By Olufemi Oyedele
Women are seen in many African countries as second class citizens, even in their fatherland. They are only allowed to play the second fiddle. In the new millennium, what distinctly stands out African nations from western world are the numerous biases against women. Gender inequality is one of the greatest threats to Africa’s future. A study on gender inequality conducted in February 2022 by an online platform on market and consumer data, Statista, showed that the respondents agreed that there is gender inequality in Africa.
Twenty-two per cent of the African respondents considered employment opportunities as the main challenge faced by women on the continent. Females were, on the average, some 32 per cent less likely to have the same opportunities as males in sub-Saharan Africa. The second-leading issue was gender-based violence, as reported by 19 per cent of the respondents. In some parts of the East, women have no right to property inheritance and can only lay claims to property belonging to their husbands.
Gender
inequality is not new in traditional African societies. It is conspicuous in
business development. While men are in primary, secondary and tertiary sectors
of the economy, women are mostly in the tertiary sector as traders. In the area
of traditional religion, women are not allowed to enter the masquerade shrine
and not allowed to participate in ‘oro cult.’
At present,
in Africa, women are mostly abused and it is a known fact that in the world,
Africa, Middle-East and Asia are where gender inequality is perceived to bloom.
Injustice given to the women seems to be increasing. In Africa, the most
commonly occurring crime; rape happens in each three to six seconds every day.
Most domestic rapes are not reported.
However, traditions such as
female genital mutilation continue to be devastating in many communities where
such is practised in Africa. The biased activities of gender responsibilities,
roles, and rights in a society of normal men and women steadily soar. In
Africa, there is no single model of gender roles. There are different cultures
on the African continent with each having its gender biases.
There are different
roles of men and women; although in general, women are subordinate in public
and family life to the men. Biases against women include gender roles, sexual
behaviour, sexual attitudes and double standards of conduct. New generations,
however, are breaking the strict gender roles rules in Africa and sexual
attitudes have changed a little, especially in the cities, where western
culture’s influences have been very great.
African
traditional culture has been clear that men and women have different roles to
play in society. Girls and boys grow up; they know what kind of society they
are growing in. While boys go to farm and tender the livestock, girls will be
responsible for the firewood and water, and cooking. Then coming towards the
marriage, the young men find themselves wives, but ladies are not free to
approach a man they desire.
Social and economic policies favour men generally. Women lag
behind men in education, literacy, and in getting good jobs. The per capita
income of men is greater than that of women. While men are allowed to go to
offices and look for contracts, the few women who seek contracts in big offices
are not respected as ideal women in society. In African countries, men have
been empowered to be the political, business, community leaders and head of the
family even when they are not the breadwinners.
To break these biases and discriminations against women, the
government must be interested in educating the girls. Education has the power
of breaking the yoke of poverty and brings exposure and can help a society make
a paradigm shift in wrong traditional beliefs. Government must change laws
which are discriminatory against women. Laws must also be made to protect
women.
Some women go through sexual abuse in schools and at
work, and some cannot report their rape experiences because they do not want to
be stigmatised in society. Girl-child education should be made compulsory in Africa
as out-of-school children have a higher ratio of girls than boys.
*Olufemi
Oyedele is a Lagos-based commentator on public issues
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