In light of everything that is going on in the United States having to do with the sudden uproar on coverage of contraceptives and ultrasounds before abortion nonsense, I thought that my first post back should be about women.
In America we live under the fallacy that women are equal. In Africa, it is still blatantly obvious that they are not.
There are many empowerment programs run by different women’s organizations to try and remedy this situation, however, until we start focusing on the protection of women and girls all over the world, nothing will change. Protection is different than empowerment. Empowerment is making people believe that they have power and try to give them the confidence and tools to exercise that power. Protection is making sure that they are getting what they need to live a positive and healthy life – physically, emotionally, medically, financially, opportunity-wise, etc.
The biggest oversight with the women’s empowerment movement is that it alienates the men. These women have been armed with a false sense of power in many of these empowerment programs, which the men in their communities know nothing about and do not understand, and if anything view this as a threat. If you only shift the women’s perspective and not the men’s what you will get is a culture clash, and since ultimately, men still are in control, they will react with hostility to women’s new sense of confidence and just beat the women back down.
Men need to be a part of this process. In a world that is still run by men, bolstering women’s rights is not just about women’s empowerment, it’s also about getting male buy-in and male advocates. In order to truly be effective we need the people in power – men – to subscribe to this pedagogy. This requires changing culture, which, because of academia’s constant stress on “cultural relativism”, a lot of people feel uncomfortable doing. I have seen a lot of people write off the unacceptable inequalities between men and women as just “part of the culture.” But we need to remember what culture is; it is only a manifestation of power dynamics in a community, which is created (both consciously and unconsciously) by the people in power so that they can continue to stay in power. For example, small, covert things like the expectation for women to bow in front of older men in Uganda are subliminal reminders for them that they are inferior, and it is reinforced every time they bow.
Unfortunately, but realistically, protection of women starts with men. It starts with changing men’s perspectives about women and what their value and role is in society in addition to empowering women. This will come in the form of both policy and systemic changes as well as changing integral and deep rooted parts of culture, which take time and are usually uncomfortable and met with hostility. But, it is only when this paradigm shift occurs that women will truly be equal members in society.
Organizations working in women’s empowerment need to be engaging more with men, with religious leaders, with village chiefs and headmen, in order to not only make sure that these ideas are bought into but also to make sure women are not put in danger by a backlash against their new-found empowerment.
With that said, do you really think that these changes can come from an organization doing “behavior change” programs, or is it something that needs to be organic and come from within in the culture itself? And if it is the latter, what can we, on the outside, do?
Dr Tinashe Maduke
/ February 22, 2012Great article once again Jen. I was very excited when i saw your article topic because it is a matter so dear to my heart, At the Bush Centre Global Health summit where there was the launch of the Red Ribbon Pink Ribbon Initiative last Fall people went on and on talking about women empowerment and how much money was going to be poured into all these programs and there was not a single mention on men. So after a while I got extremely agitated and i raised my hand in the room with all these powerful people from Pepfar, UN, WHO etc and I stood up. I basically asked the question that everyone seemed to be talking about women and children and not a single person spoke about my kind of species, men; in the fight for equality and empowerment. The funniest thing for me was that there were 70% men at the summit. The panel heading the discussion hesitated to answer and bounced the responsibility to answer between each other and finally Mrs Kagame(1st lady from Rwanda) said there may be need to look into that. I clearly got the message that engaging men seemed either an extremely difficult task or people prefer the easy partly successful route of pouring millions in women’s projects. I was quite disheartened to say the least. However some lady came to me from South America and handed me a card and details of programs engaging men which are making a difference.It is a program run by Promundo and they seem to be doing some phenominal work from my feeble research. So that was a great testimony and it shows that it can be done. There will be no true women empowerment until men are engaged in the process. You hit the nail straight on the head. Keep speaking Jen.
Dov gottesfeld
/ February 22, 2012Changes in societies, unfortunately, most often come with pain and with price tags attached to them. In many parts of Africa, it seems, people still subscribe to “might is right.” That concept goes all the way back to biblical times. In order for women to look for solutions to achieve equality, it would be practical to look back at ancient textual sources from which they could learn how and what to do in order to bring about the changes in their lives that they desire.
First, the African women should look at Miriam, Moses’ older sister. She was shown to have leadership capabilities no less than Moses’ did. Not only did she save Moses’ life in his infancy (Exodus 2:1–10), she must have also assisted Aaron, her brother in organizing the Israelites flight from Egypt. Yet, Moses did not give her any position in his leadership, as he had given to his brother Aaron. She took matters into her own hands, in protest, and after the crossing to the Red Sea, she organized all the Hebrew women and leads in singing, dancing, and playing drums (Exod 15:20–21). The bible called her “the prophet Miriam.” Miriam was a woman who spoke her mind combining moral and ethical elements to her thinking. “Accompanied by her brother Aaron, she speaks out against Moses (Num 12:1–6), faulting him for marrying a Cushite woman. (Exod 2:21, 18:2), or another woman. […]Most probably, the attack implicates Miriam in a struggle over the priestly leadership of Moses. Miriam with Aaron also challenges the prophetic authority of Moses. She asks, “Has the Lord spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also?” (Num 12:2). She understands leadership to embrace diverse voices, female and male. But the price of speaking out is severe.”
Please read further about Miriam and other heroic Jewish women in: (http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/miriam-bible.)
Another example is from the bible: Zelophehad Daughters (Numbers 27:1-) The following was copied from:
(http://www.myjewishlearning.com/texts/Bible/Torah/Numbers/Zelophehads_Daughters.shtml)
Reprinted from Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia with permission of the author and the Jewish Women’s Archive.
“The story of the five daughters of Zelophehad provides legitimation of a limited right of Israelite women to inherit land. It also places specific marriage restrictions upon any women who inherit under this right. The story celebrates women’s boldness and at the same time offers comfort for men who have the misfortune (from the Bible’s androcentric point of view) to have no sons.
Zelophehad has five daughters, Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah; he has no sons. Zelophehad is part of the generation of Israelites who departed from Egypt under Moses’ leadership and died during the forty years in the wilderness. His five daughters belong to the new generation that would enter and possess the promised land. (Their mother is never mentioned.)
According to God’s decree, the promised land is to be apportioned according to the “number of names” of members of the second generation counted in the census recorded in Numbers 26 (see 26:5-56). Since only men were counted in the census, however, Zelophehad’s daughters would be left without an inheritance.
Let the Women Speak!
Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah come forward to appeal this regulation, stating their case in front of the sacred tent of meeting in the presence of Moses, Eleazar the priest, the leaders, and indeed the whole community (Numbers 27:2). They argue that their father’s name (lineage) should not be cut off from his clan just because he had no son and that they should be permitted to inherit his land portion (27:4) in order to avoid this potential injustice to their father’s name (and property). The story presumes a culture that recognizes a connection between landholding and preservation of a male name in a family lineage”
Please refer to the rest of the story to the Website.
OTHER SOURCES
“African women could also learn from Lysistrata a play that was written in 411B.C. by Aristophanes. In the play -Lysistrata has planned a meeting between all of the women of Greece to discuss the plan to end the Peloponnesian War. As Lysistrata waits for the women of Sparta, Thebes, and other areas to meet her she curses the weakness of women. Lysistrata plans to ask the women to refuse sex with their husbands until a treaty for peace has been signed. Lysistrata has also made plans with the older women of Athens (the Chorus of Old Women) to seize the Acropolis later that day. The women from the various regions finally assemble and Lysistrata convinces them to swear an oath that they will withhold sex from their husbands until both sides sign a treaty of peace.”
FINAL WORDS
The African women should not try to re-educate the men. It wouldn’t work. They need to organize create goals, find support in “higher places” and reach a point “self-emancipation”, confidence, empowerment and recognition where the male gender will see the benefit, the beauty, and the right-thing-to-do in aligning with the women’s movement, rather than trying to crash it.
Dov