- Ellen Johnson Sirleaf – President of the Republic of Liberia
- Joyce Banda – President of the Republic of Malawi
- Catherine Samba-Panza – Interim President of the Central African Republic
There is progress here and there on the continent regarding women's rights . We must go much further to ensure greater gender equality in Africa. It is not just a matter of justice....When women take their rightful place at the negotiating table, in the parliament and in leadership positions across society, we can unleash Africa’s enormous potential..." UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
To learn more about women's political participation, please visit the following websites:
Source: Guardian
"We know that the African Union summit is still very masculine but we are trying to bring in the voices of women," said Gertrude Mongella, former president of the Pan-African parliament, explaining the rationale behind the shadow summit organised by the Gender is my Agenda Campaign (Gimac) in Addis Ababa on 24-26 January. A difficult proposition in a forum where, at the very highest level, there is only one female representative, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, president of Liberia.
Source: New York Times
For years, diplomats, aid workers, academics and government officials here have been vexed almost to the point of paralysis about how to attack this country’s staggering problem of sexual violence, in which hundreds of thousands of women have been raped, many quite sadistically, by the various armed groups who haunt the hills of eastern Congo.
Source: Pulse
Much has been aflutter on twitter about the very visible presence of women among the protests that have taken Egypt by storm over the last few weeks, but images of them have remained sparse amid the digital slideshows strung together by major media outlets, portraying mainly dense crowds of the manly.
Source: The Liberian Journal
Six years into her historic Presidency as the 1st democratically elected woman Head of State of an African country, the euphoria which greeted the event in 2005, is still well alive in Liberia and around the world. President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has weathered
Source: The Inquirer
President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf has told her colleagues attending the African Union Summit that as they move into the 21st century it is necessary to make those "hard choices" needed to control their destiny and emancipate their people from the "shackles of domination and poverty."
Source: All Africa
The PDP Presidential primaries have come and gone, leaving a question on the lips of many Nigerians if the participation of Nigerian women in politics is just mere lip service.
Source: IPS
CAPE TOWN - Noncedo Pulana lacks many things, but she is certainly not short of confidence as she prepares to stand for election as Khayelitsha ward councillor. She feels her long years as an activist in the sprawling township have prepared her to do a better job.
Twenty years after independence, representation of women in senior government structures and in Parliament is declining in Namibia. According to the latest demographic survey results of August 2010, out of a population of around 2 million, women outnumber men 10:9. In 2001, the ratio was 94 males per 100 females.
Source: WeInformers
Political parties came up with manifestos and charters that fairly promised to handle women and gender issues, including promoting involvement of women in their decision making, as well as advancing women’s issues and concerns.
The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment UN WOMEN (formerly UNIFEM) is helping build the capacity of Liberian civil society by training local non-profit organizations to advocate for the integration