Inspiring change on International Women’s Day

8 March , 2014 marks the 40th official celebration of International Women’s Day (IWD). However, as early as 28 February, 1909, the United States celebrated a national women’s day in honour of the 1908 garment workers strike in New York, an action that provided women the opportunity to protest poor working conditions in the industry. Whichever way we look at it – 40th or 105th – Women’s Day has become an important event in the calendar of many individuals and states primarily because we still live in an unequal world.
Inequality here is not just about gender, because there is inequality even amongst people of the same gender. It’s about nearly every index we can think of – race, cultures, populations, access etc. Inequality is as much a problem in the most advanced economies of the world as it is in the least developing countries. Take the remarkable statistic offered by @injustice facts – 1 percent of the world’s population own 50 percent of the world’s wealth and resources. In simple terms, this means that 99 percent of the world’s population has to rely on the exact same wealth and resources as the remaining 1 percent. Think about that!

LOOKING BACK AND MOVING FORWARD

The United Nations has thought long and hard about the objective of the IWD. It perceives the day as a time “to reflect on progress made, to call for change, and to celebrate acts of courage and determination by ordinary women who have played an extraordinary role in the history of their countries and communities.” Reflections keep us looking back in order to move forward, which is good if we must maintain our focus.

I am sure we will find people who could say that a lot of progress has been made in the march towards gender equality in Africa. We can point to countries like Rwanda and South Africa which are said to have about 55 percent and 42 percent of their respective parliament comprised of women. In a piece titled “Women in Parliament” published in The Economist online on 9 May, 2012, only one more African country – Egypt – made a poll of 22 countries with fair to great percentage of women in parliament. Interestingly, the poll also found that countries with quotas saw women gain 27 percent of seats compared to 16 percent in those without. I will return to the subject of quotas in the context of affirmative action later.

“EQUALITY FOR WOMEN IS PROGRESS FOR ALL”

Nigeria didn’t feature in the referenced poll but we could argue that more women are aware and actively campaigning for change not only in the political space but also in other spaces. This is progress of some sort but it doesn’t change the unfortunate statistics about extremely low women participation in politics. In a country where nearly half the population is female, that is surely cause for concern.

The UN is equally concerned. Its concern however transcends politics. It extends to every aspect of our lives as members of the human community. So concerned is the UN that it has themed 2014 IWD “equality for women is progress for all” in recognition of the strategic role women play in building families and by extension, communities and economies. But how can we ensure equality for women and why does this matter?

Equality itself is a subject of tricky construction and interpretation. Often, equal access breeds inequality. Therefore, people can argue that affirmative action actually lowers standards in some sense because to get more of a particular group into positions, we must wittingly or wittingly limit access to those positions by people of other groups. At other times, creating these opportunities suddenly breeds inequality not between people of different classes but people of the same class so we have to be a bit careful in configuring this.

In the context of the 2014 IWD theme, equality for women matters because it’s “win win” for all. Equal access to education, including sexuality education, for instance, means that women only raise the number of children they can cater for and consequently reduce the possibility that those children end up without an education and probably without the means to provide for their children thereby triggering a cycle of poverty.

MOBILIZING FOR ACTION

How to make this happen is the more difficult question. It’s easy to understand why and make the connections but often more difficult to mobilize for action on this. But mobilize we must. Women need to take the lead in mobilizing for action particularly against leadership at all levels. Silence isn’t golden when injustice prevails. This is why the recent marches by women in Lagos, Benin and Abuja to protest the brutal killing and abduction of innocent students of a federal government college in Yobe is highly commendable. They have taken steps to speak out against the evil that is gradually destroying our society. It’s a call to action by government and all institutions responsible for ensuring a return to normalcy in the north east of Nigeria. To succeed, this action needs to be sustained.

Sustainability is critical to inspiring change in our communities. Several ordinary women are looking up to civil society to provide leadership for change in their communities. They need to be mobilized to ask questions of their “representatives” concerning promises made before ballots were cast; about budgetary allocations that have not transformed the lives of their families; and about ostentatious life styles acquired post elections. There are many questions waiting to be asked and probably, many more women looking for leadership to ask these questions in a context that leads to some accountability, however minute.

We must take the opportunity provided by the 2014 IWD to re-dedicate ourselves – men and women – to being change agents. Using our spheres of influence to ensure that women and girls get a better deal than they are getting today. It is in our strategic interest and for our collective benefit.
* Okeoma Ndidi Ibe is Legal Director at Centre for the Promotion of Entrepreneurship and Development (CED), Abuja, Nigeria.

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