One Day a year is not enough!

Why do women still not have equal rights or full political participation after 100 years of celebrating International Women’s Day?  One hundred years ago (and in many places, even more recently) these values were radical ideas, and although there has been much progress made there remains reason to be concerned.

The adoption by the AU of the Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in 2004 has given a new prominence to the issue of women’s rights. The election of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf as President of Liberia was symbolic of change in Africa and of progress for women across the continent. Today, three African countries (Gambia, Malawi and Zimbabwe) have female Vice-Presidents. Rwanda’s parliament was the first in the world in which women took over half the seats; Lesotho has even achieved the greatest overall improvements in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index over the last five years.

But, as women on the continent know, this is not the full picture. Significant gender gaps persist in education, health, employment, wages and political participation. African women have not yet been empowered to play the role they should or to make the contribution they could. This is not only a human tragedy, but also a major brake on Africa’s development. 

African women are often only protected in law, but not in reality. Lofty rhetoric about their empowerment is generally not matched by actions and resources. Women are still the first to suffer when economies shrink, food and nutrition security declines and diseases spread. They are still the first to be violated in conflict areas and in households. They are expected to bear and raise children, care for their families, and undertake unpaid work – and at the same time, not to complain, but to respect conventions and customary norms which have the effect of perpetuating their second class status.

While many problems rage around the continent part of the solution is self-evident: women. There is ample evidence that empowered women boost social and economic progress not least though increased household incomes, nutrition and education levels, and agricultural productivity.

Encouragingly, women across Africa are increasingly vocal about both their status in and contribution to society. More of them are assuming leadership roles in politics, government, business and civil society. More men are also willing to speak out in solidarity with women, to insist upon women’s full participation at all levels of decision making, and to campaign for equal treatment of women under the law, in public life, in business, and as agents of economic change.

What is clear is that gender equality and reaching the full potential will not be achieved by a one-day-a-year celebration.