Women constitute a large percentage of the human population, and contribute significantly to the social, economic and over all development of the society through their various roles as mothers, home managers and peace-builders among other numerous roles. Inspite of their numerous contributions, they have been marginalised and denied adequate access to opportunities for meaningful development. As a matter of fact, women have been denied opportunities to participate in decision-making and implementation of issues that affect them. Access to economic opportunities by women is often limited by factors such as the multiple roles they play and the non-recognition of those roles in work place policy.

Basically, women suffer deprivation and injustice from the men. In employment for instance, a high percentage of women is restricted to low-income generating activities, concentrated within the lower level of the unregulated informal sector. Men have alloted to themselves the high-income generating activities and most importantly the commending height of the economy. They force women into accepting that they (women) are inferior and hence, must obey and take orders from them.

Worst still, women have very limited opportunities for political participation and decision-making. The best the women get to participate in the decision-making process is just a token representation. The resultant effect of this long years of subjugation is that women have been perpetually forced into having a low self-esteem and economically disadvantaged.

To help address the structural imbalance between men and women, emphasis all over the globe has been shifted to gender equality. This, as a matter of fact, is informed by the need to improve the welfare of women. Promotiung gender equality is now globally accepted as a development strategy for reducing poverty levels between women and men. The attainment of gender equality is not only seen as an end in itself but as a pre-requisite for the achievement of sustainable development.

Equality between women and men presupposes promoting equal participation of women and men in decision-making, supporting women and girls so that they can exercise their rights; and reducing the gap between women’s and men’s access to, and control of resources, and the benefits of development. If equitable and sustainable progress is to be achieved, women’s status must not only be improved, their rights must be protected and respected and their contributions to national development be recognised. No doubt, it is in recognition of this hard fact that successive governments at international, national, state and local levels have put in place structures to address the women issues.

But the unanswered question still remain: How far have these policies gone in addressing the problems women encounter daily? It is pertinent to ask the above question because the situation of women has only changed minimally as most women still live in total ignorance and abject poverty.

This year’s International Women Day dwelt extensively on gender equality. To be candid, the world owe the women folk a duty to move them out of the cycle of hunger, misery, poverty, illiteracy, discrimination and disease to a better life. Until we achieve this, any talk on gender equality will be nothing short of mirage. The global trend this day is to focus on gender equality. But then, one is wont to ask: Is gender equality a myth or reality?

Women, it must be stressed, still lack equal representation at the highest levels of government as available statistic show that they hold only 16 per cent of parlimentary seats world-wide. In Nigeria, for example, the hope of a female president in the nearest future, is, to say the least, very bleak. The number of women ministers, permanent secretaries, senators and members of the house of representatives is in no way near that of their men counterpart. To be blunt with ourselves, the talk about gender equality is nothing but just empty talk, at least for now.

Agreeably, the international community has made important commitment to women’s rights and equality between men and women, as can be seen in the Beijing Platform for Action, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimmination Against Women (CEDAW), the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and a host of other international conventions. The fact remain that a lot still needs to be done. What remains basically is the political will on the side of the world to implement these conventions. Until the world collectively implements these conventions, the dream for global gender equality for women would not be realised.

How can we be talking about gender equality when a significant percentage of the women folk still lives in abject poverty and ignorance? Worst still, the world has not change some of these cultural and religious practices that enforces gender inequality, yet the talk about gender equality persists. To be candid, achieving global gender equality is a target that is not achievable in the nearest future. Simply put, gender equality, at least from an African point of view is more of myth than raality.

Governor Doman and the emancipation of women

Recently, the Nasarawa state government organized a one-day workshop for women, drawn from the 13 local government area of the state. Specifically, designed to “integrate women into the policy making organ of the government at both local and state levels, as well as to strengthen their political participation”, the workshop sought to ensure total emancipation of women.

By this workshop, the government, headed by Alhaji Aliyu Akwe Doma, has demonstrated its readiness to address issues of structural inequality between men and women.

As the commissioner for women affairs, youth and social development, Malam Awuna Naloko, observed in his speech at the workshop, the state government, “is committed to the total emancipation of women by ensuring that women are totally involved in the decision making process as well as giving them the opportunity to participate actively in politics”.

Of interest to many people is the fact that the state government has indicated its readiness to work towards the realization of several suggestions that were raised at the workshop.