IS WOMEN IN-POWERMENT THE ONLY WAY OF EMPOWERMENT?
Gender inequality has been an issue in both
the local scene and the international arena with women fighting for equal opportunities with men if not
greater ones. Looking at women in powerful political seats is the assurance we
need to prove that women in Africa and Kenya to be specific are really being
empowered. In the new Kenyan
constitution women are further empowered with 47 assured women representative
posts in the senate and a few other elective posts. Such seats taken up by
women such as Millie Odhiambo are some of the testimonials we have of empowered
African women, however a conversation with a group of friends gets me thinking,
is this the only way to empower women? Is this even empowering women? And I ask
myself what exactly is empowering women? Think of the woman in Turkana south
with about 4 children how do you empower this woman to make them self-reliant,
to make them know the difference between arrogance and assertiveness, to make
her able to provide for her children in the right manner. Maybe answering such
questions is our way of finding out how to empower women.
Giving
women many politically assured seats is not the way to empower them,
what we need is to make women people ,
by people I mean that awareness should
be created to let it be known that women also have a voice and don’t need posts reserved for them because that’s not
what it takes for them to be empowered. Let’s be realistic all this posts
reserved are they left for us because we
now have gender equality or is it because we just want to harsh up the talk
concerning gender discrimination? Political seats are not the only form of
empowerment or are they? How many political seats are there in one government?
Are they even enough for half the population of Kenyan women? No. what we need
is a system to get to each and every woman, make them believe in themselves
then push the rest of the population forward.
But then again these reserved seats can
be a boost to the woman, an avenue to use to push other women forward. An
avenue to start projects that will make women self-reliant. A way to show other
women that they to have a voice and its time they showed it. These seats may
not necessarily be for all women but the whole idea is to put a fraction of the
women out there to help others and to implement policies in favor of women.
Are we as Africans using in-powerment to
empower women?, is it working? And is it
only way we can use to reach out, to make our nations stronger?
5 comments:
Empowering women is indeed a good thing but the women empowered are the sole benefactors and most of them are not actually helping in implementing policies in favour of women actually some of the male representatives are the ones who are implementing those policies favouring women so I think it's not necessarily that just electing the female representatives but the idea should be that all the Kenyan representative and also those in Africa should change their mentality towards women and that's what is going to steer Africa as a continent foward..
Edgar what would be your suggestions then on ways we can use to empower women as a whole and change the mentality towards women?
The women should be given loans easily that is being given first priority that is boosting them economically plus the loans they take should be given lower interest rates.... This makes them establish job opportunities hence sustain themselves fully.... The change in mentality towards women starts with an individual but also through education especially the set texts, helps people to appreciate women.
In the simplest of words it is basically the creation of an environment where women can make independent decisions on their personal development as well as shine as equals in society. But there are several challenges that are currently plaguing the issues of women’s rights e.g EDUCATION-Not only is an illiterate women at the mercy of her husband or father, she also does not know that this is not the way of life for women across the world. Additionally, the norms of culture that state that the man of the family is the be-all and end-all of family decisions is slowly spoiling the society of the country.POVERTY IN THE COUNTRY-Poverty is considered the greatest threat to peace in the world, and eradication of poverty should be a national goal as important as the eradication of illiteracy. Due to abject poverty, women are exploited as domestic helps and wives whose incomes are usurped by the man of the house.Additionally, sex slaves are a direct outcome of poverty. HEALTH & SAFETY-The health and safety concerns of women are paramount for the wellbeing of a country, and is an important factor in gauging the empowerment of women in a country. However there are alarming concerns where maternal healthcare is concerned. in my opinion there should be a separate ministry like MINISTRY FOR WOMEN & CHILD DEVELOPMENT so that all these challenges can be worked on.
I fully agree with you Hameed until the very last part of your arguement. I do understand that there is a need to focus on Women & Children but I do not believe that it should be to an extent of having a complete seperate ministry when it could possibly fall as a sub-sector to an already existing ministry or ministries. The other reason is because there must still be a promotion of gender equality, in developing a complete separate ministry as the one you have named you must also do the same for the men of that area. Wangari Mathaai worked mainly with women but you cannot make a society understand the reasons to why they should change or the reasons why one should be equal to another if you do not incorporate everyone on the discussion so the whole society can understand why. The first step to me is focusing on communication improvement within a society, then what you have gone on to state as methods to curb the issue.
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