Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Ethiopia appoints Sahle-Work Zewde as first female president

Ethiopian prime minister 'sets the standards' in a 'patriarchal society'  

Hadra Ahmed
Addis Ababa
Friday 26 October 2018 12:31 BST
Comments
Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed with the newly elected President Sahle-Work Zewde, as they leave House of Peoples' Representatives in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 25 October 2018. (Tiksa Negeri
Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed with the newly elected President Sahle-Work Zewde, as they leave House of Peoples' Representatives in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 25 October 2018. (Tiksa Negeri (REUTERS))

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

A week after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed of Ethiopia filled half his new Cabinet with women in a radical overhaul, the country’s parliament took another step towards gender parity Thursday by appointing the country’s first female president.

Sahle-Work Zewde, 68, a seasoned diplomat who has held positions in the United Nations and worked in peacekeeping operations in Africa, accepted the position after the unprecedented appointments of women to lead the Defence Ministry and the secret intelligence agency, a long-feared state organ that recently got a face-lift. (It is now called the Ministry of Peace.)

“In a patriarchal society such as ours, the appointment of a female head of state not only sets the standard for the future but also normalises women as decision-makers in public life,” Fitsum Arega, the prime minister’s chief of staff, said on Twitter.

Though the position of president is considered largely ceremonial, involving opening Parliament and appointing ambassadors, the decision to place Ms Zewde in the role carries significant symbolic weight, said Selam Musse, a gender and media consultant based in Addis Ababa, the capital.

Having a female leader “speaks volumes for women and knocks on every door,” she said, “especially in a country where patriarchy plays a decisive role in political, social and economic structure of our country’s politics.”

Mr Ahmed came to power in April, and the appointment of Ms Zewde, now Africa’s only female head of state, is the latest addition to a series of whirlwind changes in Ethiopia. The country had long relied on a government model that resembles China’s, emphasising state-led economic growth and a suppression of political dissent.

In six months, he has officially ended two decades of hostilities with Ethiopia’s longtime rival and neighbour, Eritrea; started loosening a tightly controlled state-run economy and opened up major industries to foreign investment; pledged multiparty elections; released thousands of political prisoners; and allowed leaders of a previously outlawed opposition group to return to the country.

His latest moves are part of a “reform mentality within the ruling party, a general push towards shaking up the bureaucracy,” said Jason Mosley, a research associate at the African Studies Centre at Oxford University. “Ethiopia still is, despite all the development, a conservative culture on average. It’s still mostly rural, and many women don’t have equal opportunities as men.”

The sudden changes have burst old wounds, prompting violence in various parts of the country where ethnic tensions run particularly high. Still, appointments of people such as Ms Zewde, a relative outsider to the inner politics of the ruling coalition, are thought to pacify critics worried about ethnic or political affiliations poisoning effective leadership.

“I am a product of people who fought for equality and political freedom in this country, and I will work hard to serve them,” Ms Zewde said in her acceptance speech to Parliament.

She also promised to work on issues concerning women. “If you thought I spoke a lot about women already, know that I am just getting started,” she said in a quote that was widely circulated among social media users in Ethiopia.

Ms Zewde was appointed in June by UN Secretary-General António Guterres as his special representative to the African Union and head of the UN Office to the African Union as undersecretary-general. She was previously director general of the UN office in Nairobi, Kenya.

Ethiopia has made remarkable progress, in just a single generation, to increase the enrolment of girls in primary schools. But it still suffers from large gender disparities, according to a UN study.

Women are more prone to disease than men, the study said, and although half the country’s labour force is made up of women, a majority of them are unpaid because most work as farm labourers. Female genital cutting and child marriages are still prevalent, particularly in rural areas, which make up about 80 percent of the country.

“We need a bold leader who actually sees women beyond being mothers and sisters but be inspirations and let others become role models,” Ms Musse said.

Ethiopia, Africa’s second most-populous country and one that 30 years ago was a byword for famine, is more organised, ambitious and centrally controlled than many other governments on the continent – the ruling coalition intends to transform it into a middle-income country by 2025.

Despite the staggering pace of progress, it is still a deeply authoritarian state – though Mr Mosley said that was precisely what has allowed Mr Ahmed to change things so quickly.

“You can have these kind of radical overhauls of gender balancing a Cabinet when it’s authoritarian,” Mr Mosley said. “All the trade-offs necessary in a more competitive political landscape are part of the thing that keeps western democracies from achieving these kind of results.”

The New York Times

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in