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EAFTER THOUGHTS GUESTVWOIRCITEER
SWATINI has been slagging behind in terms of voting women into leadership roles. It always baffles me because women form the majority of voters, so why has women leadership still been a problem? I hate to be pessimistic but it seems we still have more work to do before we are even close to considering a woman running for a leadership role against a man.
Having more women leaders is important because women leaders change the perceived conception about who can lead and what qualities are necessary to have in a leadership position. Women in these types of roles break down barriers and show everyone what women can - and should – achieve. With the national elections coming up in less than six months, I wonder if we, as a country, are doing enough to bring awareness on the importance of voting for women.
For a long time we have talked about leadership, but we talked about men’s experience in leadership, while disregarding the profound differences
in lived experiences between genders. Women leaders defeat many barriers in the community, workplace, schools, basically everywhere, caused by gender biases and are transformational role models. Their challenging journey to the top allows them to develop themselves remarkably. This leaves less room for anyone to challenge the need for more women in leadership.
Risk
Traditionally, women being less entrepreneurial than men accounted for their natural aversion to risk and putting money, which sometimes doesn’t belong to them, at stake to make a profit. How many times have you heard someone say; “Lomake loyo, simvotele lokuyodla imali nje kuphela?” But men get paid to leave, so why is the assumption that women must volunteer their time? They already work in the home without pay – raising kids, cooking, cleaning etc – so why must they continue to labour without pay, when in fact; men who do the same job get fat cheques?
One main reason, in my opinion, for voting for women is that they think beyond themselves. Community-driven thinking is another skill women excel at. It’s why aid organisations promote investing in women – the chances of the money flowing back into the community are higher (eg children’s education or welfare). I remember how it took more than 10 years for the men in Parliament to pass the Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence (SODV) Bill into an Act because they felt there were clauses in there that prevented them from participating in culturally acceptable activities such as ‘kusoma’. If that wasn’t a selfish
and self-centered reason not to pass a law that was meant to protect even their own kids, then I don’t know what is.
The need for more women in leadership also comes down to ethical decision-making, like not outsourcing environmental disasters to communities whose leaders don’t protect them. There are rivers, forests and other natural resources that have been continually damaged in the communities, and no one cares to protect them. Women use these rivers to collect water for drinking, eating and other household uses, so protecting them comes naturally. Women need those forests to collect firewood in order to cook for their families, so preventing forest fires would become their mission.
Hurt
But we also need more women because they account for half of the world’s population. Imagine for centuries we’ve been led by only half the population that not only makes decisions that favour them, but have also hurt half the population that is responsible for voting for them. In the end, women’s leadership is not just about anticipating trends and hashtags or making noise about voting for women.
It’s about leaving untapped potential behind simply because we used to believe women were incapable of making sound decisions. Eswatini has no grounds to claim that men have made better decisions because otherwise we wouldn’t still be a ‘developing country’ over 50 years after gaining independence. So again, why are we still not voting for women?