What is delaying gender equality in growing democracies?

Michael Mhlanga

The month of October commemorates breast cancer awareness and is an advent into the season of enhanced awareness on matters relating to gender-based violence. 

While commendable steps have been made through policies and government commitments on gender empowerment, there is still a lot of evidence of women being abused in political parties, feminisation of poverty, the use of women as currency in corruption and inconsistencies between policy positions and practice.

In comparison, women make up a global average of 23,8% of parliament members as of June 2018 with an incredible case study of Rwanda having achieved a 64% women presence within 10 years. The Rwandan Constitution in 2003 set a 30% quota system for women in parliament yet in 2013 their House of assembly was made up of 64% women. This was achieved by a compound of the constitutional commitment and political parties committing to their own quota systems. While this is an impressive stint, many women parliamentarians in Rwanda still find their competencies and capabilities questioned. 

In Zimbabwe, women make up 34,57% in the ninth parliament being present through various elective processes. This is still a discouraging footprint given government’s policy of 50/50 and political parties’ announcements of gender equality. This is perhaps owed to who makes the declaration of 50/50 and who leads the institutions. Both cases of Rwanda and Zimbabwe provide us with a scope that there is still an entrenched gender equality in developing countries.

This week, I begin with interrogating what I think are central issues that are impeding achievement of gender equality despite doubled up awareness, forceful movements such as #Metoo, #MenareTrash and government quota systems.

It is important to admit that developing countries have had an unpleasant history with western civilisation. The western ideology has proved to be coercive to other civilisations and the self determination of their development especially in the third world nation states. As the awareness of national cultural autonomy is seemingly enhancing militancy, developing countries have developed a tendency of rebelling western imposing societal mechanisms and its liberalist approach to gender equality. 

The acceptance of gender equality suggestions from the West by developing countries has been largely informed by the colonial history of these developing countries, cultural conservatism of the developing countries, religious enclaves, societal self-determination and the perceptions to deter the triumph of neo-colonialism in those developing countries. However, critical to note is the complexity of the oppression of women, the intersection of oppression by the traditionally subjecting African patriarchy and the invented colonial patriarchy has even complicated the strategies towards the emancipation of women. This has seen the developing states selectively dismantling the cleavages of patriarchy, neglecting the traditionally associated subjugation of women.

Gender equality is both a human rights principle and a precondition for sustainable, people-centred development. In developing countries, one of the major challenges to the emancipation of women has been the unrevised and the gender uncritical approach to nationalism. While the fight against colonialism was supposed to be emancipating for all humanity, to the woman in Africa the narrative is partially true in the raging awareness of nationalism largely informed by colonialism. Every suggestion from the West is examined on the pretext of colonial literature. This approach to development, especially the development that is considerate of gender equality, has served to be feeble in wholly emancipating women. 

This derives from the unquestioningly rigid approach to nationalism which assumes that each and every facet of Western ideology does not possess any commendable element — a fickle of failing to understand that liberation does not mean oblivion to what is good for the masses. This is the part where Taiwo Olufemi the philosopher advises that “Africa must be modern”. Without a doubt this has negated the quest of gender equality; made it uncritical and provided an insufficient structure to the emancipation of women.

Cultural conservatism has been another factor informing the approach to gender equality and the emancipation of women. Developing countries surely do not emerge from a culturally devoid society. Culture shapes the contents of gender stereotypes, such that men are perceived as possessing more of whatever traits are culturally valued. The nexus between culture and gender roles, are that culture, which can be thought of as “shortcuts or norms of behaviour” or heuristics that are particular to a set of individuals or a society, guides people’s decision-making and how they view the world. History can alter culture, but certain cultural characteristics persist and change can be slow. In the quest of gender equality, cultural cleavages embedded in the historical perceptions of the developing counties has seemed to be critical in deterring any gender equality solutions associated with the western ideologies. It is worth noting that although cultural conservatism is a right of every society, when uncritically executed, it becomes a service to social inequality which in this case is compounding gender inequality and deterring the emancipation of women by preserving a traditionally gender oppressive system.

Again, religion has sometimes provided an adversarial function to the reduction of the gap between males and females. The political consciousness of some religious beliefs has shaped the acceptance of gender promotion schemes associated with western ideologies. The failure to accept western affiliated gender promotion schemes has further elongated the oppression of women especially in underdeveloped societies as religion is used as a barricade of liberating women. When religion refuses to be dynamic and adaptive, it adopts a face of a cannibalistic “saviour” who is a monster and a prison guard of women’s torment.

It is also critical to note that gender is a social construct hence it must be subjective to the society in which it is being created in. The promotion of gender awareness is sometimes unwelcomed due to its association to the western ideology even by the third world economic apparatus. Women in developing countries fare worse relative to men compared to women in developed countries on a variety of measures ranging from college enrolment to control over one’s life.  

All mechanisms and pieces of evidence fit neatly into this development-versus-culture taxonomy. However, despite its imperfections, this way of organising the discussion helps shed light on whether the process of development will eradicate gender inequality. It then becomes fair to assert that western associated gender equality promotion schemes need a corresponding equal economic muscle which is not there in developing countries. The effects of such a status quo are delaying to the full emancipation of women in developing countries.