By Paul Ejime
Another International Women’s Day is here with #BreakTheBias as this year’s theme.
But in all honesty, women, who constitute at least half of the World’s population should and ought to be be celebrated everyday.
Women’s invaluable contributions abound from the home, the foundation of life and living, to the society, communities, different groups, nations and the World at large!
Women are marginalized during normal times and bear the heaviest burden of natural and man-made disasters/conflicts, such as the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.
As humans, women are not unblemished. But the reason they deserve more opportunities in governance becomes more compelling for equality, equity and fairness.
There are also empirical evidence to support the argument that the current male-dominated World urgently requires re-engineering and a new direction.
Take a country like Rwanda, which from the ashes of a catastrophic genocide in 1994 has risen to one of the World’s fastest growing economy.
The country has a male President, Paul Kagame, but the reason for the its achievement is partly due to the very high level of Women’s participation, representation and contributions from the executive to the legislative branches of government and across spheres of human endeavour.
And what about the six countries that have recorded the highest level of successes in the management of Covid-19 pandemic Worldwide?
These are Denmark, Iceland, New Zealand, Slovak, Finland and Germany (under the government of recently retired Chancellor Angela Merkel).
Without undermining the numerous achievements and contributions by men, it is obvious that the World can still achieve more by leveraging the advantages of Affirmative Actions and inclusivity including through deliberate state policies and forward-looking legislation.
Unhealthy gender rivalry, competition or discrimination will not help the human cause.
What is required is complementarity based on the best practices of interdependence.
This is consistent with the message on the International Women’s Day website.
It enjoins us to “Imagine a gender equal world!
“A World free of bias, stereotypes and discrimination.
“A World that is diverse, equitable and inclusive.”
Humanity will definitely do better and benefit more from acknowledging and giving women their dues.
Women deserve their rightful place to enable society and humanity to fully harness their enormous potential!
Happy International Women’s Day 💖 Everyone!