Each Man and Woman Should Have Equal Rights

Introduction

Every man and woman should have equal rights. This statement is the topic of my essay. A woman is a life giver. Every single person was carried in the womb for nine months, birthed by a woman, most of the times breastfed, carried for a comfortable sleep as a child, clothed and nurtured by a woman. Indeed, a person could do nothing without his or her mother, the one who gave him or her life. Therefore, it is a great shame that the same woman who gave people life, are often not trusted to manage the environment where their children grow up. Many developing countries in Africa and some Arabic states nowadays still have gender inequality especially for women. Women are denied access to land, they cannot inherit spouse’s property, they cannot have access to financial services, are subtracted from leadership roles and even lack equal access to education compared to men. Women and girls represent more than 50 per cent of the world’s population. Neglecting them will not lead the world to success. It has been shown that countries that empower women and have gender equality have achieved productivity and economic growth dramatically (United Nations,2019). As the common Rwandan proverb says, “A bird could not fly without two wings”. This means that the world cannot achieve success without cooperation and equal right between men and women. We were created with the same abilities and capacities. A man has no superpower than a woman that could make a woman denied doing what she wants. Therefore, it is unfair that there is still such bias against woman only basing on their sex.

Men and women are equal (essay)

In many African countries, there are still some many forms of prejudice and stereotypes that puts down woman. These stereotypes or beliefs excludes women from different careers especially the ones that requires physical strength and mental capacities. Woman cannot become engineers, mechanics and many other jobs that requires strength. This myth came from African cultures as every sex had its role in the community. Both men and women were involved in searching and provision of food but had different roles. Men went for hunting and searching for firewood while women cooked the food, went fetching and took care of the children (Dipio,2008). This shows that men doing things that required strength had an origin in history. That is what makes it difficult to change the status quo as many people refer to their culture and exclude women from doing jobs that requires strength. They cannot even involve in leadership, business and other careers that demand cleverness. Men took advantage of these as nowadays these kinds of jobs are the ones that are profitable. Then, these gender roles are unfair for women as they are not able to do profitable jobs. This makes women in some developing countries not successful at all. Finding a successful woman in such kind of countries is ‘rare’, because they were not privileged. In some African communities, girls were not valued at all. Giving birth to a girl was taken as nothing or girls were not considered while counting children that were in a family. “In a community named ‘Madi folktales’, a dad valued his cock more than he treasured his daughter Lia and thoughtlessly could sacrifice her in an attempt to retaliate for the demise of his cock” (Dipio,2008). This shows how women were disrespected many years ago. Women in some tribes were not even given freedom of speech, their opinions were not considered(ibid). But should people who have origins in these cultures still continue having old myth? These people should not continue basing on the past injustices made for women to do not give women their rights they deserve as our mothers.

Although the majority of many African and other developing countries still have gender inequality, some are making changes and putting much emphasis in promoting women. I am glad to be from one of these few countries which is Rwanda. It is a small country that had a bad history, where over eight hundred thousand people were killed in the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi and the country’s economy and infrastructures were completely destroyed. When the genocide ended, women took control of the country. Before the genocide women were restricted to use or access opportunities that were outside their homes. They were supposed to stay home and took care of their households and were minor to their husbands. In the post-genocide period, women carried the burden of reconstruction on their shoulders. In order to empower women, in 2003 the new constitution that obliged every government institution that at least 30 per-cent of their employees to be women. Twenty-five years after this tragic history, women are now working in industries and are involved in politics that were once for men only (Behnke,2019). Rwanda is the one of country that has many women involved in politics. It has the highest percentage of women in the parliament of sixty-one percent and fifty percent of the cabinet are women (Karuhanga,2019). This was all because of having a government that cares for women and gave them chances as it knew what women are capable to do. Many programs were launched in the country to support women especially intellectually and socially. Imbuto Foundation is a Non-Governmental Organization that was found in 2001 under the Office of the First Lady in Rwanda. Initially, it started as an organization that provided a holistic approach to women that were infected with HIV/AIDS in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. Afterwards, it launched many programs and initiatives that empower women and support Rwandan young girls. In 2005, a program named the Promotion of Girls’ Education Campaign (PGEC) was launched. This program funded and gave scholarships to young Rwandan girls to reduce the knowledge gap that were between boys and girls. This reduced the number of girls who dropped out form school and increased the number of intellectual women (Imbuto Foundation, 2019). This is not the only program that was launched in Rwanda to empower and promote girls. President Kagame’s rule tried to eradicate gender inequality and empower women by educating them and preparing them for leadership roles. “The government is investing highly in programs to increase girls’ rates of enrollment in ICT education and the involvement of women in technology such as: WEMTECH (Women Empowerment in Technology), the flagship program of the Smart Rwanda Master plan (2015-2020), and the Girls in ICT program, among others”(HeForShe). The government of Rwanda also is promoting and motivating young girls to enroll in the Technical& Vocational Training to advance women’ employment opportunities.

Respecting women health by fighting against gender-based violence is also one of the priorities of the government of Rwanda. Many women were raped and violated mentally around the country. Many cases were reported by the National Police The perpetuators, men, were most of the times not punished for what they did, and they were not rules that protected and spoke for victims of gender-based violence. This violence is a serious public health problem and a violation of basic human rights. It reinforces inequalities between men and women. It also harmed the health, dignity, autonomy and security of its survivors. For this case, Rwanda is committed to end this problem and decided to implement zero-tolerance policy on people who commit the crime of violating women’s rights. To achieve this, the government has established strict punishment for the perpetuators of these crimes, and reintegration programs to support victims. The government and the Rwanda National Police built ‘Isange One Stop Centers’ around the country. These centers provide medical, psychosocial and legal support gender-based violence victims to rehabilitate and reintegrate in the community. Implementing all these policies to promote women have made a good impact on Rwanda’s economy and contributed to the dramatic development of the country and rebuilding the country after the1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.

Although the Rwandan government is implementing many policies to promote women. There is still that mentality that ‘women are the ones to cook, iron clothes, and other household activities like cleaning the house’. Men are still working and thinking in old ways (National Geographic, 2019). But this should not stress people, because changing mindset of people takes time. It cannot change overnight. We need to give time then, but also men need to be taught that they have equal rights with women even at home and no job was made for a particular sex.

All these efforts established by the Rwandan government are good, and this should be an example to other developing countries. However, in many conversations that many Rwandans are having these days, they always debate on a question, “if we continue promoting women this way, won’t men be left behind”. This is a good question, that Rwandans should start thinking about now because privileging girls may have a bad future influence on boys. To fight this, the government need to prevent that gender discrimination will be planted again by ensuring that gender equal rights are given to both men and women and taught to children.

Conclusion

Conclusively, the mindset that women do not have strength to do every kind of job assigned should change. All human beings have the same abilities to anything as long as they were trained for that. Men need to realize that the current problem was not caused by women, but by men. So, men in position of leadership need to take responsibilities to redress long-time injustices and inequalities that have been perpetrated down for so long. Mindset that women cannot make a difference need to change in other countries. Rwanda should be a good example to other countries that still have gender inequality.