--- title: 10 Questions for Ellen Johnson Sirleaf | TIME description: The Liberian President's new memoir is 'This Child Will Be Great.' Ellen Johnson Sirleaf will now take your questions canonical: https://time.com/video/XqZHMrEl/ og:title: 10 Questions for Ellen Johnson Sirleaf og:description: The Liberian President's new memoir is 'This Child Will Be Great.' Ellen Johnson Sirleaf will now take your questions og:url: https://time.com/video/XqZHMrEl/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/XqZHMrEl/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 10 Questions for Ellen Johnson Sirleaf twitter:description: The Liberian President's new memoir is 'This Child Will Be Great.' Ellen Johnson Sirleaf will now take your questions twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/XqZHMrEl/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # 10 Questions for Ellen Johnson Sirleaf > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: 10 Questions for Ellen Johnson Sirleaf [Watch (HLS stream): 10 Questions for Ellen Johnson Sirleaf](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/XqZHMrEl.m3u8) (6:10)  _Published 2009-05-01. The Liberian President's new memoir is 'This Child Will Be Great.' Ellen Johnson Sirleaf will now take your questions_ --- Jul 27, 2023 1:09 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [How Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Became An Icon For African Women](/video/RIn2Bk4r/) ### How Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Became An Icon For African Women [Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Says the World Needs More Women Leaders](/video/zHZ7JMq7/) ### Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Says the World Needs More Women Leaders [Ellen Johnson Sirleaf I TIME100 Talks Health Summit](/video/CM78iLBr/) ### Ellen Johnson Sirleaf I TIME100 Talks Health Summit --- ## Transcript >> I'm Romesh Ratnesar for TIME. com. This is 10 Questions with President Ellen Johhnson- Sirleaf. Let's get right to them. First question is from Chris Robertson in Grand Rapids, Michigan wants to know how you feel your election as a first female president will help women across Africa? >> Oh, it's gonna be empower them because now they know they can reach whatever potential they want that they can be anything they want and it's already happening on me. Young girls in Liberia now can speak about what they want to be, want to be a minister, want to be a president, want to be a leader. So I hope that motivation will just be spread. >> Are there any other women on the horizon on other African countries or what possibly-- >> Oh, I think you'll see them in many countries. >> Yeah. >> I hope that now that [ unk ] open the door. You see many are aspiring to work through that door so, yes. Women are planning to compete at the highest level and I'm quite confident that within five years, you know, you see another one or two. >> Jake Gellis in Chicago has a similar question. As Africa's first female head of state, how have you've been received by your male counterparts? >> Very well. I've been fortunate in a way that I've been in the professional arena for a while and I've had the opportunity to meet with to discuss to interact with African leaders so they already see me as a professional. But at the same time, I was still lonely. I'm the only one out there, so you know, I can't have a beer with them or, you know, something like that. I wanna be huddle among themselves to do. They [ unk ] not be able to do all of those things but generally, the reception has been good. >> Mascarim Zaresze in Geneva who asked, do you think after will be peaceful and war- free if it has more women in top leadership positions? >> I have no doubt about that. That can be a short answer. >> Why is that? Why do you believe that it will make it-- >> Because I think when women do have, you know, equal qualification, experience, capacities, they bring to their tasks a certain dimension that maybe missing in men and that's the sensitivity to human kind. Maybe it comes from being a mother. >> Is there a bigger and broader lesson that women around the world can learn that something that-- one reader, Shelly Richardson wants to know. What advice would you give to mothers everywhere who were trying to raise strong independent women? >> To tell women everywhere to be able to compete. Compete. Take leadership role. Try to strive to be the best you can and make sure that you stand out in the crowd because our numbers are still small, I mean, even though women have broken the glass cage as I have still in comparison is still a male- dominated world. So we still have a long way to go and that's why all women will strive to do more and to reach their greatest potential. >> Few more personal questions, Dan Rosenthal in Reno wants to know in view of the history of your country and all the tumult that's gone through. What motivated you to keep going and persevere on these circumstances that were so trying? >> I started out not knowing I would be president obviously. But as I started beginning to point out some of what needed to be done to make our country stronger. To respond to the needs of the people and every time I got into trouble, it became a challenge for me to be able to survive that and once I survived I saw another opportunity and things just evolved in such a way that every challenge became an opportunity for me to move higher and to take a better position and to take a leadership role and to become influential, and so that's been the story of a long life. >> That's amazing story you tell in the book. One question here about Charles Taylor, Jeremy Viser in Freetown wants to know what impact the trials having on Liberia's prospects for peace and stability? >> By in large, I think Liberians would like to put Taylor era behind them. They want to live normal life. They want peace. They want to be able to-- and to get the basic things they wished that they're in title and they're tired of the turmoil that represented the Taylor era, so they set diminishing figure in Liberia's life today. >> And have there been prosecutions or are you pursuing any kind of action against members of his government? >> No. We have a truth and reconciliation commission there. Has been working for the past 18 months and their report is due to come out very soon and we'll see what that report will suggest if recommendations in the report have things to do with justice then we look at that and move with it. >> The last question is from Tori Johnson in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota. [ unk ] big Liberian population. >> Very big there. Very big Liberia population. >> Wants to know, do you intend to run for second term? >> Oh, that's the one question I keep avoiding. Tell him I'm gonna keep him and all the Liberians guessing, I don't wanna be distracted this year while I concentrate on pushing development, next election is October 2011, plenty of time next year to make that decision. >> Well, I think your job is done. Thanks for coming in and answering these questions. >> Thank you. I'm glad so many people out there that read the book, that have followed Liberia, its tragedy and its triumph and we'll continue to try to make it succeed on behalf of all of those who've been there with us and thank you for the interview. >> Thank you. ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"10 Questions for Ellen Johnson Sirleaf","description":"The Liberian President's new memoir is 'This Child Will Be Great.' 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