The Sunday Mail
Victoria Ruzvidzo
Last Wednesday I was privileged to be part of an online seminar in which some current and former female presidents and prime ministers from the continent were expressing themselves and sharing ideas on women advancement in commemoration of the Women’s month.
It felt good to be among such powerful and highly energetic and committed leaders. The likes of former Malawian President Joyce Banda, Namibia’s Prime Minister Saara Kuugonyeiwa-Amadhla and former Mauritian President Ammenah Gurib-Fakim exhibited immense passion in seeing women on the continent rise to occupy their space at the table. They will complement their male peers in helping the continent realise its full
Dubbed the Africa Women Heads of State Initiative, the webinar was hosted by Coca-Cola in conjunction with Africa.com and a faculty from Harvard Law School.
Most of the leaders lamented the slow progress in women advancement in politics, the economy and other spheres. The fact that only 22 women had either been president or prime minister in Africa over the past few decades was a major cause for concern for women attending the webinar and was highlighted as needing redress.
A few encounters, particularly this past week that I had with women politicians from Marondera and Chipinge and journalists under the Gender and Media Connect banner and a high tea and dinner on Friday organised by the Institute of Corporate Directors Zimbabwe and the Zimbabwe Network of CEOs respectively left me without doubt that women are on the rise. They exhibited immense passion to step up the corporate ladder and in politics, not just through mere talk and grumblings but many are actually equipping themselves to achieve this.
Of keen interest was the departure from mumbling about why men are the ones at the top to really presenting programmes and projects so they can become more active on the grand stage too.
So it comes to pass that the women’s month draws to a close in a few days’ time. Indeed, it’s been as eventful as it was instructive. A lot of positives to glean from it. Also some lessons to take away. Women on the whole come from a tortured past and in a number of instances have displayed high resolve to transcend formidable challenges.
Equally, there is still a lot to be done-mountains moved, meanders negotiated and obstacles overcome. Nothing worth it ever comes easy. In certain areas, the progress has been painfully slow. Yet in others, it has been stunningly impressive. We take both in our stride-consolidating our gains whilst concurrently learning from the negative. We need to seize our spaces. Politically, women are grossly under represented as alluded to earlier. There is need to be more aggressive and assertive. None but ourselves can do it. Recent elections point a picture of less representation for women. In the just held elections there were only 16 female candidates and at least 106 men.
The Government, to its credit, has been supportive of gender equality. In the same vein, we need to be more proactive authors of our destiny. Where conditions and policies are conducive to the advancement of our causes, we seize them. I suspect that in a significant number of cases, women lack confidence.
This is understandable given our various backgrounds, be they political, social, economic, historical or cultural. But the same can also act to give impetus.
There is a discernible need to explore all the opportunities and perhaps disabuse ourselves of some inferiority complexes, because we have shown that we have the pedigree. One cannot attribute failure to external circumstances but should start within Economically and in business circles, we have observed very significant progress in some quarters. But it is the submission of this writer that women are just starting, the road ahead is still long and never should we rest on our laurels.
The high number of female students getting admission in universities is very positive and also those registering for advanced degrees. This is encouraging.
While we have also seen more females on boards and yet others leading them, we envisage a situation where this becomes the norm. This will not happen on its own or by some benevolent acts from men. We take actions in our respective spaces, unapologetically.
One of the clear issues which beg attention is the need to involve men in our fight. Men need be made aware of our legitimate cases, to know that what we fight for is space on the table, to be made keenly aware of our capabilities.
Importantly too, to realise we are a species which complements them in a number of ways. After all, males came from the female. More than that, they have sisters, grandmothers, aunts etc. Would they be comfortable repressing them? The fight for equality was given broad coverage during the course of the month, as was GBV. It takes one to have some mental pathology to harm a defenceless woman, leaving a trail of destruction in the wake.
The effects of GBV are expansive, going beyond a woman. Concerted efforts were put in these areas. Admittedly, this is a journey in a lot of respects and for as long as we do not relent, we will triumph.
While the women’s month justifiably recognises women and their fiduciary rights, efforts should be year-long. In all we do, lets continue to put accent on the very compelling issues at hand and leave this earth in a better state than we found it.
In God I Trust!
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