The Place of women in the society
KAYODE KETEFE
Quite a whale of responses have been effused on the recent pronouncement by President Muhammadu Buhari that the primary responsibility of his wife is to take care of him.
This view, represented rather invidiously with the imperious diction of "She belongs to the kitchen" did no go down well with a lot of people who construed it to be a rather mean, chauvinistic stereotyping of women.
The sharp dichotomy of the reactions, which underscores how emotive the subject is, has spawned two camps of conservative and liberalist commentators. The former found nothing wrong in the President's utterance, rather they see it as hitting the nail on the head! They believe, irrespective of education and sophistication, a woman's primary role is home keeping. The other side sees women role beyond the restrictive prism of domestic preoccupations.
Each person's perception on this theme, is understandably fostered by his or her cultural/religious background as well as exposure, or lack of it, to modern trends on man/woman sociological dynamics.
Rather than directly joining the fray to comment on the propriety of seeing women as kitchen material, this writer will concentrate on a more expansive theme of the role of women in the society, using Nigerian society as a springboard.
Traditionally in all climes, women had been regarded as inferior, subordinate beings who are inexorable fated by the Providence to be perpetually subservient to men. But many civilisations have departed from this conservatism to pave way for a more egalitarian paradigm, seeing women as complementary beings. Numerous societies have made diverse degrees of progress towards androgynous social relations. What about Nigeria?
Well, yes, quite a lot has changed since the times of our great-grandfathers when women were regarded as inheritable chattels. But Nigerian women are still subjected to a lot of discrimination and exploitation.
They still battle with a lot of cultural prejudices leading to subjugation and repression. The culture of domestic violence against women is traditionally tolerated with a resultant impunity, which actuates perpetual tendency towards escalation.
At present, there are a number of cases in Nigerian courts featuring domestic violence with varying degree of intensity ranging from infliction of psychological trauma, acid bath occasioning grievous bodily harm, permanent maiming and disability or even death. We will all remember the case of Akolade Arowolo, who was sentenced to death for killing his banker wife, Titilayo, on June 24, 2011.
While some progress has been made in the area of improving employment opportunity for women, there is still an appreciable degree of discrimination against women in the workplace.
0ver 90 per cent of the Chief Executive Officers of the Nigerian top 100 companies are men. In the political front, women have not fared better; all what we have is snail's speed progress.
Ironically, our most important document, the 1999 Constitution itself contains some provisions that are gender-biased. An example of explicit gender-biased provision could be gleaned from its section 26 and 29 which makes differential provisions for both men and women on the issue of acquisition and renunciation of Nigerian citizenship, with men being given better deal than women. Furthermore, although the constitution has a general provision forbidding discrimination against any person on the bases of sex and other factors it completely shies away from making gender-specific provisions to protect women from discrimination.
An example of such specific provisions is contained under section 3 (1) of the Ugandan constitution which provides "Women shall be accorded full and equal dignity of the person with men, while subsection 4 also adds "Women shall have the right to equal treatment with men and that right shall include equal opportunities in political economic and social activities" Similarly section 187 of the South African constitution establishes a "Commission for Gender Equality" which has the role to oversee, promote and protect gender-related issues. All these are lacking in our extant constitution.
In the of the light of the above, it is high time we started working towards the actualisation of an androgynous society where the rights of every member are respected without recourse to irrelevant consideration of gender identity. This is not just for the purpose of fairness as dictated by concerns for human rights; adherence to culture of gender liberality also has proven beneficial.
At present, there are a number of cases in Nigerian courts featuring domestic violence with varying degree of intensity ranging from infliction of psychological trauma, acid bath occasioning grievous bodily harm, permanent maiming and disability or even death. We will all remember the case of Akolade Arowolo, who was sentenced to death for killing his banker wife, Titilayo, on June 24, 2011.
While some progress has been made in the area of improving employment opportunity for women, there is still an appreciable degree of discrimination against women in the workplace.
0ver 90 per cent of the Chief Executive Officers of the Nigerian top 100 companies are men. In the political front, women have not fared better; all what we have is snail's speed progress.
Ironically, our most important document, the 1999 Constitution itself contains some provisions that are gender-biased. An example of explicit gender-biased provision could be gleaned from its section 26 and 29 which makes differential provisions for both men and women on the issue of acquisition and renunciation of Nigerian citizenship, with men being given better deal than women. Furthermore, although the constitution has a general provision forbidding discrimination against any person on the bases of sex and other factors it completely shies away from making gender-specific provisions to protect women from discrimination.
An example of such specific provisions is contained under section 3 (1) of the Ugandan constitution which provides "Women shall be accorded full and equal dignity of the person with men, while subsection 4 also adds "Women shall have the right to equal treatment with men and that right shall include equal opportunities in political economic and social activities" Similarly section 187 of the South African constitution establishes a "Commission for Gender Equality" which has the role to oversee, promote and protect gender-related issues. All these are lacking in our extant constitution.
In the of the light of the above, it is high time we started working towards the actualisation of an androgynous society where the rights of every member are respected without recourse to irrelevant consideration of gender identity. This is not just for the purpose of fairness as dictated by concerns for human rights; adherence to culture of gender liberality also has proven beneficial.
Empirical researches interpreting a number of sociological data across different climes have shown that societies where the culture of androgyny (that is equal opportunities for both sexes) is well-entrenched are more advanced and prosperous than societies that are repressive and exploitative of woman. This, of course, is not surprising, given the fact that both male and female have been endowed with differing talents, abilities and capacities by the Providence which could well be harnessed synergistically for optimum effect. Thus, all countries that put women in subservient roles are unwittingly plotting their own stagnation and underdevelopment. We still need to do a lot to liberate women in this part of the world.
KETEFE may be followed on twitter @Ketesco
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