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INTRODUCTION

In all African societies, Women have been looked upon as lower creatures. Our

tradition favour men against Women. Women are not seen as individuals who have their

own mind. For many years, Women have assumed one imposed role after another- slave,

sex object for relaxation at will, bearer of children, cook and servant of the family.

In Nigeria, Women were supposed to pursue their feminine roles of child-bearing and

home making. Even after Nigeria attained independence it did not change the negative

perception of Women. Women were not considered capable of handling any administrative

post. They should stay at home while their men think for them.

The struggle for the empowerment of Women did not start in recent times. It has for

the past centuries been in existence. Although neo-colonialists and those who believe in the

white man’s superiority have attributed the origin of Women liberation movement to the

USA claiming that the movement was gingered by the American Civil Rights Movement

which was emulated by other countries particularly the third world countries, It is however

pertinent to note that the move for the empowerment of Women had its foothold and

impulse in the primary societies taking into cognizance the relentless efforts of Deborah

who directed a war against the Canaanites the enemies of God. And the Israelites and

came out victoriously.

For the majority of women, continuing obstacles have hindered their ability to

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achieve economic autonomy and to ensure sustainable livelihoods for themselves and their

dependants. Women are active in a variety of economic areas, which they often combine,

ranging from wage labour and subsistence farming and fishing, to the informal sector.

However, legal and customary barriers to ownership of or means of access to land, natural

resources, capital, credit, technology and other means of production, as well as wage

differentials, contribute to impeding the economic progress of women.

1.2 ORGANISATION OF THE PAPER

This paper work is divided into four sections. The First section is the Introduction.

This is followed by the second section which is the definition of women empowerment. The

Third section talks about the problems and obstacle that inhibits the empowerment of

Women. The Last section deals with the conclusion and recommendation on how the

factors that inhibits Women empowerment would be eliminated.

2.1 DEFINITION AND MEANING OF EMPOWERMENT / WOMEN EMPOWERMENT

Empowerment

Empowerment is a construct shared by many disciplines and arenas: community

development, psychology, education, economics, and studies of social movements and

organizations, among others. How empowerment is understood varies among these

perspectives. In recent empowerment literature, the meaning of the term empowerment is

often assumed rather than explained or defined. Rappoport (1984) has noted that it is easy

to define empowerment by its absence but difficult to define in action as it takes on different

forms in different people and contexts. Even defining the concept is subject to debate.

Zimmerman (1984) has stated that asserting a single definition of empowerment may make

attempts to achieve it formulaic or prescription-like, contradicting the very concept of

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empowerment.

A common understanding of empowerment is necessary, however, to allow us to

know empowerment when we see it in people with whom we are working, and for program

evaluation. According to Bailey (1992), how we precisely define empowerment within our

projects and programs will depend upon the specific people and context involved.

As a general definition, however, we suggest that empowerment is a multi-

dimensional social process that helps people gain control over their own lives. It is a

process that fosters power (that is, the capacity to implement) in people, for use in their own

lives, their communities, and in their society, by acting on issues that they define as

important.

We suggest that three components of our definition are basic to any understanding of

empowerment. Empowerment is multi-dimensional, social, and a process. It is multi-

dimensional in that it occurs within sociological, psychological, economic, and other

dimensions. Empowerment also occurs at various levels, such as individual, group, and

community.

Empowerment, by definition, is a social process, since it occurs in relationship to

others. Empowerment is a process that is similar to a path or journey, one that develops as

we work through it. Other aspects of empowerment may vary according to the specific

context and people involved, but these remain constant. In addition, one important

implication of this definition of empowerment is that the individual and community are

fundamentally connected.

2.2 UNDERSTANDING GENDER EQUALITY & WOMENWOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT

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Gender equality implies a society in which womenWomen and men enjoy the same

opportunities, outcomes, rights and obligations in all spheres of life. Equality between men

and womenWomen exists when both sexes are able to share equally in the distribution of

power and influence; have equal opportunities for financial independence through work or

through setting up businesses; enjoy equal access to education and the opportunity to

develop personal ambitions. A critical aspect of promoting gender equality is the

empowerment of womenWomen, with a focus on identifying and redressing power

imbalances and giving womenWomen more autonomy to manage their own lives.

WomenWomen's empowerment is vital to sustainable development and the realization of

human rights for all.

Despite many international agreements affirming their human rights, womenWomen

are still much more likely than men to be poor, malnourished and illiterate. They usually

have less access than men to medical care, property ownership, credit, training and

employment. They are far less likely than men to be politically active and far more likely to

be victims of domestic violence.

The ability of womenWomen to control their own fertility is absolutely fundamental to

womenWomen’s empowerment and equality. When a woman can plan her family, she can

plan the rest of her life. When she is healthy, she can be more productive. And when her

reproductive rights—including the right to plan her family in terms of birth timing and

spacing, and to make decisions regarding reproduction free of discrimination, coercion and

violence—are promoted and protected, she has freedom to participate more fully and

equally in society.

Where womenWomen’s status is low, family size tends to be large, which makes it more

difficult for families to thrive. Population and development and reproductive health

programmes are more effective when they address the educational opportunities, status

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and empowerment of womenWomen. When womenWomen are empowered, whole families

benefit, and these benefits often have ripple effects to future generations.

The roles that men and womenWomen play in society are not biologically

determined -- they are socially determined, changing and changeable. Although they may

be justified as being required by culture or religion, these roles vary widely by locality and

change over time. United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has found that applying

culturally sensitive approaches can be key to advancing womenWomen’s rights while

respecting different forms of social organization.

Addressing womenWomen’s issues also requires recognizing that womenWomen

are a diverse group, in the roles they play as well as in characteristics such as age, social

status, urban or rural orientation and educational attainment. Although womenWomen may

have many interests in common, the fabric of their lives and the choices available to them

may vary widely. UNFPA seeks to identify groups of womenWomen who are most

marginalized and vulnerable (womenWomen refugees, for example, or those who are

heads of households or living in extreme poverty), so that interventions address their

specific needs and concerns. This task is related to the critical need for sex-disaggregated

data and UNFPA helps countries build capacity in this area.

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‘Empowering women’ has become a frequently cited goal of development

interventions. However, while there is now a significant body of literature discussing how

women’s empowerment has been or might be evaluated, there are still major difficulties in

so doing. Furthermore many projects and programmes which espouse the empowerment of

women show little if any evidence of attempts even to define what this means in their own

context let alone to assess whether and to what extent they have succeeded.

Different people use empowerment to mean different things. However there are four

aspects which seem to be generally accepted in the literature on women’s empowerment.

Firstly to be empowered one must have been disempowered. It is relevant to speak of

empowering women, for example, because, as a group, they are disempowered relative to

men.

Secondly empowerment cannot be bestowed by a third party. Rather those who would

become empowered must claim it. Development agencies cannot therefore empower women

– the most they can achieve is to facilitate women empowering themselves. They may be

able to create conditions favourable to empowerment but they cannot make it happen.

Thirdly, definitions of empowerment usually include a sense of people making

decisions on matters which are important in their lives and being able to carry them out.

Reflection, analysis and action are involved in this process which may happen on an

individual or a collective level. There is some evidence that while women’s own struggles for

empowerment have tended to be collective efforts, empowerment-orientated development

interventions often focus more on the level of the individual.

Finally empowerment is an ongoing process rather than a product. There is no final

goal. One does not arrive at a stage of being empowered in some absolute sense. People are

empowered, or disempowered, relative to others or, importantly, relative to themselves at a

previous time.

2.0 WOMEN AND EMPOWERMENT

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While the reasons for any particular woman’s powerlessness (or power) are many

and varied, considering womenWomen per se necessarily involves questioning what

we/they have in common in this respect. The common factor is that, as womenWomen,

they are all constrained by “the norms, beliefs, customs and values through which societies

differentiate between womenWomen and men” (Kabeer 2000, 22). The specific ways in

which this operates vary culturally and over time. In one situation it might reveal itself in

womenWomen’s lower incomes relative to men, in another it might be seen in the relative

survival rates of girl and boy children and in a third by severe restrictions on

womenWomen’s mobility. Virtually everywhere it can be seen in domestic violence, male-

dominated decision for a and womenWomen’s inferior access to assets of many kinds.

A woman’s level of empowerment will vary, sometimes enormously, according to

other criteria such as her class or caste, ethnicity, relative wealth, age, family position etc

and any analysis of womenWomen’s power or lack of it must appreciate these other

contributory dimensions. Nevertheless, focusing on the empowerment of womenWomen as

a group requires an analysis of gender relations i.e. the ways in which power relations

between the sexes are constructed and maintained.

Since gender relations vary both geographically and over time they always have to

be investigated in context. It also follows that they are not immutable. At the same time

particular manifestations of gender relations are often fiercely defended and regarded as

“natural” or God-given. While many development interventions involve challenges to

existing power relations it tends to be those which challenge power relations between men

and womenWomen which are most strongly contested.

While there has been criticism of attempts to “import” Northern feminisms to the South it is

patronising and incorrect to assume that feminism is a Northern concept. Women of the

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South have their own history of organisation and struggle against gender-based injustices.

Also, gender analysis arising from the second wave of feminism in the North has benefited

from extensive criticism of its initial lack of attention to class and ethnicity and its

Eurocentricity and there has now been some twenty years of dialogue and joint action

between Northern and Southern feminists.

3.0 OBSTACLES TO WOMENWOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT:

WomenWomen Entrepreneurs and Their Problems

Since the social milieu restricts womenWomen’s role within the household they are

mostly involved in home base industries such as, food processing, garments hosiery and

crafts. However, these industries are either progressively dying due to competition from

imported products or being replaced by organized formal units. On the one hand, the

displacement of traditional crafts by light industry is causing the replacement of female

workers by male laborers (Rana and Shah, 1989). On the other, womenWomen are being

converted into wage laborers in such specialized sectors as the carpet industry.

WomenWomen have been functioning as managers, supervisors, entrepreneurs, and even

skilled worker in home based craft enterprises. As industrial activities become increasingly

externalized, however, both male as well as female workers lose control over the

production process and become trans-formed into wage labor. In this process,

womenWomen are affected more since newly emerging organized industries need not only

more capital but also lay stress on more educated and mobile laborers. The managerial

class in these industries, which is dominated by the indo-Aryan and westernized concep-

tionsconceptions of gender specialization, reinforcereinforces their own biases in hiring and

firing.

Further a few womenWomen who remain proprietors face serve problems of lack of

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capital, access to institutional credit, lack of access to marketing network, marketing

information, appropriate business training and education. Other constraints include limited

access to modern management methods and technology; and high cost of production

leading to uncompetitive pricing. They also lack self-confidence and risk taking and staying

capacity as they have access to very little capital and may face numerous family problems

in their enterprise.

Women’s priority is family

Traditional gender roles make Women primarily responsible for children’s upbringing and

home maintenance tasks. Women are expected to focus their lives on taking care of their

families to the detriment, or exclusion, of other concerns. Boys are given priority for

schooling over girls whom, it is assumed, will later be provided for by husbands. As adults,

Women are expected to care for children, spouses, parents and relatives. They are

responsible for keeping the family together. Their involvement in community, church, social

and political organizations is deemed secondary to obligations at home and the demands of

earning a living. But today Women’s earnings are considered essential, rather than

supplemental, to the family income. The reality is that Women are no longer confined to the

domestic sphere. Their space has expanded: they are regular bread-winners who actively

engage in community, church and other social activities.

Women are not qualified to take on leadership positions

Since Women are excluded from leadership roles, they are deprived of opportunities for

leadership skills training. Girls have fewer chances for schooling and opportunities are

drastically limited for them to develop skills and talents in the public sphere. They are

praised for obedience and subservience, implicitly dissuading them from aspirations to

leadership. Higher education is a privilege many Women do not enjoy. They are passed

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up for training opportunities at work because it is not cost efficient to invest in Women who

may give up work anytime for the sake of family. Domestic responsibilities make it difficult

for Women to go for training or further studies because they simply do not have the

requisite hours for study.

Illiteracy

Ill iteracy

The issues of women women have been viewed differently in social relations including

economic activities. This has formed a barrier even when democratic movements have

sought to extend the base of participation of women. women. It will be fallacious to assume

that the problems of Nigerian women women have been totally solved through the various

emancipation initiatives (Beijing conference 1975; 1985; 1995, International decade of

women, women, Strategy for the Acceleration of Girls Education etc) or through the

collaborative efforts of the various Government and Non-governmental Organisations.

Certain inequalities and segregations, which have been established over the ages and

reinforced through the male-dominated structures still persist inspiteinspire of the various

instruments of the United Nations and the concerted efforts of the federal government and a

number of NGOs on alleviating women women discrimination. Without gainsaying, illiteracy

remains at the centre of women empowerment women empowerment problems in Nigeria.

Majority of the womenWomenfolk and a large number of girls in this country are still

grappling with the problems of basic reading and writing skills (UnicefUNICEF 2003). The

gross enrolment rate (GER 2001) indicated that 71percent 71% of out-of-school children

are girls. According to ARFOL (2000) the literacy rate for males is 58% percent but only

41% percent for females. The Human Development Report 2002 published by the United

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Nations development programme puts the statistics of illiterate women women at 57%

percent as against male’s 43 percent%. As seemingly insignificant as this difference may

appear, it is completely unacceptable, if the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) must

be achieved. In Nigeria, girls and women women comprise about 49.69%

percent (SAPA 1993) of) of the total population. Incidentally, about 61percent of the total

female population are reported to be illiterates as against 37.7 percent illiterate male

population. Women Women are discriminated against in access to education for social and

economic reasons. For instance, the Islamic practice of Purdah precludes many women

women from benefiting from school instructions and/or participating in economic activities,

which are likely to elevate their positions. The most egregious segregation is probably the

prevention of girls to go to school in some communities. This has probably led to the

greatest social harm of the twentieth century, when a whole group of females were denied

access to education, on the basis of gender differences. There is palpably a deluge of

problems besetting the Nigerian women, women, but all of them arise from illiteracy. This

suggests therefore that a large part of the empowerment empowerment process is

associated with education of them women themselves. The root of the problem is the

degree of importance women women themselves have attacheed to education. Many of

them believe that the life of a successful woman revolves around her children, her husband

and domestic chores. This lack of personal ambition prevents her from thinking about

pursuing other educational goals, which may have great influence on her life. In the case of

the working womenWomen in the cities, there had bbeen a gradual predilection to abandon

further training because of the demands work and family as well as the huge costs

associated with pursuing higher studies in conventional school system or universities

Political Empowerment

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.

Political Empowerment

Throughout much of the world, womenWomen’s equality is undermined by

historical imbalances in decision-making power and access to resources,

rights, and entitlements for womenWomen. Either by law or by custom,

womenWomen in many countries still lack rights to:

Own land and to inherit property

Obtain access to credit

Attend and stay in school

Earn income and move up in their work, free from job discrimination

Moreover, womenWomen are still widely under-represented in decision-making at all levels,

in the household and in the public sphere.

Addressing these inequities through laws and public policy is a way of formalizing the goal

of gender equality. Legal changes, which most countries have now implemented, are often

a necessary step to institute gender equality, but not necessarily sufficient to create lasting

changes. Addressing the gaps between what the law proscribes and what actually occurs

often requires broad, integrated campaigns.

Law and legal inequalities

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Persistence of traditional gender roles

Perhaps the most resilient obstacle to women’s political empowerment are gender

stereotypes concerning women and leadership. Seeming to be commonly held across

countries by both women and men, these stereotypes are of two categories. The first

regards women as unsuitable for leadership positions; the second demands that women in

power and authority be capable of, and excel at, everything--the “wonder woman”

syndrome.

Stereotype of women as “followers, not leaders”

Women ’s priority is family

Traditional gender roles make women primarily responsible for children’s upbringing

and home maintenance tasks. Women are expected to focus their lives on taking care of

their families to the detriment, or exclusion, of other concerns. Boys are given priority for

schooling over girls whom, it is assumed, will later be provided for by husbands. As adults,

women are expected to care for children, spouses, parents and relatives. They are

responsible for keeping the family together. Their involvement in community, church, social

and political organizations is deemed secondary to obligations at home and the demands of

earning a living. But today women’s earnings are considered essential, rather than

supplemental, to the family income. The reality is that women are no longer confined to the

domestic sphere. Their space has expanded: they are regular bread-winners who actively

engage in community, church and other social activities.

Women are not qualified to take on leadership positions

Since women are excluded from leadership roles, they are deprived of opportunities

for leadership skills training. Girls have less chances for schooling and opportunities are

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drastically limited for them to develop skills and talents in the public sphere. They are

praised for obedience and subservience, implicitly dissuading them from aspirations to

leadership. Higher education is a privilege many women do not enjoy. They are passed up

for training opportunities at work because it is not cost efficient to invest in women who may

give up work anytime for the sake of family. Domestic responsibilities make it difficult for

women to go for training or further studies because they simply do not have the requisite

hours for study.

Law and legal inequalities

The law is an instrument of control, which promotes or inhibits access to resources

and regulates social, economic and political relationships. But in West Africa, the

problem pertaining to womenWomen vis-a-visvis-à-vis the law centres aroundon four

key issues:

- The laws themselves tend to be discriminatory, greatly limiting the rights of womenWomen

- The application of the law tends to be arbitrary or prejudiced to womenWomen

- WomenWomen tend to be unaware of their own legal rights or the meaning of the law in

practice.

- WomenWomen have no access to the process of law for economic reasons or they lack

the confidence to take action

Below are case studies from Nigeria and Gambia.

In NIGERIA, there are two major types of law, the customary law and the Nigerian common

law. Customary law systems are as many as there are ethnic groups in Nigeria. Under this

category is also the Sharia law system. Lack of uniformity in the legal system and the use of

customary or Sharia law on family matters is the major problem of women as regards

obtaining justice. For example, in marriages; a woman cannot give her daughter away in a

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registry marriage unless the father is dead or infirm and a girl can be given away in

marriage without her consent. Pertaining to Property, the laws permit joint ownership of

property between a man and his wife but in case of divorce, the woman loses her share to

the man. In some northern states of the country, only unmarried women are allowed to own

certain property. On children, the child belongs to the mother only if the marriage subsists.

In case of divorce, the father automatically claims custody of all the children except if he is

unwilling to do so. On the question of inheritance, when a man dies, the law under which

his marriage was conducted will determine the inheritance procedure. In the Western part

of the country for instance, a woman is not allowed to inherit her husband's property

because she is to be inherited by a relative of the late husband. Under Islamic law in Hausa

land, women are allowed to inherit either the spouse or her parents estate but the rule

guiding this is equally discriminatory; while sons inherit full share in their father's property,

females are given half their brothers share. As regards bail process; a woman is not

allowed to stand bail for accused person.

The GAMBIA like Nigeria does not have a single legal system. There is what one might call

a "modern sector" of standards and case law written in English and which mostly applies to

Christians. There is also customary Law and "Personal law" systems. Personal law in the

Gambian context means Islamic or sharia law which governs for most Muslims particularly

on family affairs such as divorce and interstate succession (that is, rights to the property of

a deceased person who made no will before his death). Both the Customary and Personal

Laws are highly discriminatory and favours men more than women. In addition, all Chiefs

who are also Judges are men and are given sweeping powers to decide cases.

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Gender biased development and commercial exploitation of women

The free market economy has been highly dependent on availability of cheap labour.

In many West African countries, cheap labour is easily obtained from the poor,

ethnic minorities, women, peasants and landless labourers. These groups the

majority of whom are women are discriminated against and exploited because they

are largely unorganised with no unions to press for their demands. In Gambia, about

90% of rice production which is the country's main staple food id done by rural

women to the benefit of the elite living in cities.

It is also clear that in West African countries of Gambia, Senegal and Cape Verde

islands income continues to be generated through the promotion of tourism in which

women and children are sexually exploited and abused in order to boost the trade.

Religion, culture and harmful traditional practices

The Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women is the

most comprehensive articulate of gender perspective of human rights known to the world. It

captures the three components of women 's rights namely: gender Affirmative Action, the

Principle of Equality and the complementary Principle of non-discrimination. Together these

three principles constitute the composite and involving concept of gender justice. On the

general note, there has been much improvement in gender relations in other parts of the

world but in West Africa, traditional practices or customs continue to be the main obstacles

in the progress towards gender equality and justice. In most countries, such traditions

usually backed by religious beliefs are recognised and practised to the extent that they

have become societal norms even though people are fully aware of their negative impact on

the health and rights of women . It is well documented that the following practices still persist

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in some West African countries;

- Female Genital Mutilation or female circumcision (practised in all countries).

- Land rights in Middle Belt of Nigeria: this is predominately amongst the Tiv and Igala

people where land is a communal property and private ownership or title claim is not

allowed. However, as modernization is gradually eroding this culture, men may claim

ownership but women in particular do not have and cannot hold title to land. The land is the

exclusive preserve of the male and is in turn inherited by male or sons in the family. Among

the Igala, women are not only disallowed from ownership but cannot engage in agriculture

in any form because farming is seen as male occupation.

- District Tribunals: in Gambia and Senegal, District Tribunal are very powerful, they decide

most disputes for rural people and are only made up of men. Women are forbidden under

traditional law to serve on district tribunals and most of their decisions favour men.

- Marriage and divorce: the vast majority of marriages are performed under Islamic law.

Under this dispensation, divorce is basically the prerogative of the man and can be

performed by simple repudiation. Most such divorces never reach the courts, but if they do,

the most the women can get is her removal expenses, maintenance allowances for three

months and a token amount for the maintenance of children if she keeps them.

- Forced marriages and child betrothal: this is a practice in all West African countries the

extent varies from country to country. Marriage is often arranged for a girl by her parents.

Force may be used if she does not like to enter into the marriage that has been arranged

for her. Child betrothal is still practised and early marriage common in many countries.

According to a recent survey in Gambia, about 66% of women responding disclosed that

they were married under 17 years and 27% married under 15 years.

-District voting rights in Gambia: the right to be a traditional Chief is the absolute

prerogative of men. Chieftaincy elections rules that provide for the election of traditional

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leadership is based on compound ownership. Each compound is entitled to one vote.

Traditionally only men can be Heads of compounds in the provinces. As a result, only men

can vote in such elections and only men can contest in them.

-Polygamy common in all countries; many women are neglected in a polygamous marriage

in several ways: In some cases, proper care and financial support is not given to the

woman and her children especially if she is not the favourite of the husband. In other

circumstances, men cannot afford to provide the support because of their meagre earnings.

In this case, there is a direct link between polygamy and financial difficulties in marriages.

Violence Against women Women

Violence against womenWomen is a human rights violation of her body and her right

as a person. Yet it has been experienced by all categories of womenWomen. Violence has

been broadly defined as "an action or policy or an altitude that causes bodily or mental

injury and debases or dehumanises a person". Violence against womenWomen regardless

of the nature of the perpetrator whether –an individual, group, institution, state or society is

a human rights violation and must be treated as such. The following are the most endemic

forms of violence against womenWomen in West Africa; wife beating, indecent assault,

rape, defilement of girls by threats, sexual harassment, intimidation in order to have

unlawful carnal knowledge of them.

In Gambia, the criminal law forbids violence and lays down penalties for offences ranging

from assault to murder as well as rape however, prosecutions for violence against

womenWomen is the lowest in the country's legal history. It is evident that some District

Chiefs who are also judges encourage violence against womenWomen. A district Chief

once made a statement that, "if a wife reports to her family that she is being maltreated by

her husband, they should tell her to go back to her husband and obey. If she refuses to

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return, she should be beaten and certainly not encouraged to take further action."

While more womenWomen's advocacy groups and movements have emerged to

fight for the cause of womenWomen, they are not making much progress because of

certain impediments such as; split in goals, directions and analysis of womenWomen's

situation in different countries, lack of mobilization at the grass roots level and above all

lack of financial support to carry out large scale and sustained projects for the promotion

and protection of womenWomen's rights

Stereotyped positions open to women Women

WomenWomen in the leadership hierarchy of governments, the private sector, political

parties, trade unions and social movements are often in positions that are an extension of

their roles in the private sphere. The positions of secretary, treasurer, public relations

officer, or person-in-charge of logistical support echo the care-giving and home

maintenance functions traditionally ascribed to womenWomen. Premised on the

assumption that housework is of inferior value to paid work, assigning womenWomen to

quasi-domestic roles in the public sphere strengthens the stereotype that they are suited for

lesser responsibilities.

Women ’s multiple burden blocks political participation

Women have an equal right with men to participate in Business and assume leadership

roles. But the demands of traditional gender roles and economic and social obligations

leave them little time and energy to pursue this. Men must share in the demands of the

domestic sphere so that women can exercise their right to actively participate in the public

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sphere. Women and men have an equal stake in family welfare and should be equally

responsible for the family. To encourage more women to take on leadership positions, it is

imperative to challenge the traditional gender division of labor in theory and in practice

High expectations from the public for acceptance of women in leadership roles

People have different expectations of male and female leaders. Foremost among

these differences is that men leaders are not expected to be primarily

responsible for their families' needs, while women leaders are expected to

fulfill this role too. It is normative for male leaders to set aside family

concerns for needs of their constituents and other job-related demands. In

contrast, women leaders are expected to give full and equal time and energy

to raising children and taking care of home while discharging their functions

as politicians.

Women leaders are also expected to possess exceptional personal traits and

qualifications in terms of educational background, professional

accomplishments, active membership in community, church or other civic

groups. They should be accessible to their constituents at all times without

neglecting their roles as wife, mother, daughter. As women they are

expected to be beyond reproach; yet they must be politically astute to

engage in comprises that are part of traditional Business. This can put the

political novice in a bind.

Women, especially those who are presented as an alternative to traditional male

politicians, are expected to create an impact in changing the situation of

women or addressing critical issues such as poverty, health care and

education within a short time from their election or assumption of leadership.

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Since women in leadership is something out of the norm, they are expected

to repeatedly justify the authority vested in them, to vindicate the electorate’s

choice of a woman as leader, by being infallible. This is one unspoken

expectation.

Newly-elected women in countries that have recently introduced a reservation

system find themselves being criticized for failing to push the women’s

agenda forward. Their critics forget that most of these women are political

neophytes still learning the ropes. Moreover the issues to be addressed

cannot be solved overnight.

The exacting conditions imposed on women leaders work to discourage other

women from pursuing executive positions. Undue and unfair expectations

make them feel inadequate to consider venturing into Business, in the first

place. This reduces the pool of future women leaders who can be

challenged, motivated, groomed, mentored and developed for a calling in

Business.

Access to Resources

WomenWomen’s access to land and property is derived through her marriage relationship.

A married woman has no right in her parental property. She gets an equal share in the

husband’s property together with her son, if she remains faithful to him and his clan. This is

server’s limitation on womenWomen’s access to all productive assets.

Marriage becomes the overwhelming factor determining all her life options. This reinforced

by all round social norms and legal structures, every thing else is secondary to marriage.

Single womenWomen, even with many children are not given land in resettlement areas,

even if such households may be among the poorest of the poor. They may not claim any

21

tenancy rights. Although many husbands may keep property in the name of wives, such

womenWomen mayny not make any transaction in the property without the consent of her

husband and sons, etc. This limitation is not applied to husbands and the sons. Households

get access to community resources such as forests through household heads who are

usually men. WomenWomen may have the derived user rights as long as her husband

does not abandon her. When a husband brings another wife and leaves her, which is

constantly recurring even in the Nepalese social milieu, she looses all access to community

property as well. Such processes are hard to capture by data, since no data are collected

on polygamy. It is illegal to have more than one wife, but womenWomen get no property on

divorce and so aan access to resources. Two major indicators of such inequality are access

to credit and increasing involvement of womenWomen in commercial sex work for survival.

A detailed discussion of the second symptom is beyond the scope of this paper.

Nevertheless it is pertinent to note that lack of alternative avenues of livelihood is one of the

major causes why women get into commercial sex work, why parents sell their daughters

into dubious marriages and sex bazaar (See New Era, 1997).

Access to Credit

It has been discussed widely that womenWomen’s access to credit is limited because both

formal and informal credit institutions are geared to funding property owners. All formal

credit institutions seek tangible collateral from loan and womenWomen are effectively

sidelined from institutional credit since womenWomen have little access to the inherited

property. The village moneylenders are also interested more in earning high interest or

acquiring the debtor’s property rather than financing people in need.

WomenWomen’s access to institutional credit is further restricted by their confinement to

22

household activities and lower level of awareness and educational attainment. As such they

are more prone to fall prey to the exploitative conditions of the village moneylenders than

their male counter-parts. Nepal Rural Credit Review Study (NRCRS) by Nepal Rastra Bank

in 1991/92 revealed that of the total female headed sample households almost 35 percent%

had borrowed from one or the other sources compared to 39 percent % male headed

households. However, among the borrowing female headed households only 15.4 percent

% had borrowed from institutional sources such as Agricultural Development Bank and

Commercial Banks and 84 percent % had borrowed from non-institutional sources sources.

(Table 1). Access to institutional credit in one of the major stumbling blocks for

womenWomen entrepreneurs in all sectors including agriculture. Almost 40 percent had

borrowed from moneylenders.

4.0 4.0 CONCLUSION

This paper is fuelled by a desire to make a contribution to remedying some of the

more brutal injustices being meted out to women today. When we read of, or meet,

women whose survival strategies include hiding small piles of money in different

places so that they can fool their husbands, after a beating, that they are

surrendering all their savings to him (Risseeuw, C. 1988, 278) do we not want to

change such situations?

Generation after generation, women have evolved from being ordinary helpers to

23

breadwinners. On the international scene, we cannot help but mention some notable

women who have excelled in various areas of endeavour.

The history of Nigerian women over the years indicated that they have suffered and

still continue to absorb all forms of indignities through laws mainly made by men to

protect themselves and maintain their grip on the women folk.

The emerging ubiquitous role of women in world affairs is very rich in experiences

form which we can find insight and even solutions to our present-day seemingly

intractable political, economic and domestic problems.

It is believed that our women have the ability and the capacity to improve on their

present state. This is because over the years, women have come to develop more

skills and acquire more education compared to their male counterpart. Today we

have lots of more women who are educated. When we come to the political scene,

remember those women were fighting for women emancipation and so they really

have to be in the forefront. Today, what are the women doing? It is no longer about

emancipation it is about achievement.

In spite of these shining examples, it is not yet “uhuru” for the Nigerian Women as

there is still need to empower more women as well as eradicate all forms of gender

inequality form the society.

The creation of the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development is a step in

the right direction. Women should therefore take advantage of the opportunities

created by the existence of the ministry to be more relevant than they are now. This

could be achieved through the promotion and protection of the rights and privileges

of women folk in Nigeria. They should sponsor legislations against all forms of

24

female abuse, and initiate far reaching reforms on all issues that will improve their

well-being. There could be no better time than now.

To attract the attention of policymakers it has been necessary to make the case (which has

been done effectively elsewhere so does not need repeating here) that empowering women

has many beneficial spin offs which nicely fit with development priorities. It is of course

equally valid to argue that such gross asymmetries of power between men and women are

themselves legitimate targets for change.

It is evident that the term empowerment has become a buzzword within development

studies and is used to add glamour (rather than value) to interventions which actually seek

to achieve a variety of economic and social outcomes, which, though they may be

extremely desirable in themselves, do not necessarily challenge existing patterns of power.

In contrast I therefore define women’s empowerment as the process by which women

redefine and extend what is possible for them to be and do in situations where they have

been restricted, compared to men, from being and doing. Or, if you like, women’s

empowerment is the process by which women redefine gender roles in ways which extend

their possibilities for being and doing.

This is very closely related to Kabeer’s definition (“women’s empowerment is about the

process by which those who have been denied the ability to make strategic life choices

acquire such an ability” (Kabeer 1999, 435) but has two important differences.

First it emphasises the gendered nature of women’s disempowerment. When we speak of

women’s empowerment we are defining individuals as “women” and in that case we are

considering the ways in which they are disempowered as women. This is not to deny that

women have multiple identities and are also farmers, workers, traders etc. and will choose

at times to work together with men to improve their mutual situation. (Of course struggles

with men for common goals as peasants, workers, colonial subjects etc. will, as has been

25

shown many times in history, need to be combined with struggle around gender roles too if

women are not to find themselves still disadvantaged as women once the common struggle

is over.) Women’s gendered identities disempower them in their public roles as well as

within the home. Therefore women can act to challenge gender roles as part of any

collective struggle they are involved in.

The second difference from Kabeer’s definition is perhaps more subtle but, I think, real. Her

definition involves focusing on individuals acquiring an ability to choose whereas mine

focuses on redefining and extending the limits of what is possible. It therefore has more of

an emphasis on women achieving a change that expands options not only for themselves

but also for women in general both now and in the future.

4.1 RECOMMENDATIONS

Women's economic dependence and, often, lack of rights to property or access to finance

have long crippled their ability to take care of themselves and their families. We therefore

recommend that steps be taken to:

Promote women's economic rights and independence, including access to

employment, appropriate working conditions and control over economic resources;

Facilitate women's equal access to resources, credit employment, markets and

trade;

Provide business services, training and access to markets, information and

technology, particularly to low-income women;

Strengthen women's economic capacity and commercial networks;

Eliminate occupational segregation and all forms of employment discrimination.

Access of Women to business skill –training and entrepreneurship development to

help them run their own business.

26

The adoption of appropriate steps by enterprises, institutions and government to

ensure that employees are aware of obligations and rights, including those stemming

from equal employment laws where applicable.

Mentoring for Women to provide advice and develop their professional skills.

REFERENCES

1 www.unfpa.org/intercenter/beijing/economy.htm

2. United Nations, (1965). Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. 1995:par. 32

3. Bisnath, S. (2001) Globalization, poverty and women’s empowerment. United Nations Division of the Advancement of Women [Online] http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/empower/documents/Bisnath-EP3.pdf [accessed 30 October 2003]

4. Oti Patience O (1982) The Woman Factor in the Nigerian Polity Chap iv

5. Nepal Rural Credit Review Study (NRCRS) Nepal Rastra Bank in 1991/92

6. www. tojde.anadolu.edu.tr/tojde21/articles/felix.htm

7. www.unicef.org/about/execboard/files/GENDER-2.pdf

8. Women National Development , Business Day Newspaper, May 8, 2006,

( sub- pg 1)

9. www.nepaldemocracy.org/gender/women_economy.htm

27

Assessing empowerment

I suggest that a framework for assessing empowerment should include the following

components.

Identifying constraints to action

This is the core of the framework and fulfils a number of functions. Because

identifying constraints is necessarily a participative process it contributes towards

building an understanding among the women involved of how they are discriminated

against on the basis of their gender (and a desire for, and belief in the possibility of,

change).

When carried out for a particular action (as in the example given in section 2.5 of

attending school) it can be used to identify a baseline – i.e. to define the state of

gendered power relations before any action is taken. By repeating the process at a

later date change can be identified. It can therefore be determined whether power

relations have shifted towards becoming more equitable.

Identifying how women’s agency has developed

In a sense this is a mirror image to identifying constraints. If constraints to action are

loosened then, by definition, possibilities for action (agency) are increased. And, vice

28

versa, if possibilities for action are increased then constraints have loosened.

However we are interested not only in possibilities for action but in actual action

taken. For example women’s rights to land tenure might be made more equal to

men’s through legislation – a good thing in itself of course. And it will certainly reduce

formal constraints on women’s action. But will women take advantage of the new

legislation or will social pressures prevent them from doing so? In this case there has

been little impact on women’s agency or empowerment.

Analysing changes in women’s agency will involve considering both the individual

and collective level. It will involve seeking answers to question such as:

How have women’s views about gender changed?

How have their feelings about themselves changed (self-confidence, self-

worth, potential etc.)

What can women do now that they wanted to do but could not do before?

Do women believe that it will be easier for their daughters to do these things

now?

What new or existing resources (broadly defined) were used to achieve this?

How have women worked with each other to achieve this?

In what way did external assistance contribute?

Identifying how women’s agency changed constraints to action

Practitioners of impact assessment are familiar with the complexities of attribution

i.e. determining whether observed changes are a result of an intervention or caused

by some external factor. The necessity to consider this as part of the assessment

exists in this case too but the attribution question has also to be faced at an extra

level when considering empowerment.

29

Because we define empowerment as the process by which women redefine and

extend what is possible for them to be and do etc., we have to question whether or

not any identified relaxation of constraints has come about as a result of women’s

actions or for some other reason. If it is because of women’s action then it is a

straightforward example of empowerment – women have succeeded in expanding

the realm of what is possible for them. On the other hand, have constraints been

loosened by some means other than women’s action? In this case we cannot talk of

empowerment because as is generally agreed empowerment cannot be bestowed

but must be won. Nevertheless the loosening of constraints could represent a real

improvement in the situation of women – and theoretically eventually such

improvements could result in a situation where women were no longer

disempowered – i.e. a situation where empowerment would no longer be a matter for

concern. The point is that, while any improvement in power relations is welcome and

valuable in itself, it is only when this comes about as a result of women’s action that

empowerment would be the appropriate term to use.

Questions we could investigate include:

What actions did women take, individually or collectively to challenge

constraints to action?

How did women support each other and learn from each others actions?

How did women resist such constraints either overtly or covertly?

What opposition did women encounter?

To what extent and how was opposition overcome?

How secure do women think their newly expanded freedoms of action are?

What action, if any, do they intend to take to defend their improved position?

30

The above represents only a very sketchy outline of a framework for assessing

empowerment. I plan to develop these ideas further and welcome criticism and

comment.

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The profile of the empowered woman (Aksomkool 1995, 55-56)

The empowered woman appreciates the time she spends on domestic work and outside the home.

She is aware that overwork is harmful to her physical and mental condition and that health is vital.

She is able to question her double responsibility and seeks help from others to have enough leisure

to spend on learning and participating in the social and political life of the community.

The empowered woman appreciates the value of her contribution, whether remunerated or not. She

is aware that she has tremendous potential to contribute to the progress of her family, community

and nation. With that understanding, she is confident of her worth, is open-minded and can

appreciate others.

Aware of her productivity, she seeks to improve her skills and knowledge continuously. She has

enough information sources (such as extension services, available and relevant technology) and

makes sure she benefits from them. She appreciates the knowledge gained from reading and reads

regularly.

35

The empowered woman understands that she is a human being and can control her own life.

Hence, she could and should question the family and social practices which negatively affect her.

She seeks to get scientific insights into superstitions, and challenges those which are unjust to

women.

She has freedom of movement and expression on a par with men. She appreciates her strengths

and weaknesses and seeks self-improvement.

She can lead and serve as a positive role model for other women.

The empowered woman is aware of her rights as a citizen and protects them actively. She is

convinced of her equality with men. She knows which laws and legal processes treat women

unfairly and seeks to use her legal knowledge to protect her own and other women’s rights.

The empowered woman respects herself and dares take credit and responsibility for her

contribution and action. She looks for options and makes informed decisions. She dares to be

different and creative.

The empowered woman appreciates and supports other women. She is aware that organisation

means strength and seeks to strengthen her organisational, management and leadership skills.

The empowered woman is aware that her health is related to the number of children she has. She

respects the dignity of womanhood and appreciates daughters in the same way she does sons.

The empowered woman nurtures herself. She wants everybody to understand that, as a human

being, she is entitled to happiness in the same way that others are.

36

She has a zest for life.

37