Sahle-Work Zewde has been a woman of diplomatic experience at the national and international level for more than three decades. Her historic election as Ethiopia‘s first female president raised hopes among advocates for gender equality in the country, and she has served as a role model for women political leaders in Ethiopia and beyond.
Born in 1950 and raised in Ethiopia, she once explained, “I grew up in a family of four girls. I’m the firstborn. But I had a very amazing family especially my father, who has always told us that there is nothing that a woman or a girl cannot do. So this has been my motto all my life and in whatever I did, by the way, I was the first woman to do this, the first woman to do that, so I was daring.”
Sharing her father’s values, Zewde made education one of her top priorities throughout her career. After graduating from a French university, she came back to Ethiopia and worked at the Ministry of Education in the Public Relations Department. She also served as Ethiopia’s ambassador to France, Djibouti, Senegal, and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), a regional trade bloc in East Africa.
Before her appointment as president, she was elected head of the United Nations Integrated Peace-Building Office in the Central African Republic and was appointed as the first female Special Representative to the African Union and Head of the United Nations Office to the African Union at the level of Under-Secretary-General.
In the Ethiopian constitution, the position of president is a largely ceremonial role, with the prime minister holding all the political power. However, her appointment in 2018 has been a symbolic move for marginalised populations. It opened the door for gender equality, set gender-equal standards for the future, and contributed to the normalization of women as decision-makers in public policy in Ethiopia and throughout the African continent.
“Let me assure you that I will do my best not only as an Ethiopian but as an African in my heart and soul; so that we can show the world that women can also deliver, maybe differently, but deliver,” she then said.
There is no doubt that she has been and is still a role model for future generations, and especially young women who have a passion for changing their countries and the world.