Just how much progress have Ugandan women made?

There was uproar this week when a Member of Parliament made comments understood to support the battering of women. The Bugangaizi East legislator, Onesimus Twinamasiko, was forced to apologise in Parliament for the “unfortunate statement” according to his written apology.
Mr Twinamasiko’s remarks followed President Museveni’s speech during the International Women’s Day celebrations in Mityana District in which he said, among other things, that men who beat their wives are stupid and do not deserve to be referred to as men.

Debate
As the debate was gaining momentum locally and internationally, it emerged that the leadership of the staff association of Uganda’s premier university, Makerere, had elected an all-male executive. They justified it with the argument that it had followed due process.
We are constrained to repeat the words of vocal activist, Dr Stella Nyanzi, a suspended member of the association in describing the actions of her colleagues. All this happened in what is widely believed to be the “women’s month”.
From just those two incidents it would appear the struggle for gender equality and equity in Uganda is not making headway yet what is on paper suggests a totally different picture. So, are Ugandan women making progress?

Article 33 of the Constitution specifically discusses the rights of women and President Museveni never tires to remind all and sundry of his government’s efforts to support women to be heard, more especially when it comes to political participation through the affirmative action policy that provides for a special seat for women for each district and one third representations in Local Councils.
At the 25th Ordinary Session of the AU in 2015, Uganda received an award for its “progressive policy on the promotion of gender equality and empowering women”.

Ugandan women have also distinguished themselves in various leadership positions in the Public Service and Private Sector whether as CEOs of some leading companies, government parastatals, the academia, and in other fields whether it is the law, medicine, journalism etc.
As the example of Makerere University Academic Staff Association (MUASA) suggests, however, there seems to be a big problem in the glossy picture that is painted by numbers and other write ups on the progress of women.
One school of thought suggests that there should be more laws to push for gender equality and equity which will see progress of women. Other groups suggest education and sensitisation to progressively bring equality in what is largely a patriarchal society.

Have Ugandan women made progress in as far as achieving the aim of Art 33(5) of the Constitution which says women shall have the right to affirmative action for the purpose of redressing the imbalances created by history, tradition or custom?

There seems to be no clear consensus on whether gains have been made in as far as addressing the “imbalances created by history, tradition or custom”.
Take, for instance, the controversial issue of women beating which many argue is rooted in culture.

An Afrobarometer survey released on March 16 shows that more than eight in 10 Ugandans (82 per cent) say men are “never” justified in beating their wives with women more likely than men to reject wife-beating (87 per cent), but even among men, more than three-fourths (77 per cent) say it can never be justified. Findings of the study also indicate opposition to wife-beating is high in both rural (82 per cent) and urban (84 per cent) areas and across all age groups, regions, and education levels.
Afrobarometer is a pan-African, non-partisan research network that conducts public attitude surveys on democracy, governance, economic conditions, and related issues in Africa and interviewed 1,200 adult Ugandans in December 2016 and January 2017.
The Afrobarometer results suggest significantly less public acceptance of wife-beating in Uganda than the latest Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) released also released last week.

Survey
In the DHS survey, respondents were are asked if they agree that a husband is justified in hitting or beating his wife under each of the following five circumstances: she burns the food, she argues with him, she goes out without telling him, she neglects the children, and she refuses to have sex with him. If respondent answered ‘yes’ in at least one circumstance, they were considered to have attitudes justifying wife beating.
Researchers found that five out of 10 women (49 per cent) and four out of 10 men (41 per cent) age 15-49 agree with at least one justification for wife beating. The proportions have, however, declined from 77 per cent of women and 64 per cent of men in 2000-01.

Cissy Kagaba, an activist and executive director Anti-Corruption Coalition Uganda, says the progress of women must be measured in isolation of religion and culture.
“There are some good things in place like laws on affirmative action and gender representation but if you narrow it down, it is just a few women benefitting and the majority of these are from privileged backgrounds,” she says.
She argues that there is need to asses broadly and ask, how many women have progressed and how much benefit has been accrued and not make blanket statements of progress or not.

Emancipation
How about the local woman who is disadvantaged? The few programmes targeting them have, sadly, been marred by corruption. We need to start asking, do they have a conducive environment to prosper? Then we need to face the reality and look at how culture, religion treat women.”
Cissy Kagaba, activist

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