Battle for gender equity
Women need to lead the charge to topple the age-old dominant system of patriarchy
NATIONAL governments of most countries have put in place an enabling policy and legislative framework for gender equality.
However, progress in the advancement of women to top leadership positions continues to be slow.
To address the problem, quotas for women in leadership positions have been advanced as a solution, but the reality is that most women lack confidence to take these positions, because of the damage done to them by patriarchy.
A major paradigm shift in the mindset of women is necessary, so that they can adopt empowering beliefs in their potential to be great leaders instead of followers. Leadership attributes come naturally to men because they are programmed to be leaders from the day they are born.
Gender inequality in all sectors of society has been institutionalised by patriarchy for centuries and, consequently, everyone accepts it as the social norm.
Patriarchy programmes men for leadership positions and women for subordinate positions. Family structure, religion and culture play a powerful role in entrenching gender inequality.
Government policies for promoting gender equality in society tend to focus on increasing the number of women in decision-making positions without addressing the root cause of gender inequality.
Meaningful gender transformation requires society to take a few steps backwards to understand the powerful influence of patriarchy in sustaining unequal power relations between men and women. The relevance of patriarchy in a modern society is questionable, because it denies half of the population opportunities to fulfil their human potential to be leaders of society because of their gender .
Social programming continues to play a central role in keeping the pillars of patriarchy in place, by ensuring that beliefs about the leadership roles of men and subordinate roles of women are programmed into the minds of boys and girls from birth, so that by the time they go to school they know their expected gender roles.
Women, as mothers and primary caregivers, play a primary role in programming their male and female children for their gender roles in society, thus contributing to the perpetuation of patriarchy in society.
Laws alone will not change the power dynamics between men and women until women can unlearn the gender stereotypes that have been entrenched in society by patriarchy for centuries. Women must adopt empowering beliefs about their power to shape their destiny by discarding all the negative gender stereotypes that have kept them as subordinates to men for centuries. Women must embrace the belief that all men and women are born equal and gender inequality is a product of social programming.
To get a better understanding of how patriarchy and gender stereotypes have negatively affected the mindset of women for centuries, it is important to consider the following example of gender programming in action:
A girl or boy is born with unlimited potential to achieve anything in life because no baby is born with limiting beliefs. From birth, mothers who are the primary caregivers start the social programming for their baby boys and girls to prepare them for their different gender roles in society.
Boys are prepared for their roles as future heads of households and leaders of society, while girls are prepared for their nurturing and supportive role. Most societies value their boys more than girls, consequently, girls learn early in life that they do not matter. This has a negative impact on their self-esteem and self-confidence. Society expects men to be strong, independent and self-confident while women are expected to be subordinate to men, emotionally needy and insecure.
Women, as mothers and caregivers, have the power to programme their children for a gender equal society from birth, so that they will grow up believing that men and women are capable of being great leaders.
When women adopt dominant positive thoughts and empowering beliefs about their capabilities to be great leaders, gender equality will become the norm. The awareness that patriarchy is responsible for the perpetuation of gender inequalities is crucial to the achievement of gender equality. It is important for women to acknowledge that gender equality cannot be achieved as long patriarchy continues to be a dominant force.
As long as pillars of patriarchy remain, it will be difficult to achieve gender equality in the leadership of society. Women must lead the change by adopting empowering beliefs about their ability to become great leaders.
Gender equality, as a constitutional right, has given women more power in principle but, in practice, men and women continue to struggle to find a common ground that is aligned with the gender equality principles. New rules are required to assist women and men to negotiate power relationships in a gender equal society. Women, as mothers of boys and girls, have power to programme their children from birth for a gender equal society. On the other hand, men have no incentive to change the unequal power dynamics because they continue to benefit from the gender inequalities.