This reporting is supported by the International Women’s Media Foundation and NDI’s VAW-PM Program.

As the struggle for gender parity and increased women’s participation in the Liberian legislature continues, women in politics confront significant challenges that often force them to leave politics or prevent them from being elected.

 Entranced finance and traditional norms are largely responsible, especially given that the majority of Liberia’s 5.2 million people believe men are better political leaders than women. These standards make it much more difficult for women to engage equitably in the country’s political landscape. 

“The very first thing they tell you is that politics is a man’s thing, and they will ask you how do we discuss with you if we want to discuss issues about the community. We have to erase this kind of thing in our people’s minds so that issues can be discussed anywhere. She said, “We are discussing what will make the community move forward and not share blood so why to discuss issues in a secret area.”

Walker was one of two women who ran against seven men for the Grand Kru County District Two seat but did not win. 

Women constituted half of Grand Kru’s 57,106 total population, but no female legislators have weathered the test of time or made it to the legislature since the county was established in 1984/1985. Women have attempted to enter politics but have been rebuffed due to the county deeply ingrained traditional norms that regard women’s involvement in politics as a taboo and/or taking duties that are not theirs, making it one of three counties in Liberia’s southeast with no female legislators. Regardless of how hard these ladies labor, they are never elected or their political careers end after elections. 

“Once you act stubborn they will hold back their support because you want to do what they feel is a man’s thing so you should also be clothed with the resources to do what the man does, they do that as another form to discourage you. “The fact is you must have money to be able to be successful in an election and when you feel five years is enough to get involved with the people that’s a lie it is even short because you will not know what will befall you in that five years so you need to start as early as possible and get money.”

Walker worked in the government, non-governmental organizations, and diplomatic sectors. Her first job was as a secretary with the British embassy, and later as secretary of the GSO, US Embassy near Monrovia, and later as an administrator with JRS, a catholic non-profit organization working with returnees, the Bon Bosco working with street children, and finally in government as a resource person in the office of Grand Kru Representative.

Walker was born in the Grand Kru County town of Barclayville in 1964. As a boarding student, she grew up in the counties of Barclayville, Grand Gedeh, and Montserrado. She’s the second of five girls raised by Mr. and Mrs. Charles B. Walker, a former classroom teacher who rose through the ranks to become a Stipendiary Magistrate and, later, a Traffic Court Judge for Grand Kru County.  She could not continue her BBA studies due to the Liberian civil war which took up 14 years of her active life.   

“My parents could no longer afford so I had to take responsibility for my siblings and their children. I had a child at that time too, and as the only person that was employed, I had to take care of my nieces, nephews, and siblings so I could not complete my university education. I chose to give back to my family because I have gotten to a level that I could live on, I got the experience.”

            Credit: Joyclyn. Hon. Regine Walker, in an IWMF interview at her Barnesville Resident

Before entering politics, she worked with women in the district through her ‘Grand Kru Women Empowerment Program,’ which she established in 2012 with the help of the Central Bank of Liberia and the representative’s orders.

The purpose was to provide loans to county women to assist them in becoming self-sufficient enough to sponsor their children in school and other projects on their own, a strategy that benefited over 600 women. She also works with women using conflict resolution techniques. 

During this period, in 2017, she felt compelled to enter politics, but she did not do so until 2023 when she ran for the first time but did not win. She believed that politics was a calling to better serve one’s people and to attract chances. 

“It was good that I took part in this election because it made me tour the district and see for myself the problem that persists.  She said “I have electricity, drinking water, and employment opportunities but do they have it? In my county, the youth go to gold mines, and the students that should be in the schools are in the mine. Mining has an age limit when you reach a certain age you don’t do that anymore, so you need some skill that you can live with even after you are 40 or 50 years.”   

Walker is determined to break this old age tradition; she vows to stay engaged and visible by building a vocational school where women and young people can learn basic life skills and make friends with Regina Walker in all 12 traditional towns in Grand Kru County (six in District One and six in District Two). The move will put her ahead of the game in 2029. 

“Accept God doesn’t want me to be that’s the only way but with all the flaws and missteps that I saw if I can walk and build on those missteps I am sure I can be a winner by 2029.”    

Although Liberia’s election legislation prohibits foreign financial support for politicians and political parties, Walker believes there are other avenues for international organizations, influence, and persons of interest to assist. 

“If we can write projects let them support those projects because the government will not give you money and nobody will, in that way, they are supporting us, because I tell you, you cannot do this without money.”