Underrepresentation of women in decision making organs in Africa is slowing down development on the continent, experts meeting in Dakar to discuss the continent’s future said on Thursday. 
“Access of women to power is very important for societies that claim to be democratic,” said Prof. Felesiah Arudo Yieke from Laikipia University in Kenya.
“But there is a lot of inequality in the political arena because majority of decision making positions are held by men,” she regretted, noting that “we cannot have true democracy without equal opportunities for all.”
“Women empowerment is not yet a reality because what exists is a survival tactic that only keeps women behind men. Women have not been incorporated in the drafting of development programs, but without their participation, there will be no sustainable development,” she added.
Prof. Yieke noted that educating girls to the highest academic levels will enable them to occupy senior positions.
Adediran Daniel Ikuomola, a Nigerian sociologist noted that in his country, “successive military regimes had prevented women from rising to senior decision making positions, while a patriarchal society had confined women to the roles of wife and mother.”
“They are very active on the political scene, but this is just for the benefit of men. Majority of women have not been allowed to occupy senior positions in political parties,” he observed.
However, he noted, “they are always interested in nominated positions and they need to work in coalitions to fight the domination of men in politics as well as in other spheres.”
“In economic terms, African women are among the poorest of the poor in the world due to their low literacy levels,” added Maria Teresa Henriques Da Cunha Martins from the University of Coimbra in Portugal.
“Most African governments have develop macroeconomic visions without involving women, yet they are the social economists who understand the population better,” she argued.
She concluded that it was important to give more power to women to consolidate African democracies and promote sustainable development.
Speaking on women representation in African parliaments, Anta Sane, a Senegalese Political Science lecturer, cited the example of Senegal, where, “despite the adoption of gender equality rule, women are still underrepresented because there are only 64 women out of a total of 150 parliamentarians.”
“Some women parliamentarians do not have experience or skills. Language is also a barrier for some who did not go to school because French is the official language used in parliament,” she said, proposing use of national languages in parliamentary debates.
“Women make up 52 percent of Benin’s population but there are only seven members of parliament out of 83 in Benin’s Parliament,” noted Dr. Hinnougnon Nathaniel Kitti, a Political Science professor at Abomey-Calavi university in Benin.
“There’s a lack of willingness on the part of women to participate in the political arena because they consider politics to be a male domain,” he explained. Enditem
-Xinhua
