Women's Leadership

Ethiopia’s first female president, Sahle-Work Zewde, spoke to FORBES AFRICA’s Managing Editor, Renuka Methil, on the country’s plans to combat Covid-19 and resuscitate one of the fastest growing economies in Africa.

Zewde, listed as one of Africa’s ‘50 Most Powerful Women’ in the March issue of FORBES AFRICA, says while the virus didn’t warrant the nation going into complete lockdown, it has hit some sectors of the East African country’s economy, affecting its GDP growth.

Throughout the COVID-19 crisis, African feminists have been essential in responding with care to the challenges facing their communities.

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MPs “disenfranchised” by the government’s order to return to parliament would be able to sue on grounds of sex, age and disability discrimination in any other workplace, according to new legal advice.

The Inter-Parliamentary Union condemns the imprisonment of 43 Members of Parliament around the world, saying they lack legal recourse to attain justice. The IPU is focusing especially on MPs detained in overcrowded, cramped cells in Venezuela, Ivory Coast and Turkey. The IPU says they are at particular risk of infection from COVID-19 and should be released immediately.

As election season gets underway in Wyoming, several top women in state politics announced this week they would be launching a nonpartisan political action committee tasked with promoting women seeking elected office.

Voters in Ferguson, Mo., made history Tuesday by electing Ella Jones as the city's first black mayor.

The election took place as protesters filled the streets of many U.S. cities, rallying against systemic racism and police brutality faced by many black communities.

As the nation remained gripped by widespread protests against police brutality and systemic racism, black and Hispanic women won elections in multiple states on Tuesday while Representative Steve King, a nine-term congressman with a long history of racist remarks, was ousted in a Republican primary in Iowa.

Life during the coronavirus lockdown has reinforced gender inequality across Europe with research emphasising that the economic and social consequences of the crisis are far greater for women and threaten to push them back into traditional roles in the home which they will struggle to shake off once it is over.