Telling the story of pioneering women in politics

讲述政治领域的开拓女性故事

The Conversation

2026-02-02

26 分钟
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Datshiane Navanayagam brings together two women from the US and Australia to discuss the art of writing a political biography and whether women in politics are placed under more scrutiny than men. Helene Cooper is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and New York Times correspondent who fled Liberia with her family following the military coup of 1980. Her biography Madame President documents the life and political career of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf – the first democratically elected female head of state in Africa who served as president of Liberia from 2006 to 2018. Dr Lekkie Hopkins is a feminist academic who lead the women’s studies programme at Edith Cowan University in Perth for 25 years. Utilising her skills as an archivist and oral historian, she pieced together the story of May Holman - a pioneering Australian politician who became the first female Labour politician to be elected to the Western Australian Parliament in 1925. Produced by Hannah Dean (Image: (L) Lekkie Hopkins, credit Robert van Koesveld. (R) Helene Cooper credit William B. Plowman/NBC via Getty Images.)
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  • Hello, I'm Dashiani Navanayagam and welcome to the conversation from the BBC World Service.

  • This is the show that brings together remarkable women from different countries to share their experiences,

  • expertise and passion.

  • Today on the programme, Political Biographies.

  • The women joining me today haven't just written about female politicians living continents and decades apart.

  • They also wanted to reveal the wider story of what life was like for women living in the same time and place as the female politician they were writing about.

  • Joining me in the studio is Helene Cooper,

  • a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and New York Times correspondent.

  • After reporting on Barack Obama's first term in office,

  • she decided it was time to turn to the president of her native Liberia,

  • Ellen Johnson Salif, the first democratically elected female head of state in Africa.

  • And Dr Leckie Hopkins is a feminist academic who headed up the Women's Studies programme at Edith Cowan University in Perth for 25 years until 2016.

  • Her book The Magnificent Life of Miss May Holman tells the story of Australia's first female Labour parliamentarian,

  • a household name in her lifetime, but who,

  • within decades, was largely forgotten after her death in 1939.

  • Helene and Leckie are very warm welcome to the conversation.

  • Thanks for having us.