‘Women have the power to end patriarchy’ – Dr Mjoli
THE female employees of the University of Zululand (UNIZULU) were recently awakened to the pivotal role they can play in eliminating patriarchy, through simply raising their boy and girl children to understand the importance of and believe in the notion of gender parity.
This knowledge was imparted by Dr Nozibele Mjoli, the founder and Managing Director of Hlathi Development Services, at the institution’s Women’s Day event.
Dr Mjoli, who delivered the guest speech, highlighted that the progress in solving gender issues has been slow because the focus has been on treating the symptoms – poor representation of women in leadership positions – instead of tackling the root cause. The underlying issue in this case is patriarchy.
“Patriarchy and gender equality cannot exist at same time. If we want to achieve gender parity, we need to first destroy the pillars of patriarchy. Women have power to do that because we are the ones who give birth to babies and are the ones who raise them,” Dr Mjoli elaborated.
She challenged UNIZULU women to start instilling in their children the fact that they are all born to be leaders in society, irrespective of their gender. “It’s not the men who will do that because they are not the ones who nurture babies. Women, the ball is in your court; you have to change the way you raise your children and prepare them to live in an equal society,” she emphasised.
In Dr Mjoli’s view, women have for a long time unconsciously perpetuated the problem of gender inequality through their subordinate mind sets. This starts when children are being brought up. She said
boys are told to become strong and confident because they will become leaders in society, while girls are taught to be subordinate, helpful and nurturing. She elaborated that changing this mind set will not only result in the attainment of gender equality, but a society with great leaders too.
According to Professor Xoliswa Mtose, UNIZULU Vice-chancellor, the knowledge of how to work towards becoming successful is another area in which women’s mind sets need to be shaped from a young age.
Her concern, however, is the lack of adequate education on this vital aspect of
life, especially in the country’s education system. It is only once an individual arrives in the workplace that they begin to think about and position themselves for success. In her opinion, women tend to take time to “understand that the whole world is about competition” – and thus often lag behind their male counterparts in the race to success.
She urged UNIZULU women to start changing their mentality by “owning their thinking” and silencing the inner voice that leads them to believe that they are inferior.