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The Monitor (Kampala)
COLUMN
March 11, 2006
Posted to the web March 10, 2006
By Angela Nampewo
The world's first female President came to power on July 1, 1974. Maria Estela Martinez de Peron automatically replaced her husband Juan Domingo Peron, who was Argentina's president between 1946-1955 and 1973-1974.
After Maria Estela, the world has had at least 32 female presidents. In subsequent decades but never more has the rise of women leaders been more marked than in the year 2005.
Although women have been working their way to the top over the years, 2005 outshone the previous years in terms of the number and quality of women it sent to the top.
Apart from holding significant positions, the women in question are outstanding by virtue of the circumstances that propelled them to power. Most of 2005's women have risen through a tough past and previously held positions in the governments they now lead. They have an excellent academic record and CVs that make you wonder how they found the time to accomplish so much.
Although they hold similar ambitions and have travelled a long road to get where they are, each is unique in their social circumstances. Some are married, others are single, divorced, widowed or without children.
Angela Merkel
The leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) became Germany's first woman chancellor after narrowly defeating former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in the September 18, elections of 2005.
Although she came to prominence on the back of a scandal concerning allegations that bribes had been paid for the supply of tanks to Saudi Arabia, Merkel quickly turned her fortunes around.
The daughter of a Lutheran pastor, Merkel was born in Hamburg in 1954 and grew up in a rural area outside Berlin in East Germany. She is said to have shown a great talent for Mathematics, Science and Languages. She later earned a doctorate in Physics but worked as a chemist in East Berlin.
In 1989 she became involved in the growing democracy movement, and, after the Berlin Wall came down, she got a job as government spokeswoman following the first democratic elections. She joined the CDU two months before the reunification of Germany and within three months she was in Chancellor Helmut Kohl's cabinet as Minister for Women and Youth.
In 2000, the 51-year-old Merkel, a Protestant East German woman, became the leader of the Christian Democratic Union, a party, whose leadership had been traditionally dominated by Catholic West German men.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is Africa's second female head of state but the first elected female president to come out of the continent. Sirleaf, whose election victory was formally announced on November 23, 2005, was inaugurated on January 16, 2005 at a ceremony attended by the American First Lady, Laura Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
After obtaining a master's degree in public administration from Harvard, Johnson-Sirleaf became involved in government when she became Assistant Minister of Finance in President William Tolbert's administration. Sirleaf was also minister of Finance from 1980 to1985 and later Africa Director at UNDP.
Liberia's new president is following in the footsteps of Africa's first head of state, Ruth Perry, a Liberian herself who rose to become chairman of the Council of State of Liberia between September 1996 and August 1997.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf served two stints as a political prisoner. Following Ruth Perry's term in the hot seat, the Harvard-trained banker, Sirleaf, contested and lost the Presidential elections to Charles Taylor in 1997, after which Taylor declared her a traitor, forcing her to flee the country yet again. A divorcee whose ex-husband died a few years ago, Sirleaf is the mother of four sons and has six grandchildren.
Condoleezza Rice
Condoleezza Rice became US secretary of state on January 26, 2005, making her 66th Secretary of State and the second woman to hold the position in American history after Madeleine Albright.
A professor of political Science, Dr. Rice was National Security Advisor between January 22, 2001 and the first woman to occupy that post in the United States.
Born November 14, 1954 in Birmingham, Alabama Rice has often said she had to be "twice as good" to get ahead. She entered College at age 15 and graduated with a bachelor's degree in political sciences at age 19 from the University of Denver in 1974. Rice earned her master's degree from the University of Notre Dame in 1975 and her Ph.D. from the Graduate School of International Studies at the University of Denver in 1981.
At age 26, Rice became a fellow at Stanford University. Most notable on her mile-long CV is the list of books (and articles) she has written over the years on Soviet and East European affairs and foreign policy.
Having ably demonstrated her knowledge on the latter affairs, she served in the Bush administration (from 1989 to 1991-the time of German Unification and collapse of Soviet union), as Director, then Senior Director of Soviet and Eastern European affairs in the National Security Council before becoming National Security Advisor.
Although she has repeatedly asserted that she has no intentions to do so, Condoleezza Rice has been discussed in American political circles as a possible candidate for America's first woman president. Rice is a pianist, ice skater, football fan and she is single.
Hillary Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham, Dorothy and Hugh Rodham's first child, was born on October 26, 1947. She was Arkansas' first lady for 12 years while her husband Bill Clinton was Governor there. During this time, and in subsequent years as First Lady of the United States of America, Hillary balanced family, law and public service.
After Bill Clinton was elected to the White House in 1992, Hillary became the First Lady of the United States in 1993. She was first lady of the United States of America from 1993 to 2001. As America's first lady, Hillary began her active role in 1993, when her husband asked her to chair the Taskforce on National Health Care Reform.
She was elected United States Senator from New York on November 7, 2000. She is the first, First Lady elected to the United States Senate and the first woman elected statewide in New York.
However, this is not likely to be the last stop on her political journey. She has been pitted against Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice in the 2008 race to the White House. She could be America's first woman president.
Michelle Bachelet
Coming from an ultra-conservative society where only 4 percent of senators are women, it would seem like a great feat that the 54-year-old Michelle Bachelet managed to convince Chileans to elect her their head of State. However, although Chile does not come across as the ideal place for a woman to rise to the top, Bachelet already had many factors working in her favour.
The daughter of an Air Force general, who was imprisoned for opposing the military government of Augusto Pinochet, Bachelet worked undercover for the Socialist youth and was together with her mother, held for weeks in detention. Her story of torture at the hands of Pinochet's men, did earn her sympathy.
However Bachelet considers herself a product of a 'mature and democratic society that believes men and women can hold responsibility'. Bachelet, who is trained as a doctor, has also held public office for the past five years in the health portfolio and later as Defence Minister. She is a single mother of three.
Phumzile M. Ngcuka
On June 22, 2005, Phumzile Mlambo Ngcuka made it to the ranks of the world's women leaders. She was appointed Deputy President, replacing Jacob Zuma, who had just been sacked over allegations of corruption.
The 50-year-old former schoolteacher turned public administrator holds a Masters of Philosophy degree in Educational policy and planning and has since 1996 held the portfolios of Trade and Industry as well as Minerals and Energy ministers in the South African cabinet. She is married to Bulelani Ngcuka, the former chief prosecutor who initiated an investigation into the financial affairs of sacked former Deputy President Jacob Zuma - the man she replaced.
Miria Kalule Obote
In the last interview she gave before her husband's death, Miria Kalule Obote made no secret of her strong position, at least as far as her husband was concerned.
"Milton is a politician and I am his loyal aide," she said, in a statement that implied she was de facto number two to Uganda's former head of State, Milton Obote.
And so it came to pass, that even before the fallen leader could be laid to rest, the elders were already pressing his 'loyal aide' to step into his shoes.
Even though she came onto the scene late last year, Miria Obote managed a feat that no Ugandan woman has ever accomplished. She is the President-general of the Uganda People's Congress (UPC). She was also the party's nominated presidential candidate for 2006 and the first and only woman presidential aspirant in the race to Uganda's State House.
Tanzania
Although the country hasn't yet got a female president or even a presidential aspirant, Tanzania's women also came to the fore in 2005.
Unlike his predecessor's cabinet, which had only four female ministers, the new President of the United Republic of Tanzania, Jakaya Kikwete appointed seven ministers and 10 deputy ministers, the highest number of women cabinet members that the country has had since independence.
Although some of the women ministers had served in the previous cabinet, they resurfaced in Kikwete's cabinet with heavier portfolios. Zakia Meghji, former Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism as minister of Finance and Asha-Rose Migiro, the former Minister for Community Development, Gender and Children as the new minister of Foreign Affairs. Kikwete also appointed women to head the ministries of Education, Justice, Livestock and Community Development.
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As long as you wear the Crown of Truth and Reality you will rule and reign with us. 
up, that will lead our people back to Afrika (right mind-set) as well as physically, and those Queen Goddess will carry the Sword of Diviness.
Originally Posted by kimani
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