For decades, women have been struggling to emancipate themselves from primeval norms and age-old traditions that have held them captive and stifled their progress in society.
The success in securing a girl’s right to education and women’s right to vote are some of the gains achieved through blood, sweat and tears. And it involved clashing and collision with a society that had been clinging on the futile relics of the dead age as the guiding principles in the creation and perpetuation of outmoded stereotypes.
The January 12, 1915 debate in the United States Congress on women’s right to vote (women suffrage), for example, brought to the fore the world’s skewed description of what women’s roles were.
In his submission before the House, Texas Democratic Congressman Martin Dies alluded to the fact that as long as women focused on being good wives and “groomers of sons”, they did not need to participate in the voting process, as their husbands and sons would make the right decisions at the ballot, on their behalf.
Yet in the midst of the strong opposition, there stood men of courage, Republican Philip Campbell of Kansas, who dared to see the innate potential in women and spoke up for them at a time when they had no voice.
In the total tally, 174 men voted for women against 204. Despite the motion failing to pass that year, these efforts by the few men and the resilience of other suffragists bore fruit a year later when Republican Jeannette Rankin of Montana became the first woman to be elected to the House.
Four years after that, women were finally allowed to vote, through the 19th Amendment, and later more women were elected to Congress.
This piece of history is indicative of the veritable reality that when men and women join hands in advocating for a course, success is guaranteed, sooner or later.
In Kenya, the struggle has been more against societal norms and beliefs that held girls and women to ransom, than legislative labyrinths.
This notwithstanding, we have made great strides as far as the push for gender representation is concerned — by getting more women elected to Parliament, through the creation of Woman Representative seats and nomination slots for women, as well as through the historic election of women as senators and governors in the 2017 polls.
President Kenyatta has led by example in embracing gender parity to ensure that 33 per cent of his current Cabinet secretaries are women. This is incredible progress that should not be abrogated.
To women, the Building Bridges Imitative (BBI), birthed from the ‘handshake’ between President Kenyatta and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, is a timely initiative as it offers women a chance to finally get a seat at the decision-making table.
The drivers of BBI are advocating alternative gender at the county leadership, where, if the governor is a man, the deputy should be a woman, and at the national level, where, if the President is a man, his deputy should be a woman.
This is only a Band-Aid measure to bridge the gender divide as we continue with the sensitisation of the voting population to help them realise that women, too, can make great leaders.
The hope is that in the next two or seven years, more women will be elected to higher offices.
Therefore, as we celebrate the International Women’s Day on Sunday, which runs under the theme: “I am Generation Equality: Realising Women’s Rights”, let us all unite — men and women — and fight for a safer and fairer country for our children’s sake, knowing that this is not a women’s initiative, but collective initiative that has both economic and political benefits to the country, and the continent.
According to the recently released Power of Parity in Africa report by McKenzie & Company, in a full-potential scenario in which women and men play identical roles in labour markets, Africa could potentially add $1 trillion (Sh100 trillion), or 34 per cent, to its collective gross domestic product (GDP) between now and in 2025.
So, why should we allow medieval tendencies to cloud such gleaming economic benefits of gender parity?
When history will be written, let it be said that through the BBI, Kenyan men shed the gendered stereotypes and supported women in ushering in a country of infinite possibilities where they can realise their full economic potential because they will have achieved gender parity.
Ms Waiguru is the Governor of Kirinyaga County. @AnneWaiguru
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