By Linda Bach
Much has happened in the struggle for women empowerment since the first International Women’s Day was marked on March 19, 1911.
A lot, including the landmark fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing between September 4 and 15, 1995, which identified poverty as one of the major catalysts of inequalities between women and men in the world.
Over the years, the International Women’s Day has evolved from a moment of protest against discrimination into an occasion to celebrate women’s achievements, raise awareness about gender equality, call for positive change, and lobby for accelerated gender parity.
Arguably, more women have risen through the social, economic, and political ranks. Kenya now boasts a constitutional office of Woman Representative, and the number of women C.E.Os in boardrooms has increased significantly over the years.
Yet while more women continue to break the glass ceiling, that ceiling remains too high for many. The higher a woman rises on the socio-economic and political ladder, the harder the glass seems to become. The result is that women still remain underrepresented in senior management and leadership positions in Kenya.
Although progress has been made in gender equality, much remains undone in terms of gender equity. Equality alone has failed to address historical and structural disadvantages against women in Kenya and beyond.
Even where women sit in boardrooms, their influence on major decisions that affect the lives of the majority of Kenyan women is often barely felt. Attempts to enforce the constitutional one-third gender rule, meant to enhance women’s participation in policy formulation and implementation, continue to face subtle resistance from deeply entrenched elements of toxic masculinity that still control national conversation around gender equality.
It is not suprising therefore that the World Economic Forum insists that full gender parity between women and men will not be achieved until 2148.
In Kenya’s political discourse, there are some that argue that women are their own worst enemies, claiming that with their numbers alone, 24.01 million out of 47 million Kenyans in the last census—they could easily secure equal power and representation. But history (and Herstory too) teaches us that numbers do not automatically translate to power.
History shows that women’s emancipation has never been won through numbers alone, but through determination, organisation, and resolve. From the women of ancient Greece who united to end war, to Russian women who mobilised in 1917 under the banner of “Bread and Peace,” women have advanced justice through collective action and moral courage.
Despite these lessons, the difference between gender equality and gender equity remains poorly understood in Kenya. Equality treats everyone the same; equity recognises differences in starting points. It is the difference in the winning chances between an athlete that starts the race from the starting point and another that starts the race half-way—equal in racing rights, yet separated by a gap that, in real life, determines access to opportunity.
Much has been achieved in advancing gender equality, but far more must be done to realise gender equity.
What, then, must be done? Many things. But for a start, we must confront the persistent narrative that portrays the rise of women as the fall of men. This misguided belief, that women’s empowerment is a scheme to subjugate men, has been used by some traditionalists to justify discrimination against women and resist reform.
While there have been extreme cases of radical feminism where women seek to literally ‘sit’ on men, the fight for gender equality has never been about one gender declaring war on the other. This is not a gender war, it is an engendering engagement; not a battle of the sexes, but a battle of biases. It is not ‘us versus them, but ‘us versus gender lies.”
In the fight for more space in society, more say in policy formulation and implementation, women in Kenya are not seeking the downfall of men, but a better society for both men and women- a society where, as Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai was wont to say, a person’s potential and value is not determined by the anatomy below the belt.
Linda Bach is the C.E.O of Kenya Editors Guild.
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