Reimagining gender equality

Going back to basics is the idea that you must sometimes look back in order to go forward. So much work has gone into integrating women in economic development. The idea of empowerment became one worth pursuing considering that society was changing enough for us to recognise that it is foolish to exclude women from participating in development. 

So much research has fuelled the various programmes and projects that have run across the globe targeting closing the gender gap in a number of areas. Do we need women in public life? Some people still wonder. What will going back to basics mean?

Writing on the question of love and marriage, German sociologists Ulrich Beck and Elisabeth Beck-Gernsheim in the normal chaos of love make several interesting observations. They suggest that ‘one cannot any longer define the relationship between the sexes just in terms of what they seem to involve - sex, affection, marriage, parenthood and so on.’ 

They contend that if one were to look at that relationship, they would necessarily include everything else such as work, profession, inequality, politics and economics. It is this mix of things that makes it complicated.
Again, in looking at going back to basics, would one not be discussing the whole spectrum of the relationship between the state, market and society? Whereas they write of the German society in this book, it is relatable to where we are now.

Indeed, ‘anyone discussing the family has to include jobs and income, and anyone talking about marriage has to look into education, opportunities and mobility.’ Love in its chaotic form now embeds all of these considerations. You can no longer just fall in love, people say.

Going back to basics is to reconsider the lessons of gender and to revisit these in four specific areas, if we are to see sufficient change. These do not include the role of the state, where legislation and regulation play a big part. It is clear that the law opens the doors for women to claim their space in public life, even in media where ordinarily the gate keepers would have kept women away. 

The role of the state is fairly a given now. Many countries, whether they meant it or not, have gone ahead to guarantee the rights of women in their key legislative pieces. The current progress in Uganda, slow as it may be, suggests that even without new legislation, there is sufficient space for women. If this is the case, where is the problem then?

The places to revisit are mainly four, the family, school church and media. Perhaps not in the real sense of going back to the basics, but to appreciate where the gaps remain and to deal with the structural barriers. The family, remains the most fundamental place, where the early lessons of gender are learned.

The family is where you are told all your limiting beliefs or may experience the most empowering moments.

You also remain in your family until you are an adult. Every woman I have interviewed in public life, who has talked about their courage to be a great journalist, lawyer or doctor, to pursue a dream, has talked of the resilience and determination of their parents, a husband, an encouraging relative and one or this person who made them believe when they were young, that they could be more in life. 

An incredible support system is what it takes. Family from the point of view of gender, can be the most divisive place, where children also experience the worst form of inequality and discrimination. Parents tell the boys they are responsible for their sisters, they give the land to the boys, they give the boys space to play and become imaginative and so on. 

It, therefore, follows that to close the gender gap, and work towards an equal future, the family is the greatest site. The school is equally important. We have seen our society leap bounds where it is increasingly normalised, that boys and girls can attend the same school, study the same programmes. The school is the best place for equalising the public arena, where boys and girls on merit, playing in a fair level playing field, are likely to find themselves. It is our duty to ensure that schools teach the right lessons of gender and offer learners an opportunity to engage with social injustices, the kinds that affect one gender more than the other. That is where both boys and girls get exposed.

The other two areas, church and media demand their own space. The lessons we learn in church and through narratives created on media, often reinforce those we have picked up in school and at home. It is what makes unlearning the lessons of gender very difficult.

Going back to basics for me is an invitation to interrogate these spaces and reimagine what needs to change in how we have conducted ourselves in these spheres. Each contributes to our state of equality between the sexes.

Emilly Maractho (PhD) is a senior lecturer at Uganda Christian University.                      

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