At the time Gbowee wrote this autobiography, she apparently didn‘t know she was being nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, and won it in 2011. I didn‘t know it until I finished the book and googled her to see what she has done since. Talk about a woman who pulled herself up by the bootstraps—she is it. She grew up in a fairly stable Liberia until she turned 17, when the first of its civil wars began. She married young to a fierce abuser who fathered 4 of her children, at which point she finally left him. Depressed in a world that offered no hope, she finally devoted her life to organizing women in the face of the worst odds to bring peace to her country and all of Africa. I felt it was a bit self-aggrandizing at times, but then hey, she earned the Nobel Peace Prize so I agreed she deserved to recognize herself & her worth. ( )

My god...give me strength to make it through this book. Such horror.
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Update: I did finish. Give me a bit to absorb it, and then I will write a (glowing) review. It will be one of my "READ THIS BOOK" reviews.
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I just bet you were waiting with breathless anticipation for my review. (Ha!) Well, you're in luck. I am avoiding writing work for a grad course and you get to be the recipients of my procrastination. However, I cannot fully leave my course work behind as it is an in-depth seminar course and requires a lot of introspection and reflection. The course is Women and Leadership. (I think you might see where this is going.)

When questioning friends, the issue that concerns me is that leadership always appears to be something someone else does, and something that only operates at high socio-economic levels. The leaders presented in media, in the film industry, and in textbooks are one-dimensional: they hold the same positions, wear the same suit, have the same haircut, and hold the same monetary collateral (and all too terrifyingly conjure up images of Mitt Romney). This is not acceptable. I want a leader who projects humanness, who projects a multi-dimensional quality of being. I want a leader who is genuine. I want a leader who reflects the type of leader I want to be, someone who shows I can achieve my goals despite my imperfections and sometimes bad decisions, someone who is a success outside the C-Suite, and someone who is honest about all the various dimensions of a life experience. This long ago led me to Leymah Gbowee, the market women of Liberia, and their phenomenally inspiring story. I fell into deep admiration for these women, and their example spurred my chosen life and career directions. (If you have not watched the film, Pray the Devil Back to Hell, DO SO! Now!)

Leymah Gbowee is a 2011 Nobel Peace Prize laureate for her work in aiding the end to the Liberian war. Gbowee is Liberian of the Kpelle people. She is one of four sisters. Leymah means “What is it about me?,” a lament her mom made at not being able to have a boy. Leymah is the mother of 5 children. Leymah has never married.

In spite of the war, Leymah earned her Associates degree and found a volunteer position with the Lutheran Church in Liberia – Lutheran World Federation’s Trauma Healing and Reconciliation Program. This was her introduction to peace work, and from there, developed her training into the larger, mass action, market women’s protest movement which picketed President Charles Taylor, and forced the President's government and the militia factions to negotiate a peace settlement. The work culminated in the democratic election of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the first African female head of state. Ms. Sirleaf shares the Nobel Peace Prize with Leymah. Leymah has since achieved her Masters Degree from Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Virginia, and continues to advocate, speak, and work for women’s voices in peace processes while training women leaders for tomorrow’s work.

No one should assume that the achievements are the conclusion to the story. Gbowee’s dedication to peace encompasses a long journey that she admits is far from complete. While most would see Leymah’s story as one of “rags to riches” and glorious success, Gbowee lays herself bare and contradicts what and who a leader is. She is not wealthy, as most of her speaking engagements are humanitarian in nature and pay little more than room and board while her peace work usually requires her to foot her own expenses; she has taken on a role where the expected and necessary time and energy commitments have hurt her relationship with her children; she encountered animosity from the strong market women she considers her sisters who accused her of taking all of the notoriety (and perhaps money) that belongs to the group as a whole; she has just recently overcome a dependency on alcohol; and she continues to struggle through personal relationships that do not end “happily ever after” (a strong stigma in many cultures and something she struggles to make peace with). Neither has Liberia achieved a stable peace. Long after the movie credits have ended, life continues to be a tough, tumultuous, and an unstable struggle. Leymah is impassioned by her peace work, feeling a deep responsibility to keep going because the women, her sisters, will not give up. She feels she is spiritually called to her work, and she states she will never stop pushing for meaningful change.

There is a fictional aura surrounding successful leadership that causes us to cheer the underdog, but blinds us (perhaps through deliberate action) to the flaws leaders possess. Leymah is honest about her life and her struggles. She wants women, especially young women, to see her as a real person, so they see that leadership comes from a desire for betterment while recognizing that bad decisions will be made, flaws will continue to be present, there will always be struggle, and the surface presentation of a situation rarely embodies the entire truth. Leymah presents us with a leader who is not only holds passion for achievement, but who is a genuine. She has my admiration and I sincerely hope that I will have the privilege of working with her and her organization on a project some day.

In a side note, Viaba Flomo, one of the mass action organizers along side Leymah, who holds a prominent role in the film and Leymah's autobiography, was a 2010 Women's Peacemaker Fellow at the Joan B. Kroc Institute of Peace at the University of San Diego. I am a first-year Ph.D. student at the School of Leadership Science at the University of San Diego. Kroc is directly across the main campus street from my school. While I missed Viaba's attendance, I was absolutely thrilled and honored to know I share a tie with one of these tremendous women. ( )

Fascinated to read the story behind the story. Particularly drawn to this book because my son recently worked with Lehmah Gbowee on an international awareness project in Holland. Have also watched the documentary on PBS...recommend. ( )

There are several aspects to this book. The central focus is, of course, Gbowee’s leadership of a movement comprised of Christian and Muslim women gathering together in protest against the government and warring factions to bring a peaceful end to the long Liberian civil war. They realized success after three months with a peace accord ending the 14-year war. A second element is the damage wrought by the war itself, in homelessness, despair, and death through war or starvation. Finally, there are the personal aspects of Gbowee’s life: her children and the impact of her work on their lives, the toll taken on her life by the demands of the work she’s chosen, and the infighting within the peace organization itself. Gbowee accomplished much for her country, at great personal cost.

Despite admiring what she accomplished both professionally and personally in her struggle to be independent and strong, I wavered between three and four stars, settling on three because I felt the title a bit disingenuous and I don't like the juxtaposition of her purported Christian faith with her life choices. ( )

TLC Book Club book. Bio of an everyday woman who, through jobs and mentoring, becomes a leader for women promoting peace, first in her native Liberia, then across Africa and the world. Interesting cultural differences and learning about a college discipline that I didn't know existed ( )