Fw: *DHR* Rwanda: Education, Not Parliamentary Seats, Will Empower Women

 

http://allafrica.com/stories/201203121333.html Rwanda Focus (Kigali) EMAIL PRINT SHARE Rwanda: Education, Not Parliamentary Seats, Will Empower Women BY EDWARD OJULU, 12 MARCH 2012 On March 8, nations around the globe marked the International Women's Day for the 102nd time since it was first observed in 1910. As usual, there was more talk and political posturing than tackling real issues that hinder political, social and economic development for the less privileged women, especially those in rural Africa. Emphasis appeared to be on symptoms rather than confronting with frankness the real problems that keep women, and by extension all people, under social and economic deprivation. This means that we are either pretentious or simply out of touch with real issues that hurt ordinary women. One of the most simplistic thoughts to come out of this year's women's day is the hype about the "worryingly low" number of women representatives in parliaments around the world. The Inter-Parliamentary Union, a global body, laments that woman representation in parliaments remained a paltry 19.5 % in 2011 due to lack of funds for campaigns, antagonistic nature of competitive politics and lack of support from spouses etc. According to this report, among 188 countries, Rwanda and Andorra have more than 50% women representation in parliament while Belize, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the Solomon Islands have zero. In Africa, commentators are lamenting about fewer women CEOs in the private sector, higher positions in police and military services etc. Some are even grumbling that there are few women in newsrooms! While I do not subscribe to any form of inequity, especially race and gender-based discrimination, merely increasing the number of women in legislative assemblies, armed forces, media and board rooms is not an end. Neither is it the best policy intervention to empower millions of women living in abject poverty. Some regimes in Africa have selfishly used this to buy political support from women by placing a few women in top positions. In some countries some seats in parliament have been reserved for women with the hope that more women will be spurred into leadership position. That those beneficiaries of this affirmative action will gain confidence, exposure and resources required to compete for even higher political positions and be able to influence policies that benefit all women. Unfortunately, once there, these ladies enter the comfort zone - wrongly believing that their being in such privileged positions is in itself an end to women empowerment. By failing to influence broad policies that aim at liberating the lowest woman from the yoke of slavery, exploitation and degrading cultural practices, women in leadership positions have failed fellow women. There is need therefore to make it known to the women who have benefited from any form of affirmative action that they must not look at their positions as an end in itself, but as means through which to influence radical social and political reforms that will benefit all women. There are several problems women in African countries face which the clamor for more parliamentary and cabinet seats will never solve. One of them is education for girls. Before we talk about more seats in parliament and board rooms, we must design an education policy specifically tailored to stop poor girls from dropping out of school for lack of mere sanitary pads. All girls must stay in school long enough to attain university education or vocational skills for women to gain economic independence. Good governance The reality is that even if all parliaments in the world were to be 100% occupied by women, there are not enough seats for all women to directly benefit from. At the same time, there are not enough places in newsrooms and board rooms for all women in the world. Women must use their numerical strength to ensure that respective governments deliver services such as clean water; quality health, education and agricultural services to them. Rather than watch as corrupt regimes plunder resources, civil society must organize women to demand for accountability and good governance so that more girls will access good food, education and health services. So, instead of lamenting about the low numbers of women in parliaments, we should be worried about the high number of girls dropping out of school before completing primary level. Only educated women stand a chance to sit in parliament.

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