It is said that what doesn’t kill you strengthens you; thus, giving women the opportunity to serve in leadership spaces that are known to be rough does nothing but strengthens these women whether they fail or succeed.
Actually, in a politically polarised country like ours a woman’s failure in a rough leadership spaces goes beyond finding legal infractions, it has to do with perceptions that are made to become realities.
Like the saying goes: give a dog a bad name. Again, in a politically polarised society where when women are given rough leadership spaces, the notion from dissenting voices start to sneer and cast insinuations that suggest that the women got these opportunities in the respective spaces through sexual favours.
Sadly, fellow women join this bandwagon argument of casting aspersions against their fellow women; yet these women who sneer and cast the aspersion are advocating that women should be respected. This hypocrisy is like a boil that can’t be lanced. It’s in the women themselves.
Right from the beginning of the 18th century until date women and other men have argued, written and spoken for the respect and dignity as well as equal participation of women in issues of governance. Issues that concern women playing critical roles in the governance of their countries have always been thorny. Sometimes the chauvinistic and gender norms that are inherent in society fights against the rise of women.
These efforts from early sociologists and philosophers has culminated into the enacting of various international instruments that seek to protect women and ensure their participation in leadership spaces across the globe.
The problems that come along with women in rough spaces is a consequence of the political polarisation of our country. When a political party is in opposition, and a particular woman is appointed for a rough leadership the chorus is one that casts innuendos, insinuations, and aspersions that suggest that the woman is not qualified to be in that position. And this says one thing: that the hypocrisy that underlies our advocacy for women to get to the top in governance is legendary!
This trend is a very dangerous one since it has the tendency to discourage competent women from taking up positions that they are otherwise qualified for. Imagine that women who have all the qualities that a public office requires and then due to the fear of what will be said about them, these women decide not to take these positions – it is the nation that loses.
This loss can be very damning. There’s a funny cliché among Ghanaians: if you know, you know – there’re women who have excellent leadership traits that most men don’t have.
Women as long as they have the intellectual qualifications, excellent human relations coupled with a tough skin they should be given the so-called rough spaces. Rough spaces of leadership in our national governance did not become rough on their own; we made them to be rough for ourselves.
In the cases when we think that these rough spaces belong to men, there’s a high likelihood of failure if these men don’t have both intellectual as well as the right leadership traits.
Women are the fabric that holds our society. If we’ve rough systems there’s nothing wrong in allowing them to contribute to smoothen those rough positions. We should not throw spanners into the works and then find every means possible to ensure that our political ambitions, as well as parochial interests, are satisfied. Women who sneer at the failures of other women are making a mockery of themselves. There’s a proverb about the goat that relates to this: the goat thinks that it’s causing nuisance for the public as it defaecates on the streets; little does it know that its own anal canal is soiled with faecal matter.
Women everywhere and no matter the political affiliations should rise up to the defense of their fellow women. In one of Aesop’s fables, a wolf had to cause a stir among a united flock of sheep to eat them up one after the other. The battle of women’s empowerment, equality, parity and equity will not be won until women rise for women.
Now, what is the conclusion of the matter? Rough spaces of leadership needs individuals who’re not pushovers; these spaces need individuals who’re intellectually qualified, have the right human relations as well as communication skills and a tortoise shell that will make the untruthful, as well as venomous remarks that come from detractors, roll off their backs like water.
And if Ghanaian women fall into the above category, why keep them out?
The writer is a freelance journalist.
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Alex Blege
Writers email: kw.ameblege@hotmail.com/kwameselom12@gmail.com