By Lisa Desbordes
“A woman is the full circle. Within her is the power to create, nurture, and transform “(Reid, 2020). The quote’s creator, Diane Mariechild, emphasizes a woman’s enormous potential. On this year’s International Women’s Day, the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) acknowledges women in their full circle by advocating for gender-responsive policies to go beyond production issues. The entrepreneurial dynamism of women should be incentivized and not undermined by policies. Women play vital roles throughout the entire agricultural value chain, including agri-finance, agro-processing, and agro-allied industries with improved access to inputs and research.
On the other hand, women still have fewer educational opportunities than men. 14 percent of young women between the ages of 15 and 24 do not complete primary school. This group accounts for 58% of those who do not complete their primary education. Women account for 23% of the world’s illiterates. When girls are not educated to the same level as boys, it has a significant impact on their prospects and chances. Another key driver of gender disparity is a lack of equal opportunity in the workplace. Only six countries in the world grant women the same legal rights as men in the workplace. In truth, most economies only provide women with 34% of men’s rights. According to studies, leveling the playing field in the workplace has a favorable domino impact on other areas prone to gender disparity (Soken, 2022).
Given these challenges, we need to train the next generation of researchers to bring a gender lens to their research as well as promote gender-sensitive technologies that meet women’s needs, are labor-saving, cost-effective, and simple to operate by non-educated or preliterate women, girls, and youth. The division of labor is one of the factors that contribute to gender inequality in the workplace. There is an underlying idea that men are more prepared to perform specific tasks than women. For the most part, those are the highest-paying positions. Women’s incomes are lowered as a result of this prejudice. Women are often the ones who bear the brunt of unpaid labor. Therefore, even while working full-time, they do unpaid work. Despite years of improvement, women continue to be chronically underrepresented in policy making and the political process. As a result, issues raised by female lawmakers, such as maternity leave and childcare, pensions, gender equality laws, and gender-based violence, are often not given the attention they deserve.
Everyone gains when women are given the opportunity to lead their lives, express their thoughts, and make decisions about their futures. When we battle gender inequality, history shows that civilizations become more stable, safe, and rich, with happier, better educated inhabitants. Gender disparity is a problem in both affluent and poor countries (Duflo, 2012). To achieve this, we need to spotlight the individual and collective biases against women that fuel gender inequalities. This year’s theme for International Women’s Day presents an opportunity to break these deliberate or unconscious biases that make it difficult for women to contribute meaningfully to development. We must re-enforce commitments to integrating gender in African AR4D simultaneously with increased budgetary allocations, since it is not possible to mainstream gender effectively and sustainably without a gender budget. We must also shift from the current gender training and/or sensitization approaches to creating gender awareness within organizations, to gender conscientization and gender consciousness awakening, and finally to unlearning the long-held gender ideologies and stereotypes.
References
Discrimination Causes Inequality Between Girls and Boys Around the World. (2020). Retrieved from https://www.savethechildren.org/us/charity-stories/how-gender-discrimination-impacts-boys-and-girls#:%7E:text=Gender%20inequality%20is%20discrimination%20on,violated%20by%20gender%20based%20discrimination. Reid, S. (2020, January 26).
The Most Empowering, Inspirational Quotes for Independent, Sassy Women. Retrieved from https://www.planetofsuccess.com/blog/2015/the-most-empowering-inspirational-quotes-for-independent-sassy-women/ Soken-Huberty, E. (2022, March 9). 10 Causes of Gender Inequality. Retrieved from https://www.humanrightscareers.com/issues/causes-gender-inequality/
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