Domestic violence is perpetrated by any gender. These roles are ‘performed’ in any gender identity or category however data still strongly indicates men over women intimate partner violence as the mainstreamed social problems. Violence also covers in-laws abuse, staff abuse, sexual assault and harassment, trafficking and solicitation, pimping, verbal abuse of which emerging data is positing women as victims as well as perpetrators.
Domestication becomes a very strong requirement for women which is largely assigned by an anonymous group watching and policing to either shame or reward based on the conceptualised gender characteristics of ‘caring’. One of the impact of domestication on women is the unfair disadvantage it places on women who decide to take the nurture route and sacrifice time for their care responsibilities.
Discovering and studying the life of a King called Ahebe Ugbabe, first woman who became King, first woman to become a Warrant Officer during colonial interruptions, first woman to act in the capacity of a King in a Kingdom in Igbo land and perform male centered norms such as masquerade and wife marrying, brought an ambivalence in present day reality of women’s exclusion in leadership. An ethnographic discovery by Chinua Achebe’s daughter, Nwando Achebe, this history brought about layers of knowledge and rich historical information about women who lead
Diplomatic missions are positions held by ambassadors who are in other countries to ‘represent’ and ‘foster’ relations in designated areas. The Women in Diplomacy Index 2022 shows gender imbalance in representation in 40 countries with largest economies in the world and EU. This data shows that Nigeria, with a total number of mission pegged at 77, has 15 women as ambassadors. Nigeria currently isn’t in the G7 or G20 States.
The ranking on gender gap parity, uses parameters like economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, political appointment and financial exclusion/wealth accumulation of the female gender in the world. None of this parameters positions women favourable in Nigeria
Today, religious tenets differ from doctrine to doctrine. Treatment of women and men follow certain rules that emphasises the dominance of powers over women and religion upholds and guards this. Women are treated differently in bodies they carry, expectations vary depending on class difference. Institutions of power have written the tenets from religion, into their organisations policy. Politics and entrepreneurship have reinforced the exclusion of women in positions of leadership. And why won’t they, you just need to look across the country to realise that women are not in leadership positions of religious and traditional institutions.
While the imposition of gender on our Nation had negative intentions, we can transform this into a positive change and utilise it as a “check” on meeting the needs of us all- men and women. The Gender ideology we have today should be challenged so that as a concept, it can be used to transform our society to be inclusive of the representation of us all.
There’s still a business development and financial literacy education gap in orientation of start ups and scaling sustainable businesses in Nigeria. While these loans can be a way to support women in businesses, there are factors that still limit Economic Justice such as CAC registration, Tax, Human Capacity, Resources, Security, NAFDAC, Advertising Agency Fees, and then Leadership. Nigeria has more to do, to show accountability and commitment to give women, and push benefit realisation and economic advantage women led businesses bring. The social norms and expectations of women in Nigeria and the economics of Care, are areas that require addressing and long term interventions.
EmPOWERment has embedded meaning in varying contexts. The word in itself can mean the positioning for a positive and progressive possibility. It can mean enabling either a person, economy or environment, to achieve objectives that seemed unattainable. Empowerment is being used as a language and terminology for the re-positioning towards an ideal, somewhat better and more profitable outcome. While this language and meaning can be nuanced, there is no denying the fact that empowerment and empowering is binary focussed.
Analysing unemployment and underemployment figures require a more nuanced approach to determine the causative factors that has generated a multi-dimensional poverty status. Nigeria requires the work from her population to meet National and Global living conditions. This remains a National Issue.
Out-of-date, gender-biased lending practices often mean female entrepreneurs are more likely to get higher interest rates, smaller loan amounts and increased penalties for mistakes.
ddressing these disparities is crucial for fostering a more inclusive and sustainable business environment. Environment of business scalability is also expensive to run with bills, taxes, resources that at are competent with capacity, infrastructure and security requires evaluation when reviewing loans and funding for women led businesses.
Nigeria has a growing – working population that are youth centred, the unemployment and underemployment figures according to National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), increasing year on year, also shows that women are significantly impacted more than men. The gender implications for women in security, poverty, health, leadership and political representation, is on the rise. While a solution is to create an environment that nurtures everyone inclusively, the economic interventions are still limiting and its impact affects women’s economic power.
Female entrepreneurs in Nigeria contribute to 50% of the Nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). McKinsey Global Institute implies that this can go up to 19% in 2025 (up to 90 billion Dollars) if the systems are inclusive and equitable towards women in micro, medium small enterprises (MSMEs). But how can this happen when only 10% of commercial loans go towards women’s businesses and Nigerian women own 40% of businesses?
Media, one of the main tools of education and orientation, contribute to the subliminal exclusion of women in Global and National conversations as well as reinforcing the social stereotypes and norms by inactive gender sensitive reporting and mainstreaming.
A society that has raised girls to not think outside societal responsibilities, shy away from leading, silenced or shamed by structures of power will be impacted by material representation of them. Historically, this was not the norm as we have had (and still have) women who challenged and changed norms. Before we see ample representation[…]
Adejoke Bakare got her Michelin Starred recognition for culinary skills at her restaurant – Chishuru. The first person to get to this level with 6 Michelin Stars was Eugénie Brazier- a woman. Media coverage was more for Alain Ducasse (a man) than Eugnénie Brazier. Just as Rags Martel reported, Adejoke is the first black woman[…]
According to a World Bank 2019 report, women contribute 37% of the Global GDP despite representing almost half of the world’s population. Gender inequalities can be called out as a major factor in this. The 2030 Sustainable Development Goals will remain a shadow if young women still encounter gender disparities. If Goal 5 of the[…]
Welcome to 2024. I do hope you are looking forward to a spectacular year. My team and I are thrilled to begin this year with addition to our team and more project portfolios. 2023 was kind and we expect an overflow in 2024. One resonating action in rounding off the previous year was conducting a[…]