Women’s Day: Each For Equal

Gender roles and social norms which determine the duties and behaviors of men and women are generally instilled by families and passed down many generations. Based on the cultural inclinations of a particular group or society, this genesis of gender inequalities worldwide is formed from the root.  Most societies in the world including Africa were patrichial by default and prescribed norms which had a ceiling effect on women, preventing them from attaining their full potential and quest for excellence. Primarily, men and boys were seen to hunt for resources while the women and girls cared for children at the home front. Such norms saw powerful and highly intelligent women as controlling and domineering, which was totally unacceptable in the societies, as they were considered unmarriageable. Our misinterpretation of religious description of women as the weaker vessels portrayed them as timid, tolerable and never to be heard publicly.  Fathers in the bid to protect their daughters from unfavourable mores, pushed girls and women to the background thinking they are protecting them from harm, this greatly fostered gender inequality.

Gender inequality is being tackled with increased urgency in recent time. It was the 3^rd goal of the millennium development goals and the 5^th goal of the current sustainable development goals to be achieved by 2030. Gender equality has become a matter of great importance as it is the basis on which achievement of other goals is anchored. Women equality is the sure-fire means for ensuring extreme poverty and hunger eradication, climatic changes, good health and well-being, quality education, decent work and economic growth for communities and Nations. The importance of women in the society is underscored better by the performance of countries where women are freer as opposed to countries where women are caged with religious and cultural beliefs. The overall goals will never be fully realized without paying attention to the level of unequal treatment of the women folk.

It’s only when girls are exposed to the same quality of education as the boys that  they can  be able to think critically with sound judgement, enabling them have an equal playing field in the competitive and highly intellectual society to fit into decent work, ensure sustainability of the growth in economy and be included as  policy makers of nations. Deprivation of entitlement right and land ownership kept women away from land use and exposure to advanced technological development in the agricultural sector, resulting in perpetuating poverty and hunger in developing countries.  When women and girls have equal access to health care, and are allowed to make informed decision partaining to their health care especially their reproductive health, increased rate of maternal mortalities associated with abortions, high parity and complications arising from delayed acceptance of caesarean births can be reduced. Women would be healthier to care for themselves, families and work effectively in order to benefit the communities.

Harmful practices like child marriage, female genital mutilation and domestic violence, performed for the sole purpose of controlling the women folk had continued to thrive despite laws that were enacted against them. Gender discrimination, work rights denial and sexual exploitation at the workplaces combined with unequal division of unpaid care and domestic work at home promotes work-life imbalance among women. This is infringing on their capability to overcome conflicts while juggling multiple roles. A number of women have been able to wriggle themselves out of these difficult situations and reached the peak of their careers. Although some of them did it with feelings of guilt and negligence of their motherly and wifely roles at home and this is where balance is needed.

In the world today, women are being celebrated and honoured for their immense contributions to the improvement of institutions. They are creating, designing and innovating to make their lives and families better and further produce positive results in the societies. A lot of women are now numbered in the world list of successful CEOs, top notch entrepreneurs, high career personalities, inventors and academia. Many of them are working tirelessly to leave legacies in the sand of times. Their resilience, doggedness, self-confidence, resolute determination to excel in the seemingly unequal world and becoming lead voice for the future generation of women is quite commendable.

Nevertheless, a gender transformational strategy which obliterates those social norms that limits women’s access to resources and services can be employed to further bridge the wide gap in the inclusion of women. Investments should be channeled to programs and researches promoting gender equality by governments and non governmental organizations.

The involvement of men in the fight for gender equality and advocacy for women can reduce unnecessary pressure and produce longer lasting family unity. In this year’s International Women Day themed “The equal world is an enabled world”. I stand in support of Women all over the world. Let us all be each for equal.

Obi Lois Amarachukwu wrote via tasielois360@gmail.com