Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (1938-present) was the first woman to be elected president of Liberia, and the first woman to serve as an elected head of state in modern Africa.
Every weekday, listeners explore the trials, tragedies, and triumphs of groundbreaking women throughout history who have dramatically shaped the world around us. In each 5 minute episode, we’ll dive into the story behind one woman listeners may or may not know -- but definitely should. These diverse women from across space and time are grouped into easily accessible and engaging monthly themes like Leading Ladies, Activists, STEMinists, Hometown Heroes, and many more. Encyclopedia Womannica is hosted by WMN co-founder and award-winning journalist Jenny Kaplan. The bite-sized episodes pack painstakingly researched content into fun, entertaining, and addictive daily adventures.
Encyclopedia Womannica was created by Liz Kaplan and Jenny Kaplan, executive produced by Jenny Kaplan, and produced by Liz Smith, Cinthia Pimentel, Grace Lynch, and Maddy Foley. Special thanks to Shira Atkins, Edie Allard, Luisa Garbowit, and Carmen Borca-Carrillo.
We are offering free ad space on Wonder Media Network shows to organizations working towards social justice. For more information, please email Jenny at jenny@wondermedianetwork.com.
Follow Wonder Media Network:
Hello! From Wonder Media Network, I’m Jenny Kaplan and this is Encyclopedia Womannica.
Today’s politician was the first woman to be elected president of Liberia, and the first woman to serve as an elected head of state in modern Africa. She was also the recipient of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize for her “non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace-building work." Let’s talk about Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
Ellen Johnson was born on October 9, 1938 in Monrovia, the capital city of Liberia. Her father served in the national legislature there.
Growing up, Ellen enjoyed many of the privileges of the political elite, including attending the College of West Africa, a prestigious prep school. After finishing school, at just 17 years of age, Ellen married James Sirleaf, a government bureaucrat in the Department of Agriculture. The couple had four sons together, but divorced in 1961, after 6 years of marriage.
Following the divorce, Ellen decided to obtain her bachelor’s degree in economics. She moved to the United States and enrolled at the Economic Institute of the University of Colorado, Boulder, where she earned her degree in 1970. The following year she enrolled at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government where she received her Master of Public Administration degree.
Upon her return to Liberia in 1972, Ellen joined the government administration of President William Tolbert. She served as the Assistant Minister of Finance. She later served as Minister of Finance from 1980-1985 after Samuel Doe took over the government in a 1980 military coup.
Under Doe’s regime, Ellen was imprisoned twice and nearly executed because of her criticism of Doe’s government. In 1985, she ran for a seat in the Senate during which she increased her criticism of the military dictatorship. For this she was arrested and sentenced to 10 years in prison, but was released after a short time and forced to leave Liberia.
Over 12 years in exile, Ellen became an influential economist. She moved to Washington, DC where she worked for the World Bank, before moving to Nairobi, Kenya where she was an executive at Citibank and other international financial institutions. Ellen also served as the director of the United Nations Development Programme’s Regional Bureau for Africa from 1992-1997.
While Ellen was in exile, Liberia devolved into a bloody civil war. But by 1997, a fragile truce was reached between the two sides, and Ellen decided it was time to go home and reenter Liberian politics. She threw her hat into the 1997 presidential race, where she finished second to Charles Taylor. After the election, Taylor’s newly formed government charged Ellen with treason, and she was forced back into exile.
By 1999, the truce had ended and the civil war in Liberia was once again raging. When violence finally ended in 2003, Charles Taylor was forced into exile, while Ellen returned to Liberia as head of the new Commission on Good Governance, which was tasked with preparing the country for democratic elections.
In 2005, Ellen ran for president for the second time on an anti-corruption and civility platform. She also promised to modernize the country’s decrepit infrastructure. Ellen placed second during the first round of voting, but beat out soccer legend George Weah in the runoff election. She was inaugurated on January 16, 2006, making her the first woman to be elected head of state of an African nation.
When Ellen first took office, there were still more than 15,000 UN peacekeepers on the ground in Liberia as a result of the civil war. Economic devastation was rife, with more than 80% of people out of work. Ellen’s first move to begin addressing these issues was to set up a Truth and Reconciliation Committee to look into corruption and to try and start healing tensions between different ethnic groups. For years, she worked on acquiring aid from other countries and on debt amelioration to save Liberia from the most dire of financial situations. By 2010, Ellen was able to see her success in the form of millions of dollars in aid from other countries and in the complete cancellation of Liberia’s debt.
Though Ellen had vowed to only serve one term in office when she was initially elected, in 2010, she announced plans to run for president again in the 2011 elections. Right before the election, her eligibility was challenged in court by an opposition faction due to a minor constitutional provision that required all presidential candidates to have lived in Liberia for at least the past 10 years. The Supreme Court dismissed the challenge just days before the election, noting that the writers of the constitution could not have foreseen the violent civil war and the Liberian citizens, like Ellen, who were forced into exile.
Ellen found herself the subject of a second pre-election controversy in 2011. Just days before voting began, Ellen received the Nobel Peace Prize for her work to further women’s rights. Many in Liberia cried foul over what they perceived as political interference by the Nobel Committee during the last stretch of the election.
Ellen was running against a dozen other candidates. She placed first on the initial ballot, but was forced into a runoff because she received less than 50% of the vote. She eventually won.
During her second term as president, Ellen was forced to confront the fact that while her administration had made efforts to stop corruption, there were still major problems. In 2012, Ellen was criticized for giving her own children high-level jobs in the government.
Still, for the first three years of her second term, Ellen helped to shepherd what seemed like lasting economic progress. But in 2014, the ebola virus struck Liberia, devastating the country fortwo years, erasing many, if not most, of the economic and social gains made during Ellen’s presidency.
Bound by term limits, Ellen stepped down from the presidency after the 2017 presidential election. In February 2018, she received the highly prestigious Ibramim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership.
Amid the outbreak of Covid-19 this year, Ellen was appointed co-chair of the World Health Organization’s Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response.
All month, we’re talking about politicians. For more on why we’re doing what we’re doing, check out our newsletter, Womannica Weekly. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram @encyclopediawomannica and follow me directly on twitter @jennymkaplan.
Special thanks to my favorite sister and co-creator, Liz Kaplan.
Talk to you tomorrow!