Empowering Woman Hood (by Larry Arafiena)

I am sure the topic of my short paper will imply the usual, i.e. economic, skill acquisition et al for financial upliftment. If you think so you are forgiven for thinking wrong. What I propose to present is far from it. I intend to elicit a consciousness from both genders that will pave a way for true empowerment of women by women themselves. A consciousness that will address the apparent or is it perception of the place of women in the scheme of things. Its a mans world. Agreed! But is there anything that goes on in this world right from the time of Adam and Eve that women are not directly or indirectly involved even if subtly. The son is the father of the child just as the girl is the mother of the people. This conveys a higher essence. But with what obtains today one wonders if this adage can be tenable. Look around and all you see is an attempt to dewomanise womanhood. All manners of beauty pageants take place everyday. Their goal, no one can tell me for sure. How do they add value to the beauty queen or her peers I am yet to fathom. This is not a wholesale condemnation of beauty pageants. For sure there must be better reasons to celebrate Gods creation. One that He saw fit to add to His good works. Beauty pageants do not share the whole blame. Fashion shows today are body shows. I am sure you get my point. We hear of women empowerment so much that we do not pause to ask ourselves. Is that all that a woman is worthy of. Is that all that will emancipate women from poverty and lack of economic power? At many fora women have agreed that they are their first/own (atimes worst) enemies. Whatever, that really means. Today the debasement of womanhood by mothers and grown-up unmarried girls through their bare-it (atimes all) dressing in the name of fashion speaks volume about motherhood and parenthood and by extension or consequence childhood. The cry for gender equality atimes contradicts the yearning/demand for special treatment. This is self-discrimination in itself. There can never be equality of the sexes rather acknowledgement of the equality of humanhood. How do I mean. Firstly without sounding religious God made and apportioned roles not society. And I am not talking about child bearing and stuff like that. Who knows, cloning may replace or make men less important in procreation but not in the physical fulfillment of intercourse. The man is unique physically and mentally: likewise, the woman. We only need to consciously investigate and our findings will only confirm that the individual attributes of the genders are uniquely special and should be jealously guarded not made matters for wasteful discourse. God meant for a harnessing of the qualities of both man and woman for moving society forward. What we, both men and women should be addressing is to make the girl child a woman of worth and the boys to be men and not adult boys. We should be scaling up empowerment programs and gender streaming initiatives on issues like water and hygiene, safe motherhood and political participation.

The parading of girls in almost prostituted manners in our campuses, towns and even offices only belies the very issue of juvenile delinquencies in out youths. This gives rise to unwanted pregnancies and makes the crime of rape easier but not excusable or acceptable. That is reality. Some school of thought will want to argue the merits of such thinking. The fact is men respond to sight and women to stimuli. I will not deny the fact that women are disadvantaged in some respect but it is not because its a mans world. Why it is so is historical. And this situation is gradually but surely fading away. Today we have proof of this in various walks of life even if we go micro, the family; todays modern man embraces the idea of a working wife. Women have crossed many hurdles following from the womens lib movement of the middle of the last century. It has become clear that its more of emancipation than liberation. Emancipation even from self-inflicted inferiority complex. Liberation from what if one may ask, from captivity? Would it be equality if we have women in the majority in our armed forces, working on oil rigs etc.? Conversely will it benefit society if we have more men staying at home to raise the kids? Look at the banking industry for example. The use of young elegant and beautiful ladies is the norm today. I dont hear of their male counterparts shouting inequality in employment opportunities. But that is the situation generally and society is the worst for it. A situation where young men parade the streets in search of jobs has implications on their ability to settle down or even have great marriages when they do marry eventually. More females are getting the top paying jobs than their male counterparts not because of better educational qualification. So whos fooling who? Are women really disadvantaged? I am sure Chiwinzu would not agree with that ala his book the anatomy of female bottom power. Again look at the beauty and skin care industry. The use of scantily dressed models speaks volume of the level of respect we have for the female persona. The use of attractive ladies on calendars atimes half-clothed to entice, attract and solicit patronage for advertised products and services are common. No one frowns at them. What I stand for is equal opportunity in life. Again the problem of self-discrimination comes in. Undue expectation from the female gender needs to be properly placed. Likewise unwarranted expectation from the male gender needs to be curtailed. Its all about corruption of the mind. We all have as women, our dear mothers, daughters, wives etc. I see every girl or woman as some one elses wives, daughter or ward. If there is any tangible inequality at all it will mostly be in less urban areas. Even so over time such situation will give way to more equitable cohabitation between the sexes. Equilibrium will eventually be achieved not necessarily by any campaign of action but by the tide of change over time. Women need to assert themselves and not look up to men as if they are weak. They are weak spiritually does not mean they are less spiritual than men. What it means is by virtue of their make up and circumstances is that they are more susceptible to the whims of Satan. Every woman is a daughter of Eve. And all men are sons of Adam. Period.
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