My wife belongs to the other room’ ‘Men are the decision-makers; women should cook in the kitchen while men play politics’ ‘Women knows nothing apart from makeup and food’ ‘Women are only good for the beds’ ‘It is a woman’s talk’ ‘I have a woman like you at home’ ‘A woman’s education ends in the kitchen’
The 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended boast of inclusive and equitable access to political participation. The National Gender Policy (2006) recommended a benchmark of 35% of seats in parliament to be filled by women. Our patriarchal country is also a signatory to many international treaties that enforces the full political rights of women, yet, strong disparities in politics for women remain prevalent.
It was expected that facilitating Nigerian women‘s admission to one-third of positions in governing bodies would enable women to reach a critical threshold in the pursuit of changes in gender equality. Sadly, it has not been achieved.
Women comprise over 50% of the world’s population, yet women continue to be underrepresented as leaders and elected officials. How can democracy truly deliver for all of its citizens if more than half of the population remains underrepresented?
Without a doubt, equal participation of women in politics and government is essential to building and sustaining democracy which has given rise to different awareness and agitations on the need for women to be involved in Politics.
Lately, The Nigerian senators voted against gender equality in the Nigerian constitution amendment, though, despite their opposition, the Senate President resolved to ensure that gender equality is a priority in the next constitutional amendment. The situation would have been reversed if the majority of the lawmakers are females.
In as much as we are clamoring for the participation of women in politics and governance, we must understand that there are many systemic barriers structured in cultural factors, religious, socio-economic and political-institutional designs hindering women’s full participation in politics and we have to address these issues before a meaningful result can be achieved.
The emergence of women leaders must start from the basic unit of human society; which is the family and it can from there transcend to schools, offices, communities, countries and the world at large. The breaking down of stereotypes at homes will assist women in pursuing their political ambitions and their career.
Culturally, women are described in deep-seated gender stereotypes sentences as written above. Women are made to stay out of politics, and they are disproportionately burdened with childcare responsibilities and domestic chores especially in this part of the world, while some are still of the opinion that it is an abomination for a man to assist or share these responsibilities with his wife.
Many political meetings are held at night-time, imagine a married woman with kids, attending various political party meetings preventing her from staying at home to take care of her children, a typical Nigerian husband starts suspecting her of having extra-marital affairs and owing to the fact that it is a purely male-dominated kingdom, her interaction, and social circle is restricted to men. How many Nigerian men will allow or support their wives to participate in politics? Little wonder, the majority of the female politicians in Nigeria are of age.
Women need to participate in politics, the workings of parties geared towards men and patriarchal patronage systems need to be reformed for development. Both men and women must work together to ensure our full participation in politics.