Three Women Fighting for Equality Win Nobel Peace Prize

Last week, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Leymah Gbowee of Liberia and Tawakkul Karman of Yemen were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize based on their “non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace-building work.” Johnson Sirleaf, President of Liberia, is Africa's first female elected head of state; Gbowee is a Liberian peace activist; and Karman is a leader of the Arab Spring in Yemen.

Through these awards, the Nobel Committee recognized that empowerment of women is necessary to building peaceful, prosperous democratic societies. As the World Bank set out in its recent report on Gender Equality and Development, gender equality leads to productivity gains, enhances children’s well-being, and results in more representative governments. Sirleaf, Gbowee, and Karman have engaged in tireless efforts to ensure that women are represented in governmental reform and conflict resolution and that their countries experience the benefits documented by the World Bank.

The United States could provide important additional support to these women’s efforts and strengthen its role as global leader standing up for women and girls by ratifying the Convention to End Discrimination Against Women, or CEDAW. Today, the U.S. is one of only six countries in the world that has failed to ratify this fundamental affirmation of the importance of women’s equality. (The others are Iran, Sudan, Somalia, and two small Pacific islands.) In a 2010 interview about her work on behalf of women, Leymeh Gbowee asked, “If a President or Secretary of State is standing up and making statements about the rapes in Congo, and that same country has not signed a document that is so important to the lives of their women —what other name do you give it but hypocrisy?” President Obama and Secretary Clinton have both repeatedly and strongly advocated for U.S. ratification of CEDAW. Now it’s the Senate’s turn to act. Ratification of CEDAW would be a fitting tribute to and important support for the inspiring work of these three Nobel Laureates.