The fight for gender equality has been ongoing for years, with gender activists rising up to eradicate discrimination and to make the world accessible to the male and female gender.
Women’s Day is celebrated every year on March 8th all around the world as a means to intensive the effort towards achieving gender equality, eradicating gender bias, empowering women and young girls all around the world.
The theme for International Women’s Day (IWD) this year, 2022 is “Break The Bias”. BizWatch Nigeria while celebrating women, their achievements and courage, called for gender equality and a stop to bias/violence against women.
Is Nigeria ready for a female President?
BizWatch Nigeria recalls that ever since Nigeria gained its independence in 1960, the country has not recorded any female President. Not only does this not speak well, but it also slows down our fight for gender equality if the citizens do not support women in politics or vote for them.
The 2023 general elections are approaching, is Nigeria ready to elect and follow a female President? Presidential and governmental aspirants are yet to officially announce their bid for the race, neither have they begun their campaign nor publicised their agenda.
Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) and Gender Equality
Gender equality is the fifth Sustainable Development Goal (SDG), this goal aims to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls all around the world.
The United Nations (UN) released a global comprehensive report on gender equality, revealing that “the social and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have adversely affected progress towards gender equality”.
The report also said that “violence against women and girls has intensified; child marriage, on the decline in recent years, is expected to increase; and women have suffered a disproportionate share of job losses and increased care work at home.
“The pandemic has highlighted the need to act swiftly to address pervasive global gender inequalities. Women have played a central role in the response to COVID-19, as frontline health workers, care providers, as managers and leaders of recovery efforts.
“Yet they remain underrepresented in leadership positions, and their rights and priorities are often not explicitly addressed in response and recovery measures. The crisis presents an opportunity to re-shape and rebuild systems, laws, policies and institutions to advance gender equality. “
The United Nations (UN) also revealed that giving women equal access to land would go a long way towards alleviating poverty and food insecurity.
Break The Bias
BizWatch Nigeria held a gender equality conversation that created awareness, provided solutions to gender bias and teamed up with gender activists to break sexist societal and cultural rules.
The conversation was held on Wednesday, March 9th 2022 on Twitter Spaces conversation with seasoned experts;
- Hansatu Adegbite; the Executive Director of Women in Management, Business and Public Service (WIMBIZ).
- Betty Abah; a prestigious Nigerian journalist, author and women and children’s rights activist, founder and Executive Director of CEE HOPE.
- Gbemi Aleke; a Deputy Director Account Management & Strategy at TBWA\Concept, Lagos State.
- Seyi Body-Lawson; a world-recognized photographer, entrepreneur and a gender equalist enthusiast.
Hansatu Adegbite who joined other Nigerian women at the National Assembly, Abuja to protest the rejected gender bills said that the bills are critical and she is not deterred by the three bills that were receded. Women groups including WIMBIZ have been protesting the rejected gender bills pushing for gender equality, the approval and implementation of the bill.
“Women will continue to occupy the National Assembly gate until the gender bills are passed, we do not want 3 approved; we want all of them to be approved and implemented,” Adegbite said.
Adegbite while answering a question concerning the gender bills from the host (Adepeju Aina) said “the important thing is that we all have to be part of the conversation, there are certain things that we will not and must not be allowed to die down. The ability to stay at something until we see it resolved to the end is what we need to learn, we need tenacity and the diligence of seeing things through.”
Adegbite revealed that WIMBIZ is working on women in politics mentoring program, saying that women will keep pushing for a 35% representation of women within the leadership structure of political parties.
Seyi Body-Lawson while speaking about gender equality and the role of women in restoring Nigeria said that “Women have the ability to restore the glory of Nigeria. I strongly believe that the women in this country have a great and mighty role to play in the restoration of this country. But the question is, are the women ready?”
“Women have the power to achieve political publicity only if they unite, publicise their political intention and their agenda. Women need to support each other and commence their role in restoring Nigeria”, said Body-Lawson.
The speakers frowned upon the generalization of women, especially in terms of bad things and urged everyone to quit judging women and support their dreams and journey.
Gbemi Aleke, while providing solutions to gender bias, said “The first step in dealing with bias identifying the root and being able to correct them for children. There is a problem if we do not identify the issues. It might take time to correct certain things which have been put into place over time.”
Body-Lawson said a great way to eradicate gender bias is by including gender equality in the educational curriculum, “We should channel a lot of efforts to education to change the curriculum. We should include gender equality education or encourage civic education to young boys and girls to understand that women have equal opportunities and equal rights. This will go a long way.”
He also appealed to parents, guardians and educational bodies to change the negative narration of women, to empower young girls, re-orient the students about gender equality and equip them with knowledge and power to break the gender bias.
The speakers ahead of the 2023 elections said that Nigeria is ready for a female President, calling on the citizens to trash every bias and vote for women.
Adepeju Aina, speaking at the end of the event called for an active fight to eradicate gender bias saying, “We cannot afford to wait till the next women’s day to talk about gender equality, we need to amplify our voices every second if we want to break the gender bias. Support women in all sectors, vote for women and educate the male and female gender about equality”.
Full conversation
Click on this link to listen to the full conversation on gender bias, the prediction and empowering of women leaders in politics.
