Women’s roles in politics may be shifting worldwide as both Chile and Liberia elect their first women heads of state. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia is both the first women president of her native country and of any African country. Sirleaf faces the daunting task of trying to overhaul a nation ravaged by 14 years of civil war, rebellion, and a quarter of a million deaths in the aftermath.
Sirleaf’s road to the presidency was not a smooth one. Her political career began as finance minister for Liberia during the ’70s. After giving a speech opposing the military rule of Samuel Doe in 1985, Sirleaf was sentenced to jail for 10 years where she was tortured.
Sirleaf said that past regimes have brutalized and killed women in Liberia. She believes that her triumph is a score for not only Liberian women, but all African and third-world women.
“The women of Liberia and Africa stood with me and defended me. My administration will empower women in areas of national life,” said Sirleaf.
The new president of Chile, Michelle Bachelet, defeated conservative billionaire Sebastian Pinera to become the new head of state. Bachelet is a socialist, an agnostic and a single mother – hardly the traditional profile of a Chilean leader, a conservative catholic.
“Women and politics in South American countries are often viewed as an oddity by people in the United States,” said Alvis Dunn, Assistant Professor of History. “However, women have participated and led grassroots political movements in the region historically.”
“Bachelet’s move from local to national is an encouraging sign that the work done by women is reaching a level of international influence.”
Friends characterize Bachelet as a workaholic who still manages to enjoy parties and dancing. A pediatrician, she served as the Minister of Health before becoming South America’s first female Minister of Defense in 2002. Bachelet believes she is not unlike most Chileans, and that perhaps this has helped her win them over.
“I am just a Chilean woman, no more and no less than millions of other Chileans,” said Bachelet. “I work, I take care of my home, and I drop my daughter off at school. But I’m also a Chilean that feels a calling to fight for justice and for public service.”
Bachelet, like Sirleaf was also jailed and tortured. Her father, an air force general for Salvador Allende, was tortured to death following Allende’s overthrow by Augusto Pinochet in 1973. She was then sent to a torture center with her mother and narrowly escaped in 1975.
Bachelet has won over Chileans like Andres Chellew, the son of an officer who took part in Pinochet’s coup. He said that Bachelet represents the end of a political and economic era in Chile.
“She represents the middle class, Chile’s reconciliation with its military; she is opening a new chapter in our history. The country is going to change a lot in the next four years, even if some people do not want this,” said Chellew.
According to Rosaline M’Carthy, leader of the Women’s Forum in Sierra Lione, there is a distinct reason why these countries that share a legacy of bloodshed and oppression would elect a female president.
“We have been fighting wars for 15, 20 years in this region,” said M’Carthy. “To see the first female president elected from a war-torn country shows people are now beginning to see what men have wrought in this region. It is the minds of men that make war. Women are the architects of peace.