Women’s Day of glory

March 8 has come to represent that special day in the year the world has set aside to commemorate the great strides women have made and are making all over the world. It is also a day to reflect on their prospects for the future. The day is expected to be marked worldwide with arts performances, talks, rallies, conferences, marches and networking events. The theme for this year’s celebration is “Each for Equal.” It is a reflection of the age-old inequality that has dogged male-female relationship for centuries. 

Women have come a long way, indeed. In the 1900s, the German Socialist women who first created a movement, followed by the American women who under the banner of the Socialist Party of America declared the first Women’s Day on February 28, 1909. These were followed by numerous efforts by the women for world peace and prosperity, including their huge conference in 1915, which ought to have stopped the Great War (1914-1918) if only men would listen, and typically they did not. And as the men marched off to war, women were persuaded to take their place in the work force only to turn around to pay them half of what the men were paid. The women’s protest in Russia over the glaring injustices was such that they convinced whole regiments to join their protests in 1917. The Czar feared it was getting out of hand that Nicholas was said to have ordered that mortal force be unleashed on the protesting women. As is characteristic when women are determined, nothing could stop the women, and the Czar abdicated a week later, signalling the beginning of the October Revolution and the end of the 304 years reign of the Romanovs in Russia.

From the beginning of time, women have borne the burden of the family. They have been instrumental to the march of progress: the eight-hour work day, eight weeks of maternity leave. All the little improvements in the work place have come from their sweat and tears encapsulated in their agitation for the so-called “bread and roses.” The need for bread is fairly obvious but work also means dignity, respect, fair wages and, indeed, equal wages.

Since 1975 when the United Nations (UN) elevated women issues in its agenda, the march of women, always slow, has accelerated. Women’s conferences have become regular. International fora have continued to ventilate the concerns of women and striven to even, when it is purely lip service, to defer to women and acknowledge that, at least, their demands are reasonable and justified.

In many aspects of our lives, the representation of women is paltry and tokenism seems to be the rule. We must admit with satisfaction that the idea of educating the girl-child has eventually won mass support, such that even the most conservative segments of the population now seem agreed that educating the girl child is as important, if not more important than educating the male child. It has finally become universally acknowledged that educating a girl means educating a community. But we still lag behind in empowering women in terms to economic freedom and empowerment. Prejudices still cloud our thinking about women free of want, women of independent resources who do not need to depend on husbands. Certain cultural mistreatment of females, like the female circumcision, which is simply female genital mutilation, is coming under increasing disapproval. It is good that some states have abolished it. Issues like property ownership, the human rights of women as citizens have come under positive light in recent times. Yet we think that much more needs to be done.

It has continued to be the rule, except in a few exceptional instances, that in the giant of Africa, the woman’s place is in the kitchen and the other room. In many African countries, the ground has shifted such that affirmative action is widespread. Instances are cited such as in Rwanda where government positions are split half and half between men and women. Several African countries now reserve 35 per cent of legislative and executive positions for women.

We urge members of the National and State Assemblies to enact the necessary legislations to enable our women assume their rightful places in the affairs of our country and to take appropriate measures to enable our women to fulfil their natural role of being our better half.