Over the years, the African woman has been at the receiving end of unfair policies that restrict her from unleashing her God-given potentials. In this write-up, Victor Effiong looks at the plight of the African woman, how she has helped to accentuate and perpetuate the societal stereotype and how she can get herself liberated.
Over the years, there have been talks on women equality, emancipation and gender advancement in Africa and across the world. Shockingly, it all seems to fizzle out the same way with the initiators adding little or nothing to the blueprint of the concept of the subject matter.
Curiously, many of these agitations end up in conferences, seminars, workshops, symposiums organized to x-ray issues as they affect women. From a subjective point of view, little or no impact have been felt by the everyday woman and girl child, who are the primary targets of these seminars, probably because some of the initiatives lacked executioners.
With this, there are fears that the newest campaign for women liberation, equality and advancement and such other things like the zero new HIV infections, zero maternal and child mortality, hunger and poverty rates, championed by Global Power Women Network Africa, GPWNA, will make the needed difference.
One question that readily comes to mind is, do women need to be in power weather elected or appointed to make or take their stand? Must they be public figures to attain the aforementioned objective?
According to a report on global business forum, “Women are the largest emerging market in the world. Over the next decade, they will wield enormous influence over politics, sport, business and society. In the next five years, the global incomes of women will grow from US$13 trillion to US$18 trillion. That incremental US$5 trillion is almost twice the growth in GDP expected from China and India combined.”
According to the same report, by the year 2028, it is expected that women will control close to 75% of discretionary spending worldwide. “Women own about a third of all businesses in the world, and nearly half of those businesses are in developing markets.” Now with such ascending influence of women across the world, is it not possible for these same women to intimidate the world into giving them what rightfully belongs to them?
Globally, the male have long enjoyed an overwhelming majority both in terms of the top jobs as well as overall representation in say politics. However, successful women are increasingly challenging the status quo, with better representation across the board, as well as a growing number of women reaching top executive positions.
Such women as Ngozi Okonjo Iweala of Nigeria, Angela Merkel of Germany to Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia have shown that with the will and the level playing ground, women can hold their own.
However, there are indications that liberated women are not reluctant to extend that liberation to the yet-to-be-liberated others. The statistics show that if one empowered woman empowers 10 other less privileged girls, then the rate and preponderance of vulnerable girls will reduce. It will translate into having more women who are less dependent and who can make and take decisions for the good of the womenfolk first and this will engender the much needed changes. “Having more women in executive positions is in itself a powerful force for change,” says Dr Rainbow Murray, Convener of the Women in French Politics network. “It means that people see that it is possible. It will also save the woman gender from the promises of desperate politicians who promise goals that never translate into reality.”
According to the World Economic Forum, women’s lack of desire for advancement is one major limiting factor. “female employees tend to be concentrated in entry or middle level positions; that is, the more senior the position, the lower the percentage of women.”
The missed opportunity is more striking in light of the difference that empowered women can make to the world. Closing the gender gap enables both public and private sector organisations to stoke measurable economic growth.
Senator Ike Ekweremadu, Nigeria’s deputy senate president and the speaker of the ECOWAS parliament in his goodwill message to the second high level meeting of the ‘Newest Women Initiative’ GPWNA, said “the surest way of advancing women’s rights and welfare is by having more women in the driver’s seat as policy makers. No one understands the challenge of the African woman more than the women themselves because she who wears the shoes knows where it pinches.”
Over time, policy issues have traditionally been perceived to be gendered and even skewed against the female gender. There is substantial evidence that men and women politicians in Nigeria and Africa are seen as being different on issues. Women tend to be stronger in areas such as childcare, health care, education, the environment, civil rights, and controlling government spending. However, this has over the years not translated into the ticket to the actual executive seat of power.
Though there are no accurate data to be exact on the actual population of women in Nigeria as compared to that of men, there are suspicions that women constitute at least 50.5 percent of the total population. Surprisingly, despite this huge population strength, women rarely win elections especially for executive positions.
Many factors have been identified as being responsible for this less that average performance of women in elections despite their numerical advantage. Such factors as money, electoral violence, sexual harassment and discrimination, all factor in to put women at a great disadvantage.
Winnie Byanyima, the UNDP Director for Gender Team/Bureau for Development Policy once said in an interview that the participation of women in politics is a key process for democracy. But are women actively doing this?
But the story of women’s meager participation in policy decision may not be far from being reversed. Going by records from some African Countries like Tanzania and Rwanda, more women are becoming more aware and are more willing to participate in politics despite the inhibitions and obstacles stacked on their ways.
One result of Southern African women’s greater political engagement has been to intensify the pressure on traditional gender roles in both the public and private spheres. The naturalisation of ‘maleness’ and ‘femaleness’ that continues to justify men’s domination and women’s subordination is being challenged, not only by women’s heightened visibility and activism in public life, but also by a wide range of issues, including the onslaught of HIV/AIDS and international and regional concerns with women’s rights. Throughout southern Africa, the complex processes among individual women and men, institutions, structures and cultural norms that create and reproduce gender are in crisis, and are producing dramatic innovations, controversy, violence and resistance.
This crisis is one of the defining characteristics of transformation in the region. We believe that an analysis of women’s experiences and the workings of gender have always been critical for understanding the history and politics of southern Africa women’s energetic engagement in a wide range of political issues.
This is an adoptable approach for every women initiative across Africa. Though the Global Power Women Network Africa, GPWNA, has presented the African woman and the rest of the world with a rich objective on the above mentioned challenges of the African woman, it will be imperative to point out that execution is clearly different from policy formulation.
GPWNA should be very active in fighting against corruption and bribery in elections. They should be at the vanguard of calling for democratic reforms to restrict the use of money in elections. There should be a huge voter education and mobilisation. The role of voter education and mobilisation is to ensure that adequate attention is given to more women participation. As mothers, their voice should be heard more at the hallowed chambers of the National Assembly as one of the ways to address the moral delinquencies in the society. Their voices are important for the sustenance of democracy in Nigeria.
Many Non- Governmental Organisations like the National Action Committee on Women in Politics (NACWIP) should be involved in the campaign and championing of women participation in politics. NAWIP and other NGOs should be at the forefront in ensuring the implementation of provisions and statues, which Nigeria has signed as regards the implementation of women participation in politics.
GPWNA, should teach the independence of the girl child and women alike, rather than subject her to the position of begging for relevance and emancipation.
They should stop waiting for consensus and tap into the wealth of influence at their disposal at home and statistical number.