Participation

A report released by the Gender Monitoring Office, shows that women massively participated in the just concluded local elections.

54.5 percent of the registered voters were women, compared to 45.5 percent men. It also shows that 41 percent of the candidates who ran for elections for district advisory committees were women.

Former Prime Minister and senior leader of CPN-UML Madhav Kumar Nepal has stressed that the new constitution should guarantee proportional participation of women in every apparatus of the State.

What do Asma Mahfouz, Munira Fakhro and Tawakul Karman all have in common? They are all strong, capable women defying the popular Western image of the oppressed, repressed, suppressed Muslim woman hidden behind a black chador or blue burqa, helplessly waiting for Western liberation.

An Africa Regional Young Women's Leadership Institute (YWLI) yesterday, began in Accra with a call for a vibrant young women's movement to fight gender stereotypes and empower women to reach their full potential in both private and public life.

Supporting African businesswomen is key to the economic development of the continent. As Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said many times, "No country can thrive when half its people are left behind." And the evidence is persuasive: small and medium-sized enterprises run by women are major drivers of economic growth.

President Ellen Johnson has been awarded the 2011 African Gender Award at a ceremony held Saturday night in the Senegalese capital, Dakar, and witnessed by more than a thousand guests, including some of the most influential women on the African continent.

Women have never acted as mere spectators to history, but far too often revolutionary change has shoved them aside, improving conditions for men, and leaving them — even those who fought in the revolutions — abandoned by the wayside. Not this time, at least not if a new wave of internet savvy women have their way.

Following a protracted period of its dormancy, the Female Journalists Association of Liberia has inducted its leadership with a call not to restrict themselves to reporting just issues of gender based violence if there should be a collective effort to change Liberia. Those inducted were Torwon S. Brown, Coordinator; Siatta S. Johnson, Vice Coordinator and Estelle Liberty, Secretary General.

The Leader and Chairman of the main opposition, Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP) Mr. John Oponjo Benjamin (JOB) has called on President Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma to honor his promise he made to the women of Sierra Leone for their 30% quota in governance and civil service.

Mr. Benjamin made this call in his address at the delegate conference of the All Political Party Women's Association (APPWA) at the Bo City Hall in Bo.