Patriarchy

When Sirleaf started her tenure as President of Liberia, she had already had in her professional life, achieved a certain amount of prominence or success. And so when she became President, one of her first messages, to the nation and others was that she was merely a technocrat who just happens to be a woman.That may have sent wrong sentiments to women, however, she felt that she had to let them know to establish her bona fide. Especially for the men who were always suspiciously looking at her as the first African woman President in a country just out of conflict and wondering how was she would control war lords, or how she would be able to sit with other leaders who are all men and all those who never felt that women, were up to their level in any way.

· Sirleaf was very quick to let people know that, not to question her capacity, her knowledge or her courage on the basis of her identity as a woman. But at the same time as a woman, it was difficult for her to not to be overwhelmed with the feeling of isolation when she was the only woman in a room with all men.

· It is good to have a critical mass of women leaders because when you are the only one it is hard to shift mindsets. All eyes are you when you when you are the only woman leader. Sirleaf made a point to always speak up and when she raised her hand, all eyes were fixated on her. They are waiting to see what you will say. Is it, this is something that they would disagree with? Will you demonstrate either your lack of knowledge? The advantage that Sirleaf is that she had worked with many of the other African Presidents and leaders before, through her previous roles and so they knew her, and they knew what to expect of her.

· Identify as Iron lady: From the very beginning of her Presidential tenure and because Sirleaf had been very strict during her former role as as Minister of Finance, she was characterized as someone who can hit back very hard in words. That’s how the name “Iron Lady” became attached to her. Sirleaf could answer very well and take up challenging questions. She spoke very freely and firmly on issues. In the first term as President, Sirleaf was very focused on speed and getting thing done. And so that meant a lot of hard decision including firing people, taking a strong position on hard topics.

Sirleaf in her garden. She loves fresh flowers

· Toward the end when the political space was opening, Sirleaf mellowed a bit and that's when the name changed from iron lady to ma-Ellen. In her second term, it was harder to keep the groups or factions in the government together because political ambition had taken place, with incoming elections, too many of the main people that were holding high positions whose continuity in effort and commitment was required, all of a sudden it wasn't there because everybody knew term was coming to an end. They also knew because Sirleaf believed in democracy, she would not seek a constitutional change or sit for a term beyond. So the cohesion that the government had in the first one began to break.

· Her concentration even in the first term was to raise the level of women in the informal sector. That was her priority because Sirleaf, felt they were the ones who had been left behind. The rural women who on the farm. Again, Sirleaf was influenced by her upbringing, with the fact that her two grandmothers, had died illiterate. Her concentration was one that to ensure that those women have better working conditions. Secondly to ensure that the young girls who found themselves in the market or on a farm with their mothers got an education and so primary education became compulsory. Sirleaf establish a Liberian, education trust with help from external funding because internal resources were few. She was able to galvanize help from organizations such as Humanity United or philanthropist like Soros from the open society. That fund had three objectives to build or reconstruct 50 schools to train 500 teachers. And to have scholarship for 5,000 girls. The government had a very clear objective and the goverment exceeded it.

· Sirleaf also established the Sirleaf Market Women Fund and that was meant to build new markets or to improve the conditions of existing markets and make it easier for women to run their businesses.

· On the professional side, Sirleaf appointed more superintendents like governors, mayors, and ambassadors. She always believed in women empowerment and even during her UNDP days, Sirleaf elected many women leaders to country representatives, unprecedented in the history of the institution.

· Many times, women leaders were just symbolic placements whether in the executive or in the legislature. Now in her focus on that, Sirleaf lost a little bit of connection with the political women and that's because women organizations were not organized enough to be able to identify a few key women figures that the government could all rally around. Organizations were fracturing because everybody wanted to run there, and they did not have enough resources and they did not consolidate. So, in both the government and legislature, the government could have got many more women leaders if they had consolidated a few potential women leaders, who we could of rally behind.

Culturally as well, Sirleaf worked to change some of the norms. For example, the government had Muslim societies where women and men could not sit together. They separate them in different places for religious decrees. They could all be in the same room, but they'll never sit together. Sirleaf worked to change that. So, when she got to hold meetings, at county or rural areas she would demand that both men and women should sit together. This helped to elevate the status of women in these communities and many have thanked her for giving them a voice. That's was all they wanted. They now had a voice in that society. They could participate in meetings. They could express themselves. And that's because when Sirleaf started, she demanded that and it became part of the culture.