SEASON OF WOMEN

Season of Women

03 Nov 2015

Panelists discussing an issue

The recently concluded Women in Business and Leadership Summit organised by the GLEEHD Foundation, was another striking reminder of the gender revolution sweeping through the African continent, writes Solomon Elusoji

After centuries of patriarchy promotion, Africa is gradually waking up to the modern consequences of gender inequality. Statistics have consistently shown that societies who do not give the same economic, social and legal opportunities to men and women, in the long run, are never better off than those who do. When women work, several studies have shown, the economy grows faster and everyone is better off.

“A society that does not educate its women is leaving a vast resource fallow,” writes Charles Wheelan, in his seminal book ‘Naked Economics’.

He adds: “Women in the developing world do smarter things with their money. As women get wealthier, they spend more money on the family’s nutrition, medicine, and housing. When men get wealthier, they spend more money on alcohol and tobacco. Really. There was an elegant little experiment in this point in the Ivory Coast, where men and women traditionally grow different crops. In some years, the men’s cash crops do particularly well. MIT economist Esther Duflo found that when the men have a banner year, the household spends more on drinking and smoking; when the women rake in the cash, the household spends more on food. Development officials have learned that if they give cash to the female head of household, it will do more good.”

This, of course, is not to encourage gender comparison, but to highlight the economic potential of an empowered woman, a phenomenon which patriarchy refuses to let blossom. For example, according to a United Nations report, women comprise an average of 43 per cent of the agricultural labour force in developing countries, varying considerably across regions from 20 per cent or less in Latin America to 50 per cent or more in parts of Asia and Africa. Still, despite the regional and sub-regional variation, women make an essential contribution to agriculture across the developing world.

But, despite their massive contributions, women farmers control less land than men do, and also have limited access to inputs, seeds, credits, and extension services. It is estimated that less than 20 per cent of landholders are women. The UN report concludes that “gender differences in access to land and credit affect the relative ability of female and male farmers and entrepreneurs to invest, operate to scale, and benefit from new economic opportunities.”

In 2011, UNICEF estimated that 31 million girls of primary school age and 34 million girls of lower secondary school age were not enrolled in school and according to statistics, one in four women globally are still illiterate, with most of them living in sub-Saharan Africa.

It is reported that in 47 out of 54 African countries, girls have less than a 50 per cent chance of completing primary school.

In that respect, journalist, Belinda Otas has noted that “Education has long been argued as one of the key solutions to ensuring women and girls gain equal access to political and socio-economic power in society. Women activists, policy-makers and well-known voices, like the award-winning Benoise singer Angelique Kidjo, have long campaigned and fought vigorously for the education of girls, achieving significant gains. However, inadequate funds, tradition and culture (in particular, strong cultural norms that favour the education of boys over girls, as well as early child marriage) continue to be some of the main causes of a lack of education for women in Africa.”

Still, Africa is not standing still. A key aspect of life where African women are breaking new grounds is political leadership. Africa now has three female heads of state, after Catherine Samba-Panza of the Central African Republic took office in January. Though women leaders remain the exception in African politics, more people are beginning to find reasons to believe.

Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was the first in 2005 as the country emerged from 13 years of brutal civil war. Joyce Banda stepped up in Malawi in 2012 after the sudden death of the president. She had been the vice president. And now there’s President Samba-Panza in the Central African Republic, a country torn apart by rebellion and sectarian violence. Astoundingly, each of these women has taken office amid crisis and turbulent transitions. It appears that during times of tragedy, Africans would rather support a woman.

In economics, women like Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Folorunsho Alakija continue to eclipse dizzying heights, unconsciously becoming a metaphor for the Great African Woman. A plethora of voices have arisen across the continent, chanting the gospel of women empowerment. And, this – the evangelisation of women empowerment – is a beautiful thing that will transform the continent.

Recently in Lagos, the GLEEHD (Governance, Leadership, Economic, Environmental and Human Development) Foundation held the second edition of the Women in Business and Leadership Summit, as part of its efforts to support the cause of the African woman. With the likes of Harvard-trained Oby Ezekwesili and a plethora of other accomplished women, it was a salient three-day summit.

The summit, aptly themed ‘Building Greatness’ recognised the role of women in transforming economies, societies, and their families. The Summit also explored ways through which women as entrepreneurs and corporate executives are creating opportunities in the business world globally, while working to maintain and conserve increasingly limited natural resources.

On the summit’s second day, former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili, delivered a keynote speech where she encouraged women to step into the orbit of greatness.

“You are not competing with anybody,” she said, “but you are competing with who you were the last time. See beyond the boundaries of Nigeria and strive to attain global dimensions. Greatness means having a lasting quotient; how lasting are you? Stretch yourself beyond your limit – don’t worry, you won’t break.”

She also pointed out that “greatness is mysterious”, since it is not found where the world expects it to be, and that “we can attain greatness, building on what skills we currently carry.”

For Oby, who is a frontline leader of the Bring Back Our Girls campaign, to be great is about serving others. “You don’t need a title to achieve greatness,” she said.

In an invitation letter, the Summit’s President and Chair of GLEEHD Foundation’s advisory board, Mrs. Opral Mason Benson noted that while the African Union has christened the years 2010-2020 as the African Women’s decade, women are still the most underutilised resources in community development in Africa.

“This oversight is the major reason for limiting positive outcomes as women are resilient and focus on quality-of-life issues,” Benson, who is also the Honorary Consul of Liberia to Nigeria, said. “It is on this premise that WIBLES is organised as a tool to build the capacities of women to deliver the future and create a platform for women to support other women.

“It is commonly said that there is a lot that women can do to support one another and the first thing we can do is simply show up for another. It helps tremendously to share not only our successes but also our failures with one another in order for us to grow and truly learn from one another.

“Since inception, the WIBLES and its sister events have continued to bridge the gap between women leaders of the 21st century and the millennials who admire them, by shaking up the women’s leadership arena and producing accessible platforms for mid-level and emerging women leaders to engage with leading women.”