Acknowledge our women’s suitability for leadership

Four events, three in diverse continents and one in the cyber-world defined gender issues for me this week. Two of them were positive and two negative. First the negative. In our dear Motherland, MPs unashamedly voted to kill any possibility of implementing the not more than two thirds gender constitutional requirement for Parliament. In the absence of any amendment to resolve this issue before the next elections, we face the real possibility of a constitutional crisis if we do not elect enough women to Parliament in 2017.

To be honest, anyone who watches Kenya’s Parliament closely could predict how the vote would go; the animus against “these women” is fairly loud in the corridors of the august House. One MP told me he only voted ‘Yes’ when he realised there were not enough numbers for the Bill to pass! In a country where women issues, including those as basic as funding for sanitary pads for school girls is back-burnered, we will continue to pay a heavy price for marginalising half of our population in leadership.

The second negative happened in South America; the vote to commence impeachment proceedings against Brazil’s Dima Rouseff and her consequential suspension from the office of President. The sad thing about Dima’s ouster is that it has everything to do with politics and ideology not ethics.

Granted, some propriety issues have been raised about her when she headed the national oil company Petrobas, but in relation to many of her accusers including her successor and many members of the same Parliament that is impeaching her, her misadventures were child’s play. Whereas the substantive reasons for her impeachment had little to do with her gender, the gender undertones were evident and as usual were intended to bully and demean. The unfortunate consequence of Dima’s impeachment is that women, particularly young women, have lost another icon in top political leadership to aspire towards. Her loss continues a worrying narrative that casts women as incapable of political leadership since they are such a rarity in high political office.

Fortunately the week also recorded some positives starting with Hillary Clinton’s almost sure win of the nomination as the Democratic Party presidential candidate. While “buyers remorse” and the Bern’s magic continues to charm many in the remaining states no one really expects Saunders to beat Hillary unless she get arrested by the FBI on the email controversy! Hillary’s success is a tremendous feat.

For a public officer who has been in very visible public domain for decades, and who has attracted such negatives, some of them defined by her gender, it is amazing that she will finally be on the ballot, the first woman to come this far in American politics. I have to admit that I have my doubts that she will beat offensive Donald Trump but her crashing that glass ceiling will inspire many women to believe that nothing is beyond them, just like Obama’s presidency has inspired millions of Black American children to aspire to greatness. The final positive is Google’s addition of workingwomen to the world of emoji, those symbols which are now an essential part of e-communication. Many might not think this is a big deal. But anyone who appreciates the power of latent communication will understand that when young people, who use mobile telephony every second, only see emojis of women only in fashion, dance and modeling whilst emojis that evidence serious work and leadership roles are male, these images define the world’s view and expectation on women. Google this week announced a whole host of emojis that show women as symbols of high value responsibilities. These emojis, which will be launched soon, will play a tremendous role in continually changing how society views women and their roles in a changing world.

I have chosen these few events on the one hand to emphasise that the marginalisation of women continues with significant fervour but also to record that there is some small light at the end of the tunnel. Kenya, which set for itself such a high aspiration for gender equity in the 2010 Constitution, must not take any steps back; for equity for women is not just about women, but a better society for all.