For a long time, women all over the world have been crying
wolf of marginalisation without adequate measures to tackle this gender
inequality. The cry is louder and much more pronounced in Africa, especially in
Nigeria where the stakes of every woman is tied to the patriarchy of man.

There is no contesting the fact that man, from the time of
the first man, Adam, is the head of the family. But it is also unarguable that
God created Eve as a supporting partner, and not a female servant to Adam. In
today’s world, however, the male-female domination has assumed an irritating
phenomenon such that women have little or no say in home affairs, let alone in
the larger society.

This is particularly so because statistics reveal gender
gaps in health, education, workloads and earnings, among others. According to
UNESCO, two out of three women cannot read or write, and more than 60 per cent
of children out of school are female.

This gender inequality has again subjected women to several
abuses such as battering, rape and home slavery. Even when a man is caught
having an affair with a house-help, a woman is denied the right to complain.
Whereas such transgression is capable of causing a woman outright divorce. What
an injustice?

In the same vein, most women have been made to assume the
status of a house-help. Many men do not allow their wives to work in spite of
their education. They prefer limiting their women’s roles to the kitchen. Even
the few women that work are over-burdened with domestic chores without men
lending them helping hands.

The Commission on the Status of Women of the Economic and
Social Council of the United Nations had noted in a draft statement by 18
international women’s advocacy groups in 1995 that improving the status of
women is not a woman’s issue, it is a human issue. It is time, therefore, to
take action in this area.

President Goodluck
Jonathan’s administration has tried to break this gender inequality through the
Affirmative Action Plan that cedes 35 per cent of appointment to women.

This brings us to the
question of what role the Nigerian woman is expected to play now and in the
future. Without pre-empting what other people may say, I hasten to suggest that
several important roles and responsibilities are yearning for the attention and
utilisation of the Nigerian woman now and especially in this millennium. I am
saying this, because, if the Nigerian woman must make a giant leap into the
future, she must be prepared to assume giant roles and responsibilities and
should not expect roles to be given her by the male.

The Nigerian woman has in many ways proved that, apart from
the competency they have in performing domestic roles, they have also
demonstrated that what a man can do, they (women) can do better. This is proven
by the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mrs Ngozi
Okonjo-Iweala, and the former National Food and Drug Adminsitration  and Control (NAFDAC) boss, Professor (Mrs)
Dora Akunyili.

Also, despite the tremendous achievements of the Nigerian
woman in the execution of the lofty ideals of the Family Support Programme
(FSP) during the Ibrahim Babangida days,
and the Family Economic Advancement Programme (FEAP) initiated by the
former First Lady, Mrs Mariam Abacha, there exists so much bumps on the road to
the Nigerian woman’s empowerment in this country.

These challenges require the concerted effort by the women
themselves to smoothen. This does not mean that the men should not support the
empowerment which, of course, I think without them (men) supporting the women,
the Nigerian woman won’t get to anywhere since for now men occupy more than 60
per cent  of the sensitive positions in
the society.

A Mexican non-governmental organisation sometime ago, raised
a poser that, “how can we empower women if we don’t empower men too?”

This is an important question because men also need  skills to adjust to new male matrimonial and
social roles which should emerge in this wake of women empowerment in this
millennium. In other words, women’s awareness of their potential,
responsibilities and choices as women is, if I may suggest, inextricably tied
to the empowerment of men, naturally.

I do not wish to be misconstrued on this matter as I have
only attempted to illuminate, at least superficially, the broader concept of
“gender in development” in contrast to the narrow slogan of “women in
development” in the strong conviction that as a lady, both men and women are so
intrinsically bound that a meaningful symbiotic relationship is necessary for
the realisation of the dream of the 21st century Nigerian woman to be
fulfilled.

The United Nations’ publication, The World’s Women, 1995
regrets that “too often, women and men live in different worlds, worlds that
differ in access to education and work opportunities, and in health, personal
security and leisure time.”

Seventy per cent of food is grown by women yet, according to
a United Nations’ report, the same percentage of the world’s 1.3 billion people
who live in abject poverty are women. In fact, poverty has a woman face.

As I pointed out earlier, these problems would require
everyone’s efforts. But the women have to initiate remedial measures to solve
them instead of waiting for the male folk who are good in complementing women’s
efforts.

In Peru, for example, men have enthusiastically supported
800 community kitchens run by 16,000 women in Lima. In Bolivia too, mothers
clubs promoting small enterprises proved so successful that most men now
participate in them under women’s control.

The Nigerian woman should, therefore, come to grips with the
reality that as the weaker sex as against the men who are strongest, they alone
can, and would effectively, hold their destiny in their own hands and chart a
path for the 21st century Nigerian woman.

Rather than hang on to the male identity or crying wolf
against men or apportioning blames on men or even looking for scape-goats,
Nigerian women should close ranks and be more creative, more dynamic and more
useful to themselves in the society. If the female folk do not tackle their problems
this way, they may be lending credence to the erroneous impression that they
are in bondage, whereas they are not.

I pray and suggest to the women that once we can hold our
own as in the Peruvian and Bolivian examples, and contribute positively wherever
they can, the sky would certainly be the limit for the 21st century Nigerian
woman.

Susan Serekara-Nwikhana