By Hajia Halima Idris
This is not a feministic write up, of course I am not a feminist. It is highly unfortunate that most people who speak on female issues are erroneously dismissed as feminists. It is therefore imperative to note that most people who fight for the female gender have their reasons rooted in experience or other likely circumstances. More so, one must understand that speaking for the women is not only limited to women; men also indulge in it. That is because they have come to the realisation that women are not weak to contribute to national development, and are by no means insignificant.
I believe everyone has a part to play in life, and that explains why we are created male and female with distinct roles. We must at the same time understand that things are changing because the traditional roles defined by the society, and assigned to both genders, are shifting. If we look around, we will see that some have embraced the roles in addition to theirs. Take for instance, women used to be mere housewives with defined roles strictly limited to taking care of the house, kids and family as a whole. Today, however, women are changing the narratives, and are becoming more competitive alongside their male counterparts in various work places. They are getting more ambitious even while keeping their roles as housewives. They didn’t abandon their responsibilities, but took the advantage of the principle of multitasking which arguably they have comparative cost advantage.
We live in a patriarchal society where men are expected to dominate both the work spaces and homes. But the new generation woman is fast coming of age. This, without mincing words, have given them the wherewithal to earn a living and take care of most responsibilities both for self and others. It has also given her the leverage to build confidence and understand her worth as well as the impact she can make to the development of the emerging society. She literarily found her voice.
However, this has its sour point as well, as it seems to encourage uninformed men to be lazy, and has led to increased rate of divorce. Again, it created nonchalant attitude in men in the area of providing and protecting their families as used to be the case. Some men no longer care about the welfare and wellbeing of their children as regards the friends they keep or whether they study or not. Indirectly the roles are beginning to switch places between the two parties.
This is one of the reasons we have the negative social problems like substance abuse, kidnapping, banditry, theft, armed robbery, cyber crime and many other social problems in today’s Nigeria. Men seem to have abandoned their responsibilities to the women.
But I still believe women are under utilized in our society. This is because today’s woman has a lot to offer because of their level of exposure and education. They are wired to contribute in designing laws for offenses like domestic violence, post spouse death situation, and others like girl-child education, sanitation/clean water, fight against hunger, waste to wealth, creative and tourism economy, SMEs intervention funds and many other policies that affects women, children, youths and immediate communities, most especially.
This doesn’t mean the women will dominate the work places, but create room for effective implementation of any action plan. Women are said to care more about people than men whose major attraction can be traced to ephemeral.
Therefore, it is important women play bigger and more important roles in making laws that affect people while men are left with the financial and infrastructural development policies. Or what do you think?
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