times" reporter and author of the new book, "madame president: the extraordinary journey of ellen johnson sirleafverybody! ( cheers and applause ) thank you so much for being here. >> thank you. >> trevor: first of all, let's get into the why. i mean, it seems pretty obvious on the surface why you would write about africa's first female president, but why was the story so close to you? >> i'm from liberia, so i grew up there, and my family moved to the u.s. as refugees, actually, in 1980, and i was working in the "new york times" office in new york in 2005 on the editorial page when liberian women staged this democratic coup and actually got a woman elected president for the first time ever on the african continent, and ei knew right away that i wanted to write about this. this is something that i instantly wanted to bring write about. so for years after that, i sort of put it aside and thought when am i going to get around to this? i eventually did, so i have been really excited. >> trevor: what made it special as well is this was not a fore-gone conclusion. not only was it not only a woman runn

of course, they ended up electing ellen johnson sirleaf as the first woman president on the continent of africa. [applause] womenlinton: i have seen in the democratic republic of congo survived the most horrific, almost unimaginable abuse and cruelty. and then some in the resilience to rebuild and help others go on. , which you will hear much more about in a few minutes , a country whose trajectory i have followed intently for years , we've seen women organize, educate and negotiate to help bring to a close more than 50 years of bloodshed. while conflict raged and efforts to stop the violence failed, women not only to their places at the table, they opened up the peace to women across colombia and urged over and over again that all parties not walk away until they reached an agreement. ,f we are to build more just free and peaceful countries and indeed a world, it's not enough to just pay lip service to empowering women, we have to take seriously their concerns and give them the tools to be equal partners in helping to shape the world they inhabit. the leaders we are honoring today ha