Mothers First, Then Leaders

The article Healing Powers in Newsweek magazine on how various African women are taking on high-powered government positions has much to recommend it. But it's disappointing in the way it plays up the fact that these women are mothers and/or grandmothers in a manner that would never happen in an article about men.

Which of these facts is the more pertinent bit of information about Liberian president Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf: (a) She is 67, (b) She is a grandmother, (c) She is a Harvard-trained economist. Well, writer Joshua Hammer presents them in exactly that order (and shame on whoever edited the article too, for not changing it). It's especially disappointing given the quote from John-Sirleaf stuck right at the end of the article: "'I always start from the note that I'm a technocrat who happens to be a woman,' she says. 'We're not running a women's government.'" Read article on Africa's rolemodels...