Most of the time I thank God for being born a male, I have never imagined myself as a woman. It’s this mentality that when let out for the other gender to hear, triggers an outcry of male chauvinism in many societies, numerous movements formed supposedly to fight the ‘male ego’ that they usually claim to be targeting them. To some extent this is true; men despising women and always ready with ‘facts’ and scriptures to justify their actions, but somewhere along the way the fundamental objective is blown away by the wind of hatred and competition emanating from the women.
Always there to bear the brunt is the boy child in the society. They are considered privileged and elevated from their female counterparts especially when we look back at many of our societies. Boys were truly favoured compared to women since they were supposed to carry on the legacy of their fathers and take care of their paternal homes as opposed to girls who were to be married away, but they (boys) too have similar problems to contend with in today’s changing lifestyle therefore ignoring them just because they were historically preferred, is the biggest injustice I believe there is. This is one of the most sensitive topics in today’s society accorded less attention than it deserves.
Most African governments are accused of neglecting gender equity and empowerment of the girl child. In an overview, the gender inequity is so conspicuous in almost all the sectors thus the spirited campaign some dubbed ‘affirmative action’. One thing is so elusive from people’s view in this matter; it’s never suppression of the female, but mastery of the art of survival by the male, using whichever means to get there. The governments surrounded by guilt, start creating numerous unnecessary support for the women so that they are cast to others in good light but the problem never goes away, this shows that the problem is never the problem but a creation of non-issues by ourselves.
Women will find it easy to hide behind historical injustices-if I may call them so. But this will not help in changing anything. Societies have changed and are still changing, in fact drastically, what brings the difference is how one strives to fit into the system. Women are known for their resilience and if they could just channel this precious virtue towards appropriate goals, then they won’t be blaming anyone. The world is a free ‘market’ where contention with other players in the sector defines one’s success or failure, male or female.
A number of women have realized this and are making men sweat and that is the idea; fair play. The number of women in the initially male dominated sectors is increasing from the not so appealing jua kali sector to banking halls and engineering all over the world. If only all the women could see this as a break they badly needed, then there would be no noise about gender equity. In the current economic turmoil in the world and especially here in Kenya, both boys and girls feel the pinch of either not going to school due to hunger or just utter poverty.
The women and proponents of gender equity should realize that depending on history for freebies is an idea passed with time and will only lag them behind in the achievement of this much touted issue. All they should spend all their time on if at all they need to is empowerment and encouragement of the presumably disoriented women and girls to take on their male counterparts in fighting it out with life. The soul reason of having your life is living it failure to which you bear the responsibility alone, with no one anywhere to blame. There is a lot of sense in this saying- a man (referring to the whole mankind) is in charge of his own destiny. Make it count.
Danny
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
i beg to differ with you.Gender equality and afirmative action are not excuses for as women to get ahead as you so put.They are ways for giving us equal opportunities,yes I may be lucky to have received an education from a tender age without any questions from family but there are many girls who are not as lucky as their parents especially the fathers think of them as the gravy train and marry them away.They need heavy set of laws to protect them from these archaic culture and to give them a chance for a bright future.
ReplyDeleteWomen have two things used to discriminate against them,their sex and their role as mothers.This is known as unfair discrimination in terms of the right to equality found in the Bill of Rights of many constitutions in the world.
Contrary to your belief, gender equality and affirmative action are not a free ride to work and wealth,women still have to work twice as hard and even those you mention to have broken the glass ceiling will tell you that it was not easy. The discrimination still faced at the work place because one is a woman is still imminent and some are still not promoted to bigger posts unless they perform favours for the men so please tell me what is fair and easy about that??
If you noticed the proponents of gender equality are strong hardworking women and not lazy women,this should tell you something.Think of Wangari Maathai,Hillary Clinton, Oprah Winfrey,Betty Murungi, Martha Koome to name a few.
Affirmative action and gender equality have led to many doors being opened for women and will continue to do so.Men should support women in this endeavour and not see it as a free pass but as a stepping stone to better our lives and in turn those of the society.