Women empowerment is a big ideology

Bongiwe Nkomazana on Gender
IT is 2018 and we are all caught up in our learnedness and ability to convey messages in the most complicated of ways. It is a beautiful thing that the human race has exceptional intellect however, it can be very easy, especially for the lay man to get lost in the flamboyant word play that is used to describe just about everything in this century.

Hence, I thought it would be refreshing to go back to basics and understand what empowerment is and what it looks like on a woman so that when even the simplest of women reads this, they appreciate what it is to be empowered and instead of shying away from it can strive towards being it.

So the first step is to define empowerment in general and the simplest definition I found was that it is the process of becoming stronger and more confident, especially in controlling one’s life and claiming one’s rights.

From that definition alone, we see that women have been hugely empowered. Unlike yesterday, we are able to speak up for ourselves. We see this freedom in movements like ‘#MeToo’ which is a movement against sexual harassment and assault and many others and that spells out empowerment right there.

The fact that women know their rights and are confident enough to stand up against any violation of them means we are stronger and emancipated. It is not as easy to confine women as it was before and I speak for every woman when I say first of all, it is about time and secondly, we are never going back.

We were at a colleague’s wedding a fortnight ago and the pastor humorously declared that the woman is actually the homeowner – note that he said owner not keeper – because as much as men believe that they are the big and mighty and the heads of their households, their wives influence all decisions from what meal will be eaten for supper to the suburb the family will relocate to.

We laughed but we all know it is true especially after women were declared and viewed as equal humans and/or partners and have been given the space to be that. I honestly believe that this is where true women empowerment begins…at home.

We have men preaching about women empowerment together with us for whatever reason, whether it is because it is a trend or that’s where their pay cheque comes from, who go home and fail to elevate their wives and daughters.

Instead of feeding into their confidence, wives will be told what time to come home, how to dress, when to speak, whom to play with and all these other petty things whilst daughters will be told to behave a certain way not for their personal wellbeing or career advancement but in order to be a good wife. I went to a private all-girls school for my A-Level studies and I must say that the young ladies I met there were a whole different breed from myself and the girls from my previous mission school.

I was timid and unsure of myself upon my arrival whilst my new school mates were self-assured and proud of their different abilities.

As a result, the majority of them have continued to excel in the areas where they were encouraged to flourish whether it was dance, art, literature, public speaking, sport, you name it. They were empowered with the tools to be anything they wanted to be and it showed in their demeanour and their work ethic and now their success. There were no limits for the girl child there whereas at the mission school a girl had to be either book smart or a netball player, period.

What people have failed to realise is that once a girl is reinforced and nurtured to take over the world she will do just that. When a woman is acknowledged as a fully grown adult with the ability to differentiate between right and wrong and is entrusted with not only trivial decisions but with important ones she happily plays the part and will exceed all expectations.

Some organisations and even countries have caught on to this theory and have intensified their women empowerment strategies and as a result their policies, economies and general development are unmatched.

We have discussed to death how women are culturally supposed to be passive in the running of their households and communities and we will continue to converse around it because unfortunately this cultural aspect does in fact hold women back in more ways than one.

So speaking about women in the workforce, to see us waking up in the morning and dressing up in our power suits does not mean we are empowered, it just means that we are employed.

So the employment rate of women is not a result of empowerment. The problem is that we are at work with our beloved brothers and fathers and even females who have difficulties in separating culture and professionalism.

I mean of course, it is our culture and its aspects of ubuntu that ensures that we work in unison, respectfully but when women are expected to be women versus their job title or when we are given typical female tasks at the workplace versus our job description as if we are anywhere else but at work the issue arises, do you understand?

A relatable scenario is at meetings. Women will usually find themselves making everyone a cup of tea and collecting the cups when they are done not necessarily because we are worried about whether people are thirsty but it is expected of us to do that.

I don’t know why it is okay for women to be absent from the meetings’ conversations even for just 15 minutes. Maybe our input is not as valuable or men’s hands are slippery? I hope you get my point.

As massive as the women empowerment creed may seem, it can be achieved. Zimbabwe could be great again if women empowerment is taken off from the way we socialise our little girls to how seriously we take women at home, work and in our different communities.

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