The current cIamour for a unisex world as is being championed by women emancipation apostles all over the world is now a topical issue. The clamour has gained so much ground and its spread is almost ferocious. The agitation has gained so much ground having acquired much muzzle made possible by its acceptance by many international organisations and powers that be in most countries, especially the developed world.

Considering a unisex world from the human angle may look plausible, but what a world is it going to be like? A world which is completely unisex, a world in which one has to look very closely to know who is a woman and who is a man, to us is going to be a strange world full of so much negativities and confusions.

History has it that in the past, a wife’s name is top in her husband’s ledger book which considers her as a property of her husband’s. In those days till recently, the relationship between man and woman was cordial and harmonious. As men did most of the jobs and earned bread, women of the time were comfortable and supported their husbands in obedience and humility. The presence of the woman in the house encouraged the man as he returns from his daily travails of toils and strains and this condition brought them peace.

A deep exploration of available antecedents proves that public life has never been women’s lot. Quiet as they were, they never complained about nor did they agitate what is today called marginalisation,  oppression, exploitation etc.

Recorded women agitation started in America in the 1840s. In a conference held by women in New York, women called for the amendment of the American Constitution to reflect the existence of women. It purports that by then the American Constitution did not reflect the existence of women in national life. During this period, women were disenfranchised and therefore took no part in the politics and even economy of America and Europe.

This condition led to the various women agitations which led to the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights after the Second World War which subsequently enfranchised women.

In Europe, the German experience gives the picture of women struggle. The WeImer Constitution, yielding to the pressure of that struggle, gave equal political class and footing to both genders. The women were also granted legal rights to acquire land and own properties in Britain in 1970 by passing the property act to law.

Nigeria, in 1983, adopted the U.N. Human Rights clause through the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act. The 1970 constitution subsequently granted equal rights for all.

The foregoing goes to show that women all over the world are feigning discriminations and inhibitions against their general participation in public life. They have located such inhibitions in some cultural and social practices which prohibit them from having free and unhindered access to especially political structures.

Women are therefore aggressively demanding equal spaces in the governance of their various societies. In the bid to achieve this, several  cabalistic games have been at play. Women having being granted rights in this direction on papers by the various organisations and governments, have cashed in on them and are now poised for a revolution that is about to put asunder the natural relationship between man and woman.

Women have coined slogans and creeds to back their agitation. It is a popular claim today that whatsoever a man can do, a woman can do even better. This is the height of their allusion to a unisex world of their dream. The resolute belief and adoption of this slogan have led women to attempting what were hitherto taboos.

Women in the developed world from where women emancipation germinated might have a case in their equal rights agitation because the development of their societies have attained reasonable heights. Even then, the agitation began as late as the 1840s and given ears in 1848 when USA, as an independent country was already about one hundred and seventy-two years old. It suggests that America and even Europe ensured that they had struck reasonable levels of development before they gave ears to women emancipation and equal rights, which before then were treated with levity as it was regarded as mere stridulations. When they wanted development, they needed no  women being part of the impediment,but when they had sure feet on the ground, they now incorporated women.

It is also noteworthy that the granting of equal political rights to women by America and Europe is akin to their cultures and traditions. The way of life of these peoples even today when there is claim to global village is totally different from those of Africa and Nigeria in particular. If we, because African women want to be like European and American women, decide to wholistically lift their cultures and traditions to Nigeria, then the result is obvious and your guess is as good as  mine.

To be continued

Eddy wrote from Port Harcourt

Sir Eddy