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.