Ellen Johnson Sirleaf wins the Nobel Peace Prize! Watch her video from TEDWomen
An incredibly fascinating and charismatic woman. Watch her speech and take a look for the major themes of her discussion. What are they? How much do they apply to the leadership of women in America? Do you think what she states is an accurate assessment of why women may make better leaders than men?
An incredibly fascinating and charismatic woman. Watch her speech and take a look for the major themes of her discussion. What are they? How much do they apply to the leadership of women in America? Do you think what she states is an accurate assessment of why women may make better leaders than men?
An incredibly fascinating woman. What do you think the major themes of her talk were?
ReplyDeletePresident Ellen Johnson Sirleaf definitely is fascinating. She is dedicated and looks at things happening in her country in a different way because of who she is. One of the topics she kept brining up was how men and women look at issues differently. She looks at things in a more sensitive way instead of looking at things a "man would," meaning going straight to the guns or going straight to war. Women respond more to the welfare of the people instead of starting wars and causing damage to the country. She says women look at issues in a more sensitive way. An issue that she has lived through is schooling, can girls go to school if they live in a place that is filled with poverty? Usually, the answer is no because boys get the upper hand because they are “the brave winner” in families. Because she is a woman, President Sirleaf changed that and now stresses that girls do go to school. Another point she brought up is if she were a man, she could not do what she has done. This intrigued me and I found it very interesting. After listening to her reasoning, I believe her. She said because she is a woman, it sets her apart from the rest of them and she can do what she wants to achieve, having girls in school as one of the examples. She finds the balance between strength and welfare, making sure those living in her country are looked after, because that is the most important thing for her.
ReplyDeletePresident Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is an incredible women leader who has unique views on the difference between the leadership of men and women. Including, she can keep a balance between the toughness, by making tough decision and also the grandmother like sensitivity. One of the themes President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf stated is “if there’s anything that’s different is the extra sensitivity that a woman brings to it”. What she means by that is, a man and women have similar leadership qualities but the difference is a woman adds sensitivity, instead of the man who adds war like behavior. The qualities of Ellen Johnson having these grandmother like qualities and also being a women leader allows her to stress girls education, as she states “education should belong to all”. Unfortunately women have the disadvantage when it comes to education because the boy is consider the brave winner, which he his sent to school first if the family cannot afford to send more than one person to school. Luckily as a women leader she can demand this, to have boys and girls go to school, plus she puts her sensitivity towards the welfare of her people. Another theme that Ellen Johnson stated is that she couldn’t have done this if she were born a man. This really confused me of what she meant by a man would have achieved less? But as the video played on , she said that reason being a women achieved more is because she is set apart from everyone else which allows her to make great decision for her people.
ReplyDeleteFrom Courtney H
ReplyDeleteI agree with Adam in saying Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is an amazing woman. Often times, woman are not given enough credit or freedom to experience the same opportunites as a man. In the video, the interviever asked Ellen to explain her answer to question if you were a man do you think you would have accomplished more? Ellen's answer to this is no I would have accomplished less. Ellen believes that living as a woman is harder than living as a man. She disscusses that her presidency is more sensitive to women and their oppurtunities. This leadership should set an example for the woman today and make them want to strive for power in the United States. Yes, it is harder for woman to earn the same spot as a man but like Ellen said its all about finding the balance. If one can find that balance then she will be set up to succeed. The most important theme in this discussion is the equality of men and women. Ellen's statements are extremly powerful and her leadship in her country will help improve the unfair treament women recieve today.
It is cool how a woman president like Ellen could do as much to make sure that girls go to school as well as boys do.
ReplyDeleteI agree with everyone in saying that President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is very charismatic and is quite amazing. I like how @Courtney brings up the quote about would her life have been better if she were a women. Along with Madam President Sirleaf I believe she has had more opportunity and has gotten to see things differently in the world do to being a women. Which makes her a stronger leader. When the interviewer starts off with asking, "is there anything you look at differently being a women leader?" I enjoy how President Sirleaf says that she always thinks with more sensitivity. Because I believe it is true about all women. I know this is out of context, but just look at the notes girls take in class and how color coordinated everything is. If you take that, and put it into "country talk", I believe that the country would be in a pretty good condition and very well thought about. One point that I did not like though, is the one about buying guns and ammunition. I am not saying that I am pro war, but do believe that every country needs to be ready if the worst were to happen. Does anyone else feel the same way?
ReplyDeleteI think that President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is very wise and charismatic woman. Everyone who has seen that video can agree with me. You have to be even wiser and braver to get leadership role in Africa than in Europe or North America. Because in Africa there is so long history and strong religions rules. In Africa women has always been discriminated against on the gendre. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said that women can look things in different way than men. Men wants to solve problems by waging war and women wants to instead, go through things by talking about. Peter Bennet said that every country needs guns for protect themselves. I don`t agree with Peter, because if you don´t want to fight and you want to stay neutral, you can do it. In World War 2 there was couple that kind of countries in Europe.
ReplyDeleteI don´t see any reason why women couldn´t be a good leader, but are they better than men? I think that you can generalized all men and women, because we all are individuals.
I think that a women can make for a great leader. This brings up the point as well that two many of either male or female leaders would create an overall unbalanced net fairness of the leaders two each other, and to the people whom they are leading. I also agree with what Courtney and Shawn stated about advocacy for unsexist treatment towards women. Men who led previous to her did not created nor implemented an educational system which would include equal education for both men and women. The fact that she herself is a women, thus gives her incite into this sexist educational system from the side of a person on the abused/mistreated side. This missing piece of incite which she provides to situations (not only just in the field of education)is why it is important that she be a woman and not a man. The more incite that is given into a problem, the more information is present to perform analysis with. This means that accuracy is directly related to the amount of incite that is available so having women and men act as leaders has, in my comprehension, one hundred precent beneficial and zero percent disadvantageous.
ReplyDeleteFrom the Brain of Taylor Macdowell
ReplyDeletePresident Ellen Johnson Sirleaf definitely got my attention. She is a very strong, dedicated and thinks about things in a larger scale. She knows who she is and what she stands for. She kept bringing up how men and women approach their personal and public issues differently. Women tend to look at an issue in a sensitive way, where men tend to go straight to the violence side like wars. Being a girl, I understand the sensitive side of issues. I usually first think about how it will affect other people and what the consequences might be. She talked about one of the issues she lived through, which was education. When she was younger, it wasn’t right from girls to attend school full time. The men were the only ones to go to school because they were superior. Now that she is a know leader, she stresses the fact that women should go to college and further their education. When the interviewer asked her she could have completed more if she was a man, I was so happy with her answer. She said no and I agree because if she was she would probably go straight for the result of war, which guys do. At the end of the day, war doesn’t solve anything, it just creates bigger problems.
Now a days, we are having more women come to be more important leaders in different situations. President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is a good example because she stands up for herself and what is right. She is very impressive, interesting and knows what she wants to achieve in her life. She knows how to balance between the strength and toughness of being a women leader and the compassionate and welfare of the people in her country.
From the brain of Jeff G
ReplyDeletePresident Ellen Johnson Sirleaf definitely got my attention. She is a very strong, dedicated and thinks about things in a larger scale. She knows who she is and what she stands for. She kept bringing up how men and women approach their personal and public issues differently. Women tend to look at an issue in a sensitive way, where men tend to go straight to the violence side like wars. Being a girl, I understand the sensitive side of issues. I usually first think about how it will affect other people and what the consequences might be. She talked about one of the issues she lived through, which was education. When she was younger, it wasn’t right from girls to attend school full time. The men were the only ones to go to school because they were superior. Now that she is a know leader, she stresses the fact that women should go to college and further their education. When the interviewer asked her she could have completed more if she was a man, I was so happy with her answer. She said no and I agree because if she was she would probably go straight for the result of war, which guys do. At the end of the day, war doesn’t solve anything, it just creates bigger problems.
Now a days, we are having more women come to be more important leaders in different situations. President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is a good example because she stands up for herself and what is right. She is very impressive, interesting and knows what she wants to achieve in her life. She knows how to balance between the strength and toughness of being a women leader and the compassionate and welfare of the people in her country.
President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf makes a great leader. Shes shows much passion and dedication to her work. She stated that "womena are extra sensitive". I feel this is important because women seam to look at everything as a whole and they are very "motherly". She also states that her "grandmother side comes out" when she works with kids. I feel this allows individuals to feel a sence of comfort when they listen, see, or even talk to President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. I feel as though she is a great leasder and will take strong action to fulfill everyones needs.
ReplyDeletePresident Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has been recognized as an absolutely amazing women. She has touched on numerous different issues that are plaguing the world, and have had little done to fix them. I disagree with what Teemu said about how women and men can be generalized because they are all individuals. I feel that women and man have experienced so many different things, and that each of those experiences has shaped them to have different opinions about many different situations. President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf stated that if she was born a man she would have accomplished less during her life. I feel that this is because being born a woman she was raised with a different perspective on things. She can relate to different matters that men cannot, and she is more sympathetic to many different issues. An example to this is that she is extremely involved in helping women attend school. The reason for this is that she can relate to the women who are struggling, and she has personal experiences that she is working off of. Also, being a woman, she says that she takes much different approaches to solving issues. Rather then jumping to violence, she tries to find a way around war, and finds a different solution to the issue.
ReplyDeletePresident Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is able to see things from the sense of a woman. Both men and women make great leaders but in a country where women are given less opportunities for an education and are not thought of as highly as men it may be good to have a more sympathetic leader towards women. I think it is great that someone who came from a place where women aren't given as many importunitys was able to accomplish so much. The main points she kept bringing up were how men and women look at things differently. She says as a women she is more understanding and willing to work things out then men would be. Men might try solving things through war and violence when she would figure out what the source of the problem really was without demanding war. Of course you cant say all men and women are like that, but I think for the most part what she said is true about that. Men and women do tend to think in different ways and react differently to issues and sometimes a woman's point of view is needed more in situations. I think it was great that she said that as a woman she accomplished more. If she weren't a women she may not have been encouraged to fight for women rights as much. I think Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is a great leader with great ideas.
ReplyDeleteFrom the Brain of the Jake K:
ReplyDeletePresident Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is a very amazing women and has worked very hard to get where she is. I would agree with Courtney when she says "often times women are not given enough credit". I think this is true all over the world. I think one of the reoccurring themes is that if a women is president she will be to emotional and not hard nosed enough. Like president Ellen said she is very concerned with the proper education of young girls in her country. However if a male president was in office he may not be as concerned with that. Also I think the reason people don’t want a women as president is because they will be to consumed with the emotional aspect rather than what is the right decision. For instance President Ellen says " A women is not going to be buying guns and fighting wars". I think this also applies to women in America because the US is yet to have a female president. This might be the reason. I do think that Ellen is accurate when she says women make men better leaders because they help men maybe look more to the sensitive side rather than always wanting to fight. I think that men and women working together help each other to become better leaders. I also believe that what President Ellen has done is very cool and I think it is awesome she won the Nobel prize and I don’t think it will be long before there is a female president in the US.
It is obvious that President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is a tremendously accomplished individual, who has worked very hard for the position she has earned in government, and her recent recognition by the Nobel Peace Prize Committee. I believe, however, that her insightful words may have been interpreted in a slightly more exaggerated way than what she actually meant when she was interviewed. Many who have commented on this video seem to be viewing President Sirleaf’s statements as black and white opinions on the differences of men and women’s leadership capabilities and biases. For example, when Jake K stated “Also I think the reason people don’t want a women as president is because they will be to consumed with the emotional aspect rather than what is the right decision.” I don’t believe that President Sirleaf stated at any time during her interview that a woman’s opinion is less relevant than a man’s, or that a woman is more likely to make a decision based on emotion, even if it’s not the “right decision.” My interpretation of the president’s words is that women are generally more sensitive towards the consequences of actions, and take the time to think things through before making rash decisions. Never did I hear her state that women were more likely to make the wrong decision—whose point of view are we determining the definition of wrong anyways? It’s all open to interpretation, and depending on the individual, wrong can be either side. It is capable for every human being—male or female—to make logical and moral decisions, and I believe that making generalizations such as all women are emotional and maternal when making decisions and all men are violent and aggressive will only hold our society back from evolving into a more peaceful and gender-neutral environment, with an equal number of leaders from each gender. Perhaps, in some ways, women do make better leaders, but we must not box ourselves into a society with a strict philosophy of a male/female dichotomy, we have to accept that everyone is different in their decision making process, and although generally women are more sensitive to certain civil rights issues while many men are more keen to defend state rights, the lines are blurred every day, and as long as both sides are ethical, there’s no saying which one is “right.”
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