My blog post entitled ‘The Damaging Assumptions of Gender Mainstreaming’ posted on the 27th of November, received two really interesting comments. Baljeet Lakhan in particular referred me to an article called “‘African Culture’ is the biggest threat to the women’s rights movement” by Patience Akumu. This article encouraged me to re-think my initial ideas about the sensitivity NGOs, international organisations and national governments should have when attempting to implement female empowerment initiatives in particular regions of Africa. These initiatives can include encouraging women to give their opinions on the provision and management of basic services including water.
Whilst I have stated that time is needed to allow those that resist female empowerment (both men and women) to adjust their feelings regarding this issue, and I have acknowledged that female empowerment cannot be forced onto a community in the hope it will serve as a solution to problems regarding things like water management, this article (http://africanarguments.org/2015/03/09/african-culture-is-the-biggest-threat-to-the-womens-rights-movement-by-patience-akumu/) has made me reconsider how sensitive these actors should actually be. Perhaps it is too weak an approach to suggest that we must be sensitive to those who feel uncomfortable with the concept of female empowerment as still so much needs to be done to give women equal rights in Africa.
Akumu makes the points that women who try to take their place in the public sphere in Africa, quickly meet with ‘that glass ceiling called ‘African culture’’. Furthermore, she suggests that African women can only enjoy their rights within certain limits and the line is drawn when African men start to feel threatened. Female empowerment and gender equality in Africa, and indeed around the world, is critical to make women safer as well as ensure women’s voices are heard. This will result in more stakeholder participation for schemes such as those dealing with the management of water, and whilst this may not result in a perfect system, surely a greater wealth of knowledge and experience can only be a positive contribution.
Ultimately, I still stand by the point I made previously that female empowerment initiatives cannot be enforced on communities in Africa as a solution to issues associated with basic services such as water supply. Furthermore, if female empowerment initiatives are employed as a solution to these challenges, then a situation where empowering women has not resulted in improvements in basic services might be used as an example of how gender equality makes no difference. This could therefore be counter-productive and give communities an excuse to reject these initiatives.
In fact, female empowerment is important even if we do not see immediate improvements as the advantages reach far beyond the provision of basic services and the benefits will extend into the long-term. Similarly, as the article again mentions, there are examples of women in many parts of Africa demonstrating for their rights and challenging those who seek to oppress them. Female empowerment is crucial and ultimately allows the opinions of a major stakeholder to be heard, which is clearly important for water management schemes. Therefore, perhaps we shouldn’t be quite so sensitive to those who do not want female empowerment in their communities.
References
http://africanarguments.org/2015/03/09/african-culture-is-the-biggest-threat-to-the-womens-rights-movement-by-patience-akumu/
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