28 Apr 2019

 Speaker of the National Assembly Ms Gladys Kokorwe has observed how lack of gender and leadership parity has remained an eyesore globally despite some efforts to address it.

Ms Kokorwe, who was the guest speaker at the SADC Women Forum and Leadership awards on April 27, said while the problem was a reality the world over, it was more pronounced in Africa, where the numbers of women in leadership positions remained insignificant.

“The World Economic Forum (WEF) registered the global gender gap index at 68 per cent in 2018, which means a gap of 32 per cent is yet to be closed,” she noted.

This, she said was lamentable, saying it was therefore necessary that the pace of progress be changed by taking stronger action and coming up with appropriate policies to fast-track the process of change.

“The World Economic Forum reported that currently, out of the 149 states that it assessed in 2018, only 17 women are heads of states while only 18 per cent participates as ministers in the executive arm of government, and just 24 per cent is parliamentarians. Carefully examined, it translates to less than 70 per cent of women input missing from state governance matters,” she opined.

Giving the Botswana scenario, Ms Kokorwe observed that after the country attained independence, women tended homes while men went out to work, a situation that she said continued to prevail years later when some women began to obtain educational qualifications as they then continued to be encouraged to take up ‘women-friendly’ careers such as nursing and teaching.

“In this way, women were still encouraged to gravitate towards caring occupations, meaning that implicitly they could only leave home to work in public spaces to continue their household roles,” she lamented.

Ms Kembet Bolton, representative of UK-based Economic Leadership Development, a human capacity, gender empowerment, and development organisation, said in their quest to empower women globally, the organisation had seen the need to extend the programme to the SADC region through capacity building for future women leaders.

This, she said was done with the view to increase women’s access to upper leadership positions in the region and in Africa as a whole.

Ms Bolton said it was heart-warming that some women continued to break the glass ceiling and push frontiers for female leadership, thereby paving a path for others to follow.

Founder and CEO of Consortium of Leadership and Gender Experts Dr Tinaye Mmusi concurred on the need to collectively step up efforts for change to include women in the development process.

Dr Mmusi also thanked Ms Kokorwe for her championing efforts in the course of advancing women’s leadership.

The awards ceremony recognised successful female leaders in the SADC region, who serve as role models for their respective countries’ women and girls, as well as men and boys. ENDS