Women Take Leading Roles as Ivory Coast Emerges from Turmoil

 

Reuters, 07/03 15:04 CET

ABIDJAN (Reuters) – Women have long played a dominant role in agriculture in Ivory Coast and in the sprawling markets where most Ivorians purchase their daily necessities.

Now though some are now breaking through into the most important positions in government, administration and business in Ivory Coast – positions long held by males in this traditional society.

In 2012 in the wake of a decade of civil war and political turmoil, Ivory Coast named Niale Kaba, as finance minister, the first woman to hold the post in more than a half century as an independent nation. After years of stagnation, the West African nation is now among the continent’s fastest growing economies.

Another woman, Massandje Toure-Litse, now heads the cocoa marketing board. Ivory Coast is the world’s leading producer of the chocolate ingredient, which accounts for roughly 15 percent of GDP and more than a third of foreign currency earnings. 

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Source: Euronews