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ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia – A week after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed of Ethiopia filled half of his new cabinet with women in a radical overhaul, the country's Parliament took another step towards gender parity on Thursday by the country's first female president.
Sahle-Work Zewde, 68, a seasoned diplomat who has held positions in the United Nations and worked in peacekeeping operations in Africa, accepted the position of the Ministry of Defense and the Secret Intelligence Agency, a long-feared state organ that recently got a face-lift. (It is now called the Ministry of Peace.)
"In a patriarchal society such as a bear, the appointment of a female head of state not only sets standards for the future but also Fitsum Arega, the prime minister's chief of staff, said on Twitter.
The position of the President and the Chairman of the Board of Directors, Ms. Selma Musse, a gender and media consultant based in Addis Ababa, the capital .
Having a female leader "speaks volumes for women and knocks on every door," she said, "especially in a country where patriarchy plays a decisive role in political, social and economic structure of our country's politics."
Mr. Abiy came to power in April, and the appointment of Ms. Sahle-Work is now the latest addition to a series of whirlwind changes in Ethiopia. The country had long relied on a model that China's resembling, emphasizing state-led economic growth and suppression of political dissent.
In six months, he has officially ended two decades of hostilities with Ethiopia's longtime rival and neighbor, Eritrea; started a tightly controlled state-run economy and opened up major industries to foreign investment; pledged multiparty elections; released thousands of political prisoners; and allowed leaders of an outlawed opposition group to return to the country.
His latest moves are part of a "reform mentality within the ruling party," said Jason Mosley, a research associate at the African Studies Center at Oxford University. "Ethiopia still is, despite all the development, a conservative culture on average. It's still mostly rural, and many women do not have equal opportunities as men. "
The sudden changes have burst old wounds, prompting violence in various parts of the country where ethnic tensions run particularly high. Still, appointments of people such as Ms. Sahle-Work, a relative outsider to the inner politics of the ruling coalition, are thought to be concerned about ethnic or political affiliations poisoning effective leadership.
"I am a product of people who is fought for equality and political freedom in this country, and I will work hard to serve them," Ms. Sahle-Work said in her acceptance speech to Parliament.
She also promised to work on issues concerning women. "If you thought I spoke a lot about women already, know that I'm just getting started," she said in a quote that was widely circulated among social media users in Ethiopia.
Ms. Sahle-Work was appointed by the United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, as its special representative to the African Union and head of the United Nations Office to the African Union. She was previously director general of the United Nations Office in Nairobi, Kenya.
Ethiopia has made remarkable progress, in just one generation, to increase the enrollment of girls in primary schools. But it still suffers from large gender disparities, according to a United Nations study.
These women are more likely to study than men, the study said, and yet they are more likely to be working in the labor market. Female genital cutting and child marriages are still prevalent, particularly in rural areas, which make up about 80 percent of the country.
"We need a bold leader who is more than just mothers and sisters but also others," Ms. Selam said.
Ethiopia, Africa's second most-populous country and one that 30 years ago was a forword, is more organized, ambitious and centrally controlled than many other governments on the continent – the ruling coalition intends to transform it into a middle-income country by 2025.
Despite the staggering pace of progress, it is still a strongly authoritarian state – though Mr. Mosley said that it was precisely what Mr. Abiy to change things so quickly.
"You can have these kind of radical overhauls of gender balancing when it's authoritarian," Mr. Mosley said. "All the trade-offs necessary in a more competitive political landscape are part of the thing that keeps Western democracies from achieving these kind of results."
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