Comment: Women press for progress in all spheres of development

On the occasion of International Women’s Day, which was commemmorated on 8th March, we would like to take this opportunity to celebrate women who pushed boundaries to achieve their goals. The first International Women’s Day, celebrated over 100 years ago, marked the ongoing struggle for a woman’s right to work, vote, hold public office and end gender discrimination. International Women’s Day – celebrated annually on March 8 – is a day that commemorates the social, political and economic achievements of women. Women in different parts of the world use this day to come together to celebrate one another and rally for equal treatment and representation. Today, in many parts of the world, women remain vulnerable without rights, freedoms and privileges. The theme for this year’s International Women’s Day is: “Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow.” This year’s campaign is represented by the # BreakTheBias tagline and calls on people to work towards a world that is equitable, inclusive, and free from bias and discrimination so the playing field is levelled for women moving forward. In a statement released this week to mark the International Women’s Day, Sima Bahous, Executive Director of UN Women, argued that we have today, the opportunity to put women and girls at the centre of our planning and action and to integrate gender perspectives into global and national laws and policies. “We have the opportunity to benefit from the leadership of women and girls environmental defenders and climate activists to guide our planet’s conservation.”

As a nation, we need to create equal opportunities for women. Across the world, too many women and girls spend too many hours on household responsibilities— typically more than double the time spent by men and boys. In many cases, this unequal division of labour is at the expense of women’s and girls’ learning, of paid work, sports, or engagement in civic or community leadership. This shapes the norms of relative disadvantage and advantage, of where women and men are positioned in the economy, of what they are skilled to do and where they will work. Botswana is not exempt from this phenomenon. We lend support to the notion that as they grow up, girls must be exposed to a broad range of careers, and encouraged to make choices that lead beyond the traditional service and care options to jobs in industry, art, public service, modern agriculture and science. In Botswana and of recent, we have witnessed notable progress in the number of women occupying key positions in government and parastatals. For the first time since independence, Botswana has a woman Minister of Finance. However, women still lag behind in politics. Out of the 64 members constituting the National Assembly, only seven are women. Out of the seven, four are specially elected members. In the end, a woman struggle is a human responsibility. If she is empowered, the whole humanity gains and if she is deprived, so is the humankind.