Nobel Peace Prize Laureate: “As an individual you can make a difference”
Education is very important to make the world a better place. But you need to complement your academic knowledge with compassion for others to make a difference. This was the message of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Leymah Gbowee when she met students at Stockholm University.
Leymah Gbowee is a Liberian peace activist, social worker and women's rights campaigner. In 2011, she shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Tawakkol Karman 'for their non-violent struggle for women's security and for women's right to full participation in peace-building'. It was the first time a Nobel Prize had been shared by three women.
Leymah Gbowee led a non-violent movement that brought together Christian and Muslim women and played a pivotal role in ending Liberia's fourteen-year civil war in 2003. This historic achievement paved the way for the election of Africa's first female head of state, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. It also marked a new wave of women emerging around the world as key players in brokering lasting peace and security. Leymah Gbowee is the founder and president of the Gbowee Peace Foundation Africa, a board member of the Nobel Women's Initiative and a member of several other international organisations.
Lecture for students
On 27 March, Leymah Gbowee visited Stockholm University to give a lecture on the role of education as a tool for peace and justice and to answer questions from students. She began by painting a bleak picture of the world today. There are ongoing wars in 70 countries and there are more than 290 separatist groups in Africa. She highlighted the paradox that there is more wealth in the world than ever before, but at the same time there is poverty and misery combined with the large number of ongoing wars. Education has an important role to play in understanding and changing the world. But, as Leymah Gbowee pointed out, we should not confuse education with schooling. A real education is not just what you learn in school or at a university. It also includes things like understanding people and cultures and ethical issues.
Bringing an end to civil war in Liberia
Liberia declared independence from the United States in 1848. But it was not until the 1950s that Liberian women were given the right to vote in elections. However, Liberian women were still bound by social and cultural conventions and were unable to participate fully in political life. With civil war raging for over a decade, Leymah Gbowee set out to end the war and empower women. “If you live in a country, you have to be part of the political process,” she said, and her way of doing this was to start the non-violent movement that brought together Christian and Muslim women and ended Liberia's civil war in 2003.
Liberia has now been at peace for 22 years. But there is still much to be done.
“Peace is not the absence of war. It is the full expression of human dignity”, said Leymah Gbowee, continuing, “Peace means food on the table in every home, education for our children, health systems that function, and a fair and unbiased justice system, among other things”.
Individuals make a difference
After the gloomy outlook at the beginning of her speech, she ended on a more positive note, saying that education is important and that you can make a difference as an individual. “You will be remembered for the content of your character and what you do to make the world a better place”, she said. “If there are people who act on this in all the countries where there are ongoing wars, there will be an impact.”
Success for women's movements
The lecture was followed by questions from students in the audience. The discussion was moderated by two researchers from Stockholm University, Tessa Bold, Professor at the Institute for International Economic Studies, and Rebecca Adami, Associate Professor at the Department of Education. Rebecca Adami asked about the idea of starting a separatist women's movement for peace and other issues. Leymah Gbowee replied that this has been a successful strategy. The women's movement in Liberia changed the narrative “that politics was only for boys with guns” – and led to the end of the civil war. “People underestimate the power a few women without guns can have”, she concluded.
A student asked Leymah Gbowee what message she would give to the people of Myanmar. She replied that she wanted to have contact with women's groups in Myanmar and send them money to continue their important work. There were also questions about securing humanitarian corridors in Africa and about the UN women's conference.
Got to see the big picture
Tessa Bold closed this session by asking how we can increase gender equality by changing the narrative from “battle of the sexes“ to one where empowering women improves the lives of everyone.
“There is no 'versus', it is a collaborative thing”, said Leymah Gebowee. If we work together, it will be better for everyone, but she added: “You have to see the whole picture and that is difficult if you have one eye closed. We need the views of both women and men to move forward”.
The lecture was jointly organised by the Nobel Prize Museum and Stockholm University.
Last updated: March 28, 2025
Source: Communications Office