SIR: The clamour for more women to get into the leadership space has continued to gain momentum, especially with the increase in feminist agitation. Nigerian women recently secured a victory against the federal government on affirmative action that gives Nigerian women a mandatory 35% of public offices. This obviously was celebrated as a significant win for the female gender and I agree, but I felt this was putting a plaster over a decaying foot.
Let me explain.
Every election year, we see women from all walks of life coming out to contest public offices. One common thing is that more often than not, they play the gender card. Educated, experienced and over-qualified women reduce their worth to campaign on the idea;
“I am a woman”
“I have done this and that as a woman”
“I have handled my family and career despite all the challenges, now reward me because I am a woman…”
What these concepts, slogans and agendas have done is to reduce the women to one tag “she is a woman”. Very few women have campaigned without the gender card and fewer have won elections.
Women want to get into politics. That should be encouraged. However, the fact remains that previous strategies have failed to make this dream a sustainable reality. In my opinion, the reason for this is relatively straightforward: Nigeria’s political space is a very toxic environment. It will take an unusual amount of patience, grit and enormous sacrifice for a woman to achieve the same political achievement as her male counterpart with similar age and experience. This is the reality. We can complain about it, but this will not change anytime soon.
Now, what to do about this?
Rather than the never-ending conferences and TEDx talks, women in leadership positions can make conscious efforts to hire and train young women as mentees. Instead of the one talk that you believe will change the young lady’s life, invest an hour per week to give truthful realistic guidance and advice on relevant skills young women can get to make politicking easier for them.
Not everybody should contest elections. Why don’t we encourage other career paths that shape politics without being a politician? Young women can be personal aides, legislative aides, advisers, assistants, and executives at different political parties, political communicators etc. These positions give you a front seat on how Nigerian politics work and will better prepare young women to contest elections if they eventually chose to do so.
Like every career path, public service is a path that one should grow in. Such steady growth will give the woman confidence, skills, public service experience and the right network to support her ambition. Maybe, just then, the eggs we have been throwing will eventually break the glass ceiling.
- Augusta Nneka Nnadi,
necynnadi@gmail.com