Sierra Leone Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierra ...

, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a Constitutional Republic in West Africa. Since it was founded in 1792, the women in Sierra Leone have been a major influence in the political and economic development of the nation. Sierra Leonean women face extreme gender inequality. They experience high levels of poverty, violence, and exclusion. Nevertheless, they have also played an important role in the education system, founding schools and colleges, with some such as Hannah Benka-Coker being honoured with the erection of a statue for her contributions and

Lati Hyde-Forster Lati Hyde-Forster, MBE (14 June 1911 – 12 September 2001) was the first woman to graduate Fourah Bay College. She was also the first African woman school principal in Sierra Leone. Early life and education Latilewa Christiana Hyde was born on ...

, first woman to graduate from

Fourah Bay College Fourah Bay College is a public university in the neighbourhood of Mount Aureol in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Founded on 18 February 1827, it is the first western-style university built in Sub-Saharan Africa and, furthermore, the first university-le ...

being honored with a doctor of civil laws degree by the

University of Sierra Leone The University of Sierra Leone is the name of the former unitary public university system in Sierra Leone. Established in February 1827, it is the oldest university in Africa. As of May 2005, the University of Sierra Leone was reconstituted int ...

Early history (1787–1900)

With the establishment of the

Province of Freedom Cline Town is an area in Freetown, Sierra Leone. The area is named for Emmanuel Kline, a Hausa Liberated African who bought substantial property in the area. The neighborhood is in the vicinity of Granville Town, a settlement established in 1787 a ...

in 1787, a Sherbro known as Queen Yamacouba was a signatory to the treaty of 1787 which ceded the land to the British. After the destruction of the Province of Freedom in 1789 and the establishment of Freetown and the Colony of Sierra Leone in 1792, all heads of Nova Scotian Settler households were eligible to vote in the upcoming elections in

Freetown Freetown is the capital and largest city of Sierra Leone. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean and is located in the Western Area of the country. Freetown is Sierra Leone's major urban, economic, financial, cultural, educational and p ...

and one-third were ethnic African women. The majority of the ancestors of the

Sierra Leone Creole people The Sierra Leone Creole people ( kri, Krio people) are an ethnic group of Sierra Leone. The Sierra Leone Creole people are lineal descendant, descendants of freed African-American, Afro-Caribbean, and Liberated African slaves who settled in ...

were repatriated

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

Jamaican Maroon Jamaican Maroons descend from Africans who freed themselves from slavery on the Colony of Jamaica and established communities of free black people in the island's mountainous interior, primarily in the eastern parishes. Africans who were ensl ...

and

Liberated African The liberated Africans of Sierra Leone, also known as recaptives, were Africans who had been illegally enslaved onboard slave ships and rescued by anti-slavery patrols from the West Africa Squadron of the Royal Navy. After the British Parliament ...

women principally of

Akan Akan may refer to: People and languages *Akan people, an ethnic group in Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire *Akan language, a language spoken by the Akan people *Kwa languages, a language group which includes Akan *Central Tano languages, a language group w ...

Igbo Igbo may refer to: * Igbo people, an ethnic group of Nigeria * Igbo language, their language * anything related to Igboland, a cultural region in Nigeria See also * Ibo (disambiguation) * Igbo mythology * Igbo music * Igbo art * * Igbo-Ukwu, a ...

and

Yoruba The Yoruba people (, , ) are a West African ethnic group that mainly inhabit parts of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. The areas of these countries primarily inhabited by Yoruba are often collectively referred to as Yorubaland. The Yoruba constitute ...

extraction. Creole households in

were different from traditional African ethnic groups in Sierra Leone in that women had property rights and economic freedom and qualified as professionals such as lawyers and doctors in the early twentieth century. This independence gave women the freedom to travel. As they were financially independent, they were able to divorce to improve their lives economically. From 1830, the women in Sierra Leone were well known for their trading of non-slave-related items. A notable woman trader of the period was

Betsy Carew who had married a butcher, James Thomas, and sold meat to the army. The Creole female traders were

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

. Creole women traded along the entirety of the

West Coast West Coast or west coast may refer to: Geography Australia * Western Australia *Regions of South Australia#Weather forecasting, West Coast of South Australia * West Coast, Tasmania **West Coast Range, mountain range in the region Canada * Britis ...

expanding both their trade and spreading the Christian religion. However, by 1900 European companies began to dominate trade and the Creoles moved to other professions such as medicine and teaching. In 1878,

Madam Yoko Madam Yoko or Mammy Yoko (ca. 1849–1906 ) was a leader of the Mende people in Sierra Leone Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the sou ...

became the Mende people, Queen of Kpaa Mende Seneghum, which had become one of the largest political alliances within the interior. She also went to war against smaller tribes to increase her holdings. In 1898 she supported the British during a rebellion, which also allowed her to expand her holdings. At the time of her death in 1906, her confederacy had become so large it had to be divided into 15 chiefdoms. T J. Alldridge the first commissioner of Sierra Leone reported signing peace treaties with two women chiefs in 1889.

1900–1970

In the city of

, before

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

a woman's position was decided on either class or ethnicity. The Creole people were the dominant ethnic group, with some having access to a better education, the wealthier families had their daughters sent to British finishing schools. The majority of Creole women however fell into the lower classes and their education usually did not go beyond elementary school level in a similar vein to their male counterparts of the same class. In 1915,

Adelaide Casely-Hayford Adelaide Casely-Hayford, Order of the British Empire, MBE (née Smith; 2 June 1868 – 24 January 1960), was a Sierra Leone Creole people, Sierra Leone Creole advocate, an activist of cultural nationalism, a teacher and fiction writer and a femi ...

played an important part regarding women's rights in Freetown giving a lecture on "The rights of Women and Christian Marriage". In 1923 she founded the "Girls Industrial and Technical Training School" with the aim to make women self-sufficient economically. In 1930 women were given the

right to vote Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise, is the right to vote in public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally in English, the right to v ...

, according to local lawyer J. C. Zizer this could be attributed to the numbers of women who now worked in the civil service where their employment terms were equal to their male counterparts. In 1938,

Constance Cummings-John Constance Cummings-John (1918 – 21 February 2000) was a Sierra Leonean educationist and politician. She was the first woman in Africa to join a municipal council and in 1966 became the first woman to serve as mayor of Freetown. She was based in ...

was the first woman in Africa to be elected to a municipal council and she was the first woman to be elected Mayor of Freetown. Her actions led to the formation of the Sierra Leone Market Women's Union and the Washerwoman's Union. In 1952 she founded the

Sierra Leone Women's Movement The Sierra Leone Women's Movement (SLWM) was a Sierra Leonean women's organization founded by Constance Cummings-John in 1951 in collaboration with women leaders from Sierra Leone markets. The SWLM was founded in the aftermath of a 1951 Freetown de ...

as well as a newspaper. She founded the Eleanor Roosevelt Preparatory School for Girls and funded it from the proceeds of her quarrying business. In 1943,

Frances Wright Frances Wright (September 6, 1795 – December 13, 1852), widely known as Fanny Wright, was a Scottish-born lecturer, writer, freethinker, feminist, utopian socialist, abolitionist, social reformer, and Epicurean philosopher, who became a ...

was called to the bar, becoming the first female lawyer in Sierra Leone, she was also given an appointment by the government as a magistrate. She was a legal adviser to the

British High Commission A British High Commission is a British diplomatic mission, equivalent to an embassy, found in countries that are members of the Commonwealth of Nations. Their general purpose is to provide diplomatic relationships as well as travel information, ...

in Freetown and was considered a champion of women's rights. In 1957, four women ran for parliament: Patience Richards,

, Ellen G.A. Caulker and Mrs. C.T. Williams. Cummings-John and Richards both won their bids but their party filed electoral petitions against them, preventing them from taking their seats. In 1960 the

National Congress of Sierra Leone Women The National Congress of Sierra Leone Women (NCSLW) was a Sierra Leonean women's organization, the women's wing of the All People's Congress The All People's Congress (APC) is one of the two major political parties in Sierra Leone, the other ...

(NCSLW), led by

Nancy Steele Nancy Dolly Victoria Steele (1923–2001), was a Sierra Leonean politician and labour activist. Steele was a member of the All People's Congress, APC political party in Sierra Leone. Early life Nancy Dolly Victoria Grant was born in 1923 in Freeto ...

was founded as a women's wing of the

All People's Congress The All People's Congress (APC) is one of the two major political parties in Sierra Leone, the other being its main political rival the Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP). The APC has been the main opposition party in Sierra Leone since 4 Apr ...

(APC). Two female candidates stood for parliamentary seats in 1967: Yema Catherine Williams and Julie Keturah Kayode. In the 1973 general election

and Ester Lily Coker stood for election as independent candidates. By now Sierra Leone had become a one-party state and their campaigns were unsuccessful. 1978 saw

as the sole woman to stand for parliament in the general election.

1970 - 1990

In 1970, out of the 81 chiefdoms in Sierra Leone, 10 were led by women. In 1989, UNICEF reported that on average a woman in Sierra Leone worked up to 16 hours a day and that the majority were surviving on just one meal per day. There was a maternal mortality rate of 70% primarily from infections and malnutrition.

1990 - 2000

During the

civil war A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

(1991–2002), it is estimated that 33% of

human rights violations Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hum ...

were perpetrated against

women A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or Adolescence, adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female hum ...

. A report by the

Truth and Reconciliation Commission A truth commission, also known as a truth and reconciliation commission or truth and justice commission, is an official body tasked with discovering and revealing past wrongdoing by a government (or, depending on the circumstances, non-state act ...

stated that thousands of women and girls were abducted from their homes and suffered physical-, sexual- and psychological abuse, including

rape Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without their consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or ag ...

and forced pregnancy. Many of them were subject to servitude,

slavery Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

and forced cannibalism while others were drugged,

torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. Some definitions are restricted to acts c ...

d and

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person wit ...

ed. Sierra Leonean women and girls who endured forced pregnancies and gave birth to children by their abusers faced severe social consequences, including

social isolation Social isolation is a state of complete or near-complete lack of contact between an individual and society. It differs from loneliness, which reflects temporary and involuntary lack of contact with other humans in the world. Social isolation c ...

. A number of women and girls became soldiers with the Revelutionary United Front (RUF) during the Civil War. During the war, a group women organized founded the Sierra Leone Women's Movement for Peace, and using peaceful protests attempted to mediate peace between the warring factions.

2000 - present

On June 14, 2007, the

Parliament of Sierra Leone Parliament of Sierra Leone is the legislative branch of the government of Sierra Leone. It is principally responsible for making laws. The Sierra Leone parliament consists of 146 members, of which 132 members are directly elected from across Si ...

passed three laws which made

wife-beating Domestic violence (also known as domestic abuse or family violence) is violence or other abuse that occurs in a domestic setting, such as in a marriage or cohabitation. ''Domestic violence'' is often used as a synonym for ''intimate partner v ...

illegal, allowed women to inherit property and protected women from

forced marriage Forced marriage is a marriage in which one or more of the parties is married without their consent or against their will. A marriage can also become a forced marriage even if both parties enter with full consent if one or both are later force ...

. However, in 2014, 63% of women aged 15–49 still held the belief that male partners were justified in hitting and beating their female partners under certain circumstances. The 2007 Domestic Violence Act is rarely enforced as survivors are required to submit a medical report to the police. The majority of women in Sierra Leone cannot afford to pay the medical examination fee nor can they afford the cost of a lawyer to represent them. Many women in the rural areas of Sierra Leone still are not aware that domestic violence is a crime or of their rights. In 2012, 10,000 Sierra Leonean men participated in a project called Husband School where they learned about

gender equality Gender equality, also known as sexual equality or equality of the sexes, is the state of equal ease of access to resources and opportunities regardless of gender, including economic participation and decision-making; and the state of valuing d ...

domestic violence Domestic violence (also known as domestic abuse or family violence) is violence or other abuse that occurs in a domestic setting, such as in a marriage or cohabitation. ''Domestic violence'' is often used as a synonym for ''intimate partner ...

reproductive health Sexual and reproductive health (SRH) is a field of research, healthcare, and social activism that explores the health of an individual's reproductive system and sexual wellbeing during all stages of their life. The term can also be further de ...

female genital mutilation Female genital mutilation (FGM), also known as female genital cutting, female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) and female circumcision, is the ritual cutting or removal of some or all of the external female genitalia. The practice is found ...

and

family planning Family planning is the consideration of the number of children a person wishes to have, including the choice to have no children, and the age at which they wish to have them. Things that may play a role on family planning decisions include marita ...

. Husband School is organized by United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the Fambul Initiative Network for Equality Sierra Leone (FINE-SL). Attendance is enforced by local Paramount Chiefs. The adoption of Registration of Customary Marriages and Divorce Act made 18 the legal age for marriage. Prior to this, there was no minimum age for marriage nor was consent from both parties a prerequisite. In rural Sierra Leone, it was not uncommon for girls under the age of 13 to be given in marriage to elderly men. The law aims to protect women and girls from forced marriage as well as physical, sexual and financial abuse. In January 2023 the Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Act (GEWE) was signed into law in Sierra Leone. It mandates 30% of public and private positions be reserved for women (including in parliament), provides for increased workplace training opportunities for women, allows women fourteen weeks of maternity leave, punishes discrimination against women who seek access to financial services or resources, requires equal pay for women and men working in the same job, and requires yearly reviews of the GEWE’s implementation in public and private institutions.

Reproductive rights in Sierra Leone

Women in Sierra Leone have extremely limited reproductive rights. Until 2007, women and girls could still be given in marriage by their families without their consent. Sierra Leone has one of the world's highest maternal and infant mortality rates. Contraception is used by 16% of adult women in Sierra Leone and 7.8% of teenage girls. In 2013, Sierra Leone had the 7th highest teen pregnancy rate in the world. 38% of Sierra Leonean women aged 20–24 had given birth to their first baby before the age of 18. Teenage pregnancy is a major contributing factor to Sierra Leone's high maternal mortality rate as teenage mothers have a 40%-60% risk of dying in childbed. Babies born to teenage mothers have a 50% higher risk of being stillborn or dying shortly after birth than babies born to mothers over the age of 20.

Abortion

Abortion Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. An abortion that occurs without intervention is known as a miscarriage or "spontaneous abortion"; these occur in approximately 30% to 40% of pregn ...

is illegal in Sierra Leone under any circumstances. The law banning abortion was passed in 1861, under the British colonial government. In 2015, President

Ernest Bai Koroma Ernest Bai Koroma (born 2 October 1953) is a Sierra Leone, Sierra Leonean politician who served as the fourth President of Sierra Leone from 17 September 2007 to 4 April 2018. Born and raised in Makeni in northern Sierra Leone, Koroma spent mo ...

refused to sign the Safe Abortion Act, due to opposition from religious leaders, and said that the issue should be put to a referendum. Unsafe abortions account for 10% of maternal deaths. In 2022, the government backed a "risk-free motherhood" bill to legalise abortion. The cabinet of President

Julius Maada Bio Julius Maada Wonie Bio (born 12 May 1964) is a Sierra Leonean politician, and the current president of Sierra Leone since 4 April 2018. He is a retired brigadier general in the Sierra Leone Army and was the military head of state of Sierra Leo ...

unanimously supported the bill, which is slated to be submitted to Parliament.

Female genital mutilation

Excluding

Sierra Leone Creole The Sierra Leone Creole people ( kri, Krio people) are an ethnic group of Sierra Leone. The Sierra Leone Creole people are lineal descendant, descendants of freed African-American, Afro-Caribbean, and Sierra Leone Liberated African, Liberated Af ...

women who do not practice or engage in

, 9 out of 10 girls and women in Sierra Leone have undergone

, often as part of the traditional

Bundu Bundu may refer to: * Bundu (state), a former state in what is now Senegal * Also known as the place where Aditya Kumar (BE/10023/12) was born and brought up * Bundu, India, a town in Jharkhand, India ** Bundu block, the larger administrative u ...

Bondu Bundu (also Bondu, Bondou and Boundou) was a state in one of the West African countries which later became a French protectorate dependent on the colony of Senegal. It lay between the Falémé River and the upper course of the Gambia River, that ...

initiation ceremony into the Sande society. Generally in Sierra Leone, where literacy levels among women is less than forty percent, there is still a positive view of

. Two-thirds of girls and women undergo the practice between ages 5 and 14.

Women Pioneers of Sierra Leone

The names are placed in chronological order:

Academics

*First Sierra Leonean woman to earn a PhD:

Enid Rosamund Ayodele Forde Enid Rosamund Ayodele Forde (23 January 1932–27 January 2010"Sierra Leone, Civil Births and Deaths, 1802-2016," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QHV-V3D6-Y9F1-6 : 14 March 2022), > image 1154 of 2277; Ministry of ...

.Florence Mugambi
Blazing a trail: Women Africanist PhDs
Northwestern Program of African Studies News and Events, Vol. 30, No. 3 (Spring 2020). *First West African to earn a diploma from the

Royal College of Arts The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It off ...

Kathleen Mary Easmon Simango Kathleen Mary Easmon Simango (9 August 1891 – 20 July 1924) was a Sierra Leonean missionary and artist who was the first West African to earn a diploma from the Royal College of Arts, Royal College of Art. She was the niece of Adelaide Casely ...

. *First

West Africa West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Maurit ...

n woman to complete a

BA degree Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

in the

Liberal Arts Liberal arts education (from Latin "free" and "art or principled practice") is the traditional academic course in Western higher education. ''Liberal arts'' takes the term ''art'' in the sense of a learned skill rather than specifically the ...

Edna Elliott-Horton Edna Elliott-Horton (13 September 1904 – 26 March 1994) was the second West African woman from a British colony to receive a university degree after the Nigerian physician Agnes Yewande Savage, who received a medical degree from the University ...

. * First woman to graduate Fourah Bay College

. *First African woman to be awarded a Fellowship of the Institute of Civil Engineers:

Trudy Morgan Trudy Morgan (born 1966) is the first African woman to be awarded a Fellowship of the Institution of Civil Engineers (FICE) and the first female Vice President of the Sierra Leone Institution of Engineers. Born to Sierra Leone Creole parents in L ...

. * First woman graduate of the Evangelical College of Theology (Sierra Leone Bible College): Rev. Victoria Gladys Coker 1995. * First woman to head the English Department at Fourah Bay College: Dr. Kadi Sesay.

Politics

* First woman to become queen Queen of Kpaa Mende Seneghum:

, 1878. * First woman elected to a municipal council:

, 1938. * First woman member of the Moyamba District Council,

Ella Koblo Gulama Paramount Chief A paramount chief is the English-language designation for the highest-level political leader in a regional or local polity or country administered politically with a chief-based system. This term is used occasionally in ...

, 1957. * First woman member of the House of Representatives of Sierra Leone:

, 1957. * First women to win seats in parliament:

and Patience Richards, 1957. * First woman to run as an independent candidate for parliament: Mrs. C.T.Williams, 1957. * First woman member Cabinet Minister:

, 1962. * First woman mayor of

, 1966. * First woman ambassador to

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

Tanzania Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands and ...

and

Zambia Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most cent ...

Shirley Gbujama Madam Shirley Yema Gbujama (born 1936, as Shirley Macaulay) is a Sierra Leonean politician who served in a number of cabinet positions, including minister for foreign affairs, minister of social welfare, minister of tourism and culture, and min ...

, 1976. * First woman ambassador to the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

, 1978. * First woman to be Minister of Development and Economic Planning: Dr. Kadi Sesay, 1999. * Gender equality advocacy organization 50/50 Group of Sierra Leone is established: Dr. Nemata Majeks-Walker, 2001. * First woman to be Minister of Sierra Leone Minister of Trade and Industry: Dr. Kadi Sesay, 2002. * First woman to head the National Commission for Democracy and Human Rights: Dr. Kadi Sesay. * First female Minister of Health: Agnes Taylor-Lewis * First woman Chief Electoral Commissioner of Sierra Leone: Christiana Ayoka Mary Thorpe. * First woman to run for vice-president Dr. Kadi Sesay, 2012. * First woman head regional operations for the All Peoples Congress (APC): Diana Finda Konomanyi, 2010. * First woman Minister of Local Government and Rural Development: Diana Finda Konomanyi, 2012. * First woman Minister of Lands, Country Planning, and the Environment: Diana Finda Konomanyi, 2015. * First woman head regional operations for Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP):

Emma Kowa-Jalloh Emma may refer to: * Emma (given name) Film * ''Emma'' (1932 film), a comedy-drama film by Clarence Brown * ''Emma'' (1996 theatrical film), a film starring Gwyneth Paltrow * ''Emma'' (1996 TV film), a British television film starring Kate Be ...

, 2018 * First woman to run for president:

Femi Claudius Cole Femi Claudius Cole (born 1962) is a Sierra Leonean politician. In 2016 she founded the Unity Party, making her the first Sierra Leonean woman to form a political party. In 2018, she was the first woman to run for the office of President of Sierra ...

, 2018. * Second women to run for vice-president:

Isata Dora Bangura Isata Dora Bangura is a Sierra Leonean educator and politician. She was the running mate of presidential candidate Charles Margai in Sierra Leone's 2018 General Election. She is the second woman to run for the office of vice-president in Sierra Le ...

, 2018. * First woman attorney general and minister Dr. Priscilla Schwartz, 2018.

Professions

*First

non-white The term "person of color" ( : people of color or persons of color; abbreviated POC) is primarily used to describe any person who is not considered "white". In its current meaning, the term originated in, and is primarily associated with, the U ...

person to be appointed to the senior

judiciary of England and Wales There are various levels of judiciary in England and Wales—different types of courts have different styles of judges. They also form a strict hierarchy of importance, in line with the order of the courts in which they sit, so that judges ...

: Dame Linda Penelope Dobbs. *First Sierra Leonean woman to qualify as a medical doctor:

Irene Ighodaro Irene Ighodaro (16 May 1916 – 29 November 1995) was a Sierra Leone Creole physician and social reformer who was the first Sierra Leonean woman to qualify as a medical doctor. She was president of the Young Women's Christian Association of Nigeri ...

(Irene Wellesley-Cole), c. 1942. *First woman in Africa appointed as

Permanent Secretary A permanent secretary (also known as a principal secretary) is the most senior Civil Service (United Kingdom), civil servant of a department or Ministry (government department), ministry charged with running the department or ministry's day-to-day ...

in the

Civil Service The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

: Murietta Olu-Williams, 1962. * First woman to qualify as a lawyer in

and

: Stella Thomas, circa 1940. * First Sierra Leonean woman to be called to the Bar in

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

and second woman to practice law in Sierra Leone,

Frances Claudia Wright Frances Claudia Wright, OBE (5 March 1919 – 2 April 2010), was a prominent Sierra Leonean lawyer during the 20th century. Known as "West Africa's Portia", in 1941 Wright was the first Sierra Leonean woman to be called to the Bar in Great Brit ...

OBE, 1943. *First Sierra Leonean

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyses and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal qualification in law and often a legal practitioner. In the Uni ...

sworn in as Commissioner of the ''African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights'':

Jamesina Essie Leonora King Jamesina Essie Leonora King is a Sierra Leonean jurist and a Commissioner of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights. She is currently the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information in Africa and Country Rappo ...

. * First woman judge: Agnes Macaulay, circa 1970. * First woman Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Sierra Leone: Umu Hawa Tejan-Jalloh, circa 1970. * First woman appointed Justice of the Supreme Court of Sierra Leone: Patricia Macaulay, 1994. * First woman of African descent to study drama at the

Guildhall School of Music and Drama The Guildhall School of Music and Drama is a conservatoire and drama school located in the City of London, United Kingdom. Established in 1880, the school offers undergraduate and postgraduate training in all aspects of classical music and jazz ...

Jeillo Edwards Jeillo Edwards (23 September 1942, Freetown, Sierra Leone – 2 July 2004, London, England) was a Sierra Leonean actress, who is notable in the history of black actors in Britain. She was the first woman of African descent to study drama at Lon ...

. * First Sierra Leonean woman CNN anchor:

Isha Sesay Isha Isatu Sesay (; ; born 6 January 1976) is a British journalist of Sierra Leonean descent. From 2005 to 2018, she worked as an anchor and correspondent for CNN International. Originally based at CNN's world headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, U ...

, 2005. *First black singer to feature on

BBC Radio BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927). The service provides national radio stations covering th ...

: Evelyn Mary Dove, 1939. *First Sierra Leonean to win an

Emmy award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

: Nzinga Christine Blake.

Athletics

*First woman to represent Sierra Leone at the

Olympics The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

: Eugenia Osho-Williams, 1980. * First women to win gold in the Heptathlon at the

IAAF World Championships in Athletics The World Athletics Championships (until 2019 known as the World Championships in Athletics) are a biennial athletics competition organized by World Athletics (formerly IAAF, International Association of Athletics Federations). Alongside the Ol ...

: Eunice Barber, 1999. * First women to win gold in the long jump at the All Africa Games: Eunice Barber, 1995. * First women to win gold in the long jump at the

: Eunice Barber, 2003. * First woman founder of a football club:

Isha Johansen Isha Tejan-Cole Johansen (born 25 December 1965) is a Sierra Leonean entrepreneur and the former president of the Sierra Leone Football Association. Johansen is one of only a few women in the world to have headed a national football association, ...

, 2004. * First woman president of the Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA):

2013.

Timeline of women's rights in Sierra Leone

;1938 *

becomes the first woman in Sierra Leone and all of Africa to be elected to a municipal council. ; 1957 * Patience Richards ( SLPP),

( SLPP), Ellen G.A. Caulker of the United Sierra Leone People's Party (UPP) and Mrs. C.T. Williams are the first women in Sierra Leone to run for parliament. ; 2007 On June 14, 2007, the

passed three laws which made

illegal, allowed women to inherit property and protected women from

. ; 2012 * The 30% Gender Party Quota Bill is drafted by women's rights activists Nemata Majeks-Walker, Barbara Bangura and Salamatu Kamara and submitted to parliament but it does not pass into law. ;2015 * The 2015 Safe Abortion Act is submitted to parliament by Isata Kabia on 8 December 2015. ;2023 * In January 2023 the Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Act (GEWE) was signed into law in Sierra Leone. It mandates 30% of public and private positions be reserved for women (including in parliament), provides for increased workplace training opportunities for women, allows women fourteen weeks of maternity leave, punishes discrimination against women who seek access to financial services or resources, requires equal pay for women and men working in the same job, and requires yearly reviews of the GEWE’s implementation in public and private institutions.

References

External links

{{Africa topic, Women in Society of Sierra Leone