From 30% to 50%

From 30% to 50%
By Editor
Thursday August 23, 2007 [06:34]

THE issue of women representation in political and other decision-making positions is of paramount importance and should not be left to chance. In politics, those who make decisions on our behalf should be representative of the population as a whole. And more than fifty per cent of our population is female - women and girls. A more balanced group of representatives is needed.

We cannot continue for too long with the current situation where more than eighty per cent of our representatives are male. We believe that a more balanced group of representatives - with not less than fifty per cent women - would lead to better decision making and political priorities that more closely reflect voters' concerns.

But experience has shown that this desired balance will not come by itself, and the only way to significantly increase the number of women in political representation is to use positive action measures. The Southern African Development Community (SADC) through its protocols is trying to do this.

In 1997, SADC came up with a declaration on gender and development in which member states committed themselves to progressively increasing the number of women in decision making to thirty per cent by 2005. This target was later revised in line with an African Union commitment to increasing female representation in decision-making positions to fifty per cent by 2015.

SADC had set 2005 as the deadline for having thirty per cent of decision-making positions occupied by women, reflecting demands in the Platform of Action developed at the Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995.

There has been slow progress by SADC member states in attaining the set target and this needs speeding up.

Women have an irreplaceable role in society, yet their contribution is not acknowledged, nor are they accorded equal participation with their male counterparts. This marginalisation is felt in all sectors of life: economic, social, political, cultural, racial, sexual, religious and even within the family itself. But it cannot be denied that the removal of the marginalisation of women is part and parcel of the stopping of the marginalisation of all the poor.

The marginalisation of women is deeply connected with that of the poor. Therefore, the women's struggle is deeply connected with the efforts of all the poor and the marginalised who are struggling for their upliftment in all aspects of life. But this won't be easy. It requires and calls for a serious struggle. There is need for us to broaden our understanding of women's situation in our socio-economic, political, and even religio-cultural realities.

We need to articulate our reflections on women's realities and struggles and deepen our commitment and solidarity work towards full humanity for all.

It is incontestable that women played critical leadership roles in the early Christian church. Priscilla, for example, seems to be have been at least the equal of her husband Aquilla in the work they did together as teachers (Acts 18:2, 18, 26; 1 Cor. 16:9; Rom. 16:3).

The Apostle Paul taught that women could lead worship and that the sexes were equal before God. In some ways the early Christian movement appears to have been a bold experiment in egalitarian inclusiveness.

But as the church began to adjust itself to its environing culture, something changed. In the generation that followed Paul, the male leaders surrendered to the pressure they felt to deprive women of the role they had once played (1Tim. 2:11-12).

We see as decisive to the progress of our country the virtues women bring to the struggle to create a more just, fair and humane society: generosity, steadfastness, openness to universal love, courage, capacity to endure suffering, forgiveness.

We cannot have meaningful participation from women in the development of our country without the removal of their marginalisation. All that we need is to look at the effect that equality - equal opportunities and equal treatment - has on human beings and their happiness to understand why women cannot give their best under these conditions of marginalisation.

There is need for us as a nation to educate every one of our citizens to have a more correct view of women and to actively participate in the efforts to redress the injustices done to women in our country, including in family life.

Women must not be treated as mere passive participants in national development. They must be allowed to enjoy fundamental rights and freedoms befitting all human beings, both in domestic and public life. Women should be treated justly in families, workplaces and public life. We say this because women are the backbone of our families and play major roles in our economy, especially in rural areas.

The life and health of women have central importance to the future development of our country. We therefore call for the true empowering of women to enable them to participate in decision making in our country on equal footing with their male counterparts.

Women bring special gifts to the progress of our nation. If they are not listened to and are marginalised, then we simply will not have sustainable and equitable progress. For this reason, we should all be involved in promoting women's participation in the affairs of our country. Advancement will not go very far unless women are enabled to participate in decision making at all levels and in numbers that are not less than those of men.

And we agree with Young Women Christian Association executive director Katembu Kaumba that the fifty per cent SADC women representation declaration in political and decision-making positions should cater for all sectors of the economy. Women must be represented at decision-making levels in both economics and politics for us to sustainably achieve development goals. In whatever we do, we should make all efforts to involve women in decision making if the SADC goals are to be realised.

As we have already stated, this will not come easily. It will require a lot of effort - and will have to struggle on every front with the same tenacity that we are accustomed to seeing in other important struggles.