting that, for the first time, the inauguration is being held on the Capitol Grounds, one of the three seats of Government. We pledge anew our commitment to transparency, open government, and participatory democracy for all of our citizens.

On March 15, 2006, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf addressed a joint meeting of the United States Congress, asking for American support to help her country “become a brilliant beacon, an example to Africa and the world of what love of liberty can achieve.”

Sirleaf made education of girls a priority. She set up the Liberia Education Trust, with an ambitious school building and teacher training program. In June 2008, she established the 1st Peace Girls Leadership Dialogue of the Women Peace and Security Network in Africa.

On July 26, 2007, President Sirleaf celebrated Liberia's 160th Independence Day under the theme "Liberia at 160: Reclaiming the future." She took an unprecedented and symbolic move by asking 25 year old Liberian activist Kimmie Weeks to serve as National Orator for the celebrations. Kimmie became Liberia's youngest National Orator in over a hundred years and delivered a powerful speech. He called for the 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.

From left to right: Tawakkul Karman, Leymah Gbowee, and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf display their awards during the presentation of the Nobel Peace Prize, December 10, 2011.

In January 2010, Sirleaf announced that she would run for a second term in office in the 2011 presidential election while speaking to a joint session of the legislature. Opposition leaders noted that in doing so, she had broken a promise made during her 2005 campaign to only serve one term if elected. Sirleaf was renominated as the Unity Party's 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 delegates as Sirleaf's running mate.

The awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Sirleaf four days prior to the election sparked criticism from opposition parties, with Congress for Democratic Change candidate Winston Tubman calling the award "undeserved" and "a political interference in our country's politics." Sirleaf called the timing of the award a coincidence and avoided mentioning the award during the final days of campaigning.

Following her successful re-election campaign, Sirleaf announced the creation of a "national peace and reconciliation initiative," led by her Nobel Peace Prize co-laureate Leymah Gbowee, to address the country's divisions and begin "a national dialogue that would bring us together." She took the presidential oath for her second presidency on 16 January 2012.

Life after politics

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf with Mia Mottley, Prime Minister of Barbados, in 2022

In 2018, Sirleaf founded the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Presidential Center for Women and Development, which aims "to be a catalyst for change across Africa, by helping unleash its most abundant untapped power – its women." In 2019, Director-General of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom appointed Sirleaf as the WHO Goodwill Ambassador for the health workforce. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, she stepped down from this post to serve as co-chair (alongside Helen Clark) of the WHO's Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response (IPPR). Also in 2020, she was appointed to the Development Advisory Council of the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation.

In addition, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf holds a number of paid and unpaid positions, including the following:

• Africa Europe Foundation (AEF), Member of the High-Level Group of Personalities on Africa-Europe Relations (since 2020)
• Brenthurst Foundation, Member of the Advisory Board
• Mastercard Foundation, Member of the Board of Directors (since 2020)

Legacy

Although her success as a leader is evaluated by what she achieved during her presidency, the fact that she was the first women head of a modern African state assured her place in history. Her commitment to democracy and to development earned her nation's confidence. Her commitment to enabling more women to participate in peacemaking around the world is likely to be strengthened when pursued from the Executive Mansion. She has argued that women should be assured a place at peace talks through ensuring that a gender-balance is built into all international initiatives. Speaking about women's role in peace making, she said:

Women are more concerned about people…. They are in the homes carrying the burden of the home and the family. [From that experience,] women bring a sensibility, a sensitivity, to those things which bring peace.

Awards

• Recipient of the 1988 Franklin Delano Roosevelt Freedom of Speech Award
• Ralph Bunche International Leadership Award
• Grand commander Star of Africa Redemption of Liberia
• Commandeur de l'Ordre du Togo (commander of the Order of Mono(Togo))
• 2006 Common Ground Award recipient
• 2006 Laureate of the Africa Prize for Leadership for the Sustainable End of Hunger
• 2006 Distinguished Fellow, Claus M. Halle Institute for Global Learning, Emory University
• 2006 Awarded Honorary Doctor of Laws from Marquette University
• 2007 Presidential Medal of Freedom (USA)
• 2008 Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement
• 2009 EITI Award
• 2009 Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from the University of Tampa
• 2010 Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Yale University and Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
• 2010 Friend of the Media in Africa Award from The African Editor's Union
• 2011 Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Harvard University
• 2011 African Gender Award
• 2011 Nobel Peace Prize
• 2012 Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development
• 2017, awarded a title in the Nigerian chieftaincy system by Eze Samuel Ohiri of Imo, Nigeria. As a result, she is now the Ada di Ohanma of Igboland.
• 2018 Won the 2017 version of the Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership

Publications

• 1991. "From Disaster to Development." In Kevin Cahill (ed.). A Framework for Survival: Health, Human Rights, and Humanitarian Assistance in Conflicts and Disasters.
• 1992. Co-authored with Francis Nyirjesy. The Outlook for Commercial Bank Lending to Sub-Saharan Africa. Policy Research Working Paper Series 720, The World Bank.
• 2002. Co-authored with Elizabeth Rehn. Women, War and Peace: The Independent Experts’ Assessment on the Impact of Armed Conflict on Women and Women’s Role in Peace-building.
• 2009. This Child Will Be Great: Memoir of a Remarkable Life by Africa's First Woman President.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Cooper, Helene. Madame President: The Extraordinary Journey of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. Simon & Schuster, 2017. ISBN 978-1451697353
• Hoogensen, Gunhild, and Bruce Olav Solheim. Women in Power: World Leaders since 1960. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 2006. ISBN 978-0275981907
• McCain, John, and Mark Salter. Hard Call: Great Decisions and the Extraordinary People who Made Them. New York: Twelve, 2007. ISBN 978-0446580403
• Sutherland-Addy, Esi, and Aminata Diaw. Women Writing Africa. West Africa and the Sahel. New York: Feminist Press at the City University of New York, 2005. ISBN 978-1558615014

External links

All links retrieved April 24, 2025.

• Profile: Liberia's 'Iron Lady' BBC News Online, November 23, 2005.
• Iron Ladies of Liberia Independent Lens, PBS.
• Ellen Johnson Sirleaf The Nobel Prize
• Ellen Johnson Sirleaf: First Female President of Liberia & Nobel Peace Laureate United Nations
• Ellen Johnson Sirleaf The Elders
• Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics, Iowa State University.

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