Waiting for Their Moment in the Worst Place on Earth to Be a Woman

Ever since the voting results started coming in a few days ago, showing what the Liberian women had done, I’ve been unable to get one image from Bukavu [Congo] out of my mind. It is of an old woman, in her 30’s. It was almost twilight when I saw her, walking up the hill out of the city as I drove in. She carried so many logs that her chest almost seemed to touch the ground, so stooped was her back. Still, she trudged on, up the hill toward her home. Her husband was walking just in front of her. He carried nothing. Nothing in his hand, nothing on his shoulder, nothing on his back. He kept looking back at her, telling her to hurry up.

Helene Cooper in a fine op-ed essay in The New York Times.

What the Liberian women have done is elect a woman president, the first woman elected to lead an African country.