‘Invest in women: Accelerate Progress’
If you are an ardent reader of this column you would have noticed that in the month of March, at least in the last four years, there is always an article or two on women related issues published here.
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This is so because since 1911, on March 8 every year, the International Women’s Day (IWD) is observed globally.
Every March 8, events are held in several countries across the world to celebrate women, and by extension, bring to the fore the great achievements of our daughters and mothers – and to also bring home the importance of gender equity in all spheres of life.
IWD has a specific theme every year, and for 2024, the theme is “Invest in Women: Accelerate Progress”.
The theme is aimed at tackling economic disempowerment and promote a just world for the common good.
So let us see how this theme impacts on women empowerment.
But before l tease out issues in that direction, I would like to look at how the events of last year still have relevance this year.
Women empowerment, indeed, is a continuum and not just an event!
During an event last year on March 8 at the World Trade Organisation in Geneva to mark IWD, Ms Christine Lagarde, President of the European Central Bank, had this to say: “Female leaders tend to possess qualities that can be especially beneficial in times of geopolitical tensions.
One study finds that they are particularly good at thinking holistically, managing complexity and embracing cooperation”.
She continued: “As we celebrate International Women’s Day, I think of the young women that I see today, and the opportunities that stand before them.
And the words of the writer, Gertrude Stein, come to mind: ‘You are extraordinary within your limits, but your limits are extraordinary.’
Because today is not simply about how we, as women, respond to a changing global economy.
It is about how we shape it, too.”
In fact, these words came to mind while reading a number of commentaries on this year’s IWD.
I came across a campaign- #InspireInclusion- which was running on most social media networks to drum home the importance of women’s economic empowerment in connection with this year’s IWD.
Well, at this point let me also remind the campaigners that l am all for inclusive growth too.
In the May 22, 2021 edition of this column, under the headline “Inclusive growth”, I explained why rising inequality was a bane to economic growth.
In part, this is what I wrote: “In fact, a recent paper published in Econometrica (Journal of the Econometric Society) stressed that 50 years of discriminatory employment practices in the United States have cost that economy up to 40 per cent of its productivity and output.
Global inequalities and narrow distribution of wealth have created imbalances, which are likely to thwart the economic recovery efforts somewhat.”
And that: “According to available records, technological advancement has raised living standards in G7 countries and across the globe, and have helped lift more than one billion people around the world out of extreme poverty since the Second World War.
The downside, however, is that there is also compelling evidence that innovation is also a reason behind rising income inequality in advanced economies in recent decades. Quite a huge dilemma.
The global economy certainly needs strong efforts to build inclusive growth because we cannot stay on the same road and repeat the past; we must apply fresh thinking and choose a new road where innovation delivers even stronger and more-inclusive growth”.
In fact, women empowerment is a catalyst for global development”.
In all, the role of women in balancing economic growth cannot be overemphasised.
There is a great store of literature on how, at the micro level, women have helped develop informal sector activities to supplement efforts at the formal level.
The small “table top” business activities have often proved life-changing for many; through the small ‘susu’ activities, savings habit is cultivated and for generations, it has been the most valuable knowledge that our forebears bequeathed to us.
To manage your life well, your mother would say, there is always the need to save “something” for the future.
To increase and spread wealth and wellbeing (stylishly called “inclusive finance” sometimes), the role of women is central.
It has been established in many countries that women entrepreneurs play an increasingly important role in the development process of an economy through job and wealth creation.
Throughout history, women have birthed and nurtured human activities of all kinds.
It takes a woman to taste and enjoy life for the first time. No wonder “mother earth” is common to many cultures.
Let me now make reference to the March 13, 2021 article for this column, in which l stated the following: “I hope you are aware of the harmful effects of DDT, right?
Well, Rachel Carlson, a biologist, was the first to study the harmful effects of DDT in the early 1960s.
Significantly, she chose to challenge the status quo, as it wasn’t easy for her at the time to make known her study and defend her position.
She came up against fierce attacks from the chemical industry lobby groups.
She resisted, and finally succeeded in promoting her ideals.
Today, she can be considered as one of the founders of modern environmental movement”.
Others like Wangari Muta Maathai, a Kenyan environmental activist and the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, and economist Elinor Ostrom, the first woman to win Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, have all shown that female participation in global development issues is improving conditions for all.
World Bank studies over the years have proved that in countries where women are better educated, there are better economic outcomes.
There is enough evidence to show the efforts by women to challenge the status quo and provide alternatives (sometimes better than existing paradigm) to socio-economic growth.
What is needed at the broad level of development initiatives are policies aimed at ensuring that women have greater freedom of action and are part of the sustainable development paradigm.
On November 9, 2021 during the COP26 meeting in Glasgow, Scotland, Angelica Ponce, executive director of the Plurinational Authority for Mother Earth in Bolivia, had this to say:
“The world as designed by men has destroyed many things.
The world should begin thinking like women. If it was designed by a woman, it would end violence against women and children.
“We want to be in the corridors of power and take part in decisions at international level to end this struggle of climate justice,…..as indigenous women, we live day-by-day the cruel reality of climate change in our land.”
And Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister said this during the same event: “When world leaders gathered here last week, of the 120 or so, a tiny minority were women – that needs to change and it needs to change quickly.
There is no doubt, we must ensure that climate change is a feminist issue….. women are not pleading to be supported. We’re demanding to be empowered.”
According to a UN report, 80 per cent of those displaced by the climate emergency are women.
It is for this reason that gender equality is more important today than ever before.
It is true that women and girls around the world on the average, are poorer and less educated, and therefore suffer the most from the impacts of climate change, and without the necessary strong coping mechanisms needed.
But it is also true that when women are empowered all this will change.
