Women’s movement should be open to members from all walks of life

This deliberate effort of inclusion and active engagement will go a long way in erasing the current bias that has been created of an elite urban-based women’s movement and help to strengthen an all-inclusive and sustainable women’s movement.

The growth of the women’s movement can be traced back to the late 1950s and early 1960s. The growth of the movement was the emergence of individual women in positions of responsibility in the public affairs.
When discussing diversity in the women’s movement, culture is of the critical points of reference since it determines the values of an individual and the community, in respect to how we see ourselves and others, as well as our world outlook.

Culture informs our responses to social, political and economic relations in the environment. Our identity is shaped by society’s beliefs, expectations and experiences which we acquire through socialisation at the family level, in schools, churches and participating in community activities.

By the nature of women’s gender socialisation, many of them will try to avoid situations or engagements that compromise their livelihood or put their families at risk and therefore conform to societal expectation even they would personally wish to defy.

This explains why few women speak out against issues of domestic violence and sexual rights simply because these are topics that the community has viewed as ‘bedroom issues’ and they should not be discussed in the public sphere. The ones who do so are given all sorts of names and some women do not want to even associate with them.

This can be clearly seen from the current discussion on the Marriage and Divorce Bill that has gathered a lot of decision both in Parliament, media and the public.

It is important to note that in Uganda, much of the earlier sensitisation and education, which unfortunately has persisted in the women’s organisations and clubs, was geared at transforming African women into better wives of ‘westernised’ African men and hence reproducing western notions of gender, domesticity, morality and household divisions of labour.

This has given inadequate considerations of women’s own realities, needs and priorities and has continued to promote activities that have limited women’s engagement and kept them partially locked in the private sphere, depoliticised, and passive such that the majority of women fear or simply do not challenge the status quo.

The recent democratic processes in the country under the reinstated multi-party politics and the global economic and social networking trends, are also seen in some circles as weakening and fragmenting the women’s voice and hence the urgency to critically discuss the issue of individual identity and pluralism within the women’s movement.

“Most people are scared to stand up and speak their mind on political or what are regarded as ‘controversial’ social issues. If we desire to see pluralism in the women’s movement then we need to get the women beyond the ‘bread and butter’ syndrome and economically empower them, so that they have the freedom and choice of engagement”, a respondent said.

Women, therefore, need to have the right information and civic education, coupled with economic empowerment, if they are to have the courage, perseverance and the time to embrace pluralism and actively participate in political discussions and activities.

As the nation celebrates Women’s Day, it’s important that the contribution of women through their movement be given more work. Power and decision making in the women’s movements should be decentralised and shared to include women from all walks of life, rural and urban, old and young and women from the formal and informal sector.

This deliberate effort of inclusion and active engagement will go a long way in erasing the current bias that has been created of an elite urban-based women’s movement and help to strengthen an all-inclusive and sustainable women’s movement.

The women in the movement need to learn to strategically negotiate in order to convince those people with alternative views and also promote critical and analytical thinking within the movement. Women activists should try to build men’s capacity to speak out on gender issues and attract them to the women’s movement.

Ms Labwot works with Uganda Women’s Network.
susan@uwonet.or.ug