We owe it to our daughters to end sexism

What has dominated conversation in the last week is the complaint by Rakai District Woman MP Juliet Kinyamatama that Mityana Municipality MP Francis Zaake abused her.  Parliament was even adjourned following the fracas that ensued.

In the past, female MPs and politicians would be abused and it seemed there was nothing they could do to push back.

That some female MPs are now standing up for themselves against what they have termed male chauvinism in Parliament is a good thing. Some people have criticised the methods but sometimes the madness in the methods is what gets the attention.

There are two issues in here. The first is the status of women in politics and negative portrayal of women politicians. The second is how these women respond to these challenges.

Some female MPs have suffered quietly and others lost their place in politics to bulling. It takes a fairly thick skin to survive in politics for many women. The ones who have been around for decades have stories to tell, and some of these stories we see in the media.

Mr Zaake is not new to controversy and there are people who jump in to shield him whenever there is trouble. It is still fresh in our minds, that Speaker Annet Anita Among has had her fair share of trouble with Mr Zaake.  Not taken to being at the short end of the stick, Ms Among had ensured Zaake pays the price. He paid by being thrown out of the Parliamentary Commission where he was a member. He recently emerged victor when reinstated, with the court finding fault with the manner in which he had been thrown out of the commission. 

The ink on the judgement had not even dried when Ms Kinyamatama demanded that he faces disciplinary action for abusing her. The Rakai District Woman MP wants nothing but the dismissal of Mr Zaake from the House altogether, and some female legislators are standing with her.

Yet, she is not the only one other legislators are standing with. Even Zaake had an army of people defending him (some of them women), suggesting that what Ms Kinyamatama considers an insult is nothing in comparison to the pains that Mr Zaaake has suffered in the hands of security operatives. 

Stereotyping female politicians and trivialising them is an old age problem. It gets worse where the political system is equally problematic. Research has shown that male chauvinism is a real problem in politics. The evidence was in plenty, as some MPs defended Zaake.

The problem with abuse is that some people assume, ‘mere words’ cannot compare with physical abuse. Yet, both have incredible impact on those who find themselves on the receiving end. The assumption here is that this physical abuse is more painful in comparison to violence that is not physical, without visible scars. It is the same assumption often carried into offline and online abuse.

While using one’s power as was the case of Speaker Among or ganging up with other people of similar interests like Ms Kinyamatama attempted in order to confront Zaake may be effective temporarily, they are not sustainable. More focused responses with wider impact beyond individuals, fighting the vice itself and dismantling the structures that sustain them, is key.

It is a problem that all countries have. In the 1990s, Ms Edith Cresson was named the prime minister of France. The way the French press covered her, was less than flattering. When interviewed by Laura Lisword in 1995, she made one of the most interesting observations. She said what she found amazing was that, ‘when a man is designated as a prime minister, nobody asks the French if they think it is a good thing that the prime minister is a man’.

The whole time, we are simply trivialising these women. We start to discuss their clothing, demonstrate how unattractive they may be, and dismiss them. We never really make these things a big deal of the men who get appointed to big positions. The American press had even ridiculed Hillary Clinton, that she sounded like a ‘nagging wife’ during campaigns while Mr Barack Obama sounded like a great leader urging Americans to ‘take off for the future’.

We owe it to our daughters to end sexism in the public sphere and protect women in politics. It remains one of those difficult places to be and we must do something about it. While the number of women in politics has gone up, these women’s effectiveness is deeply hampered by the toxicity in their environment. We do not need women to be in politics as invited guests but as participants with equal rights to engage. They need not constantly be pushing back.

Ms Maractho (PhD) is the director of Africa Policy Centre and senior lecturer at Uganda Christian University.                       [email protected]