Ethiopia Elects First Female President

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October 25, 2018

Sahle-Work Zewde is Ethiopia's first female President, the result of an unanimous election by the country's Federal Parliament Assembly.

Sahle-Work Zewde

The post is ceremonial in Ethiopia, but it is still the first time that a woman has held the post. Among the functions that Ethiopia's President performs are appointing ambassadors, granting pardons, and acting on behalf of the government in welcoming envoys from other countries.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has the more powerful position, as the head of government. Appointed in April, Ahmed has overhauled his Cabinet, reducing the number of ministerial roles from 28 to 20. Significantly, women now hold the two most powerful of those roles, Minister of Defense and Minister of Peace, to whom report the intelligence community and the nation's security forces. Eight other women hold ministerial roles, making it an even split between the genders.

Sahle-Work has considerable experience as a diplomat. She has been her country's ambassador to Djibouti, France, and Senegal. She has been director-general of the United Nations office at Nairobi. Most recently, she has been the head of the U.N. Office to the African Union. (That, too, was a female first.)

Mauritius has also had a female President earlier this year. Ameenah Gurib-Fakim served from 2015 to March 2018.

The first elected female head of state in modern Africa, was Liberia's Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

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Social Studies for Kids
copyright 2002–2018
David White

Social Studies for Kids
copyright 2002–2019
David White