African Women and Policy influence: 'let us keep on resisting, that is how we will advance!'

Imagine a world where girls and boys are treated equally across the divide despite tribe, class or race, we must all hope for the day when government will recognize that equality of our young people is a priority they have failed to achieve. However on the other hand there has been a growing number of women who have taken spaces in government, dominant models of masculinity in Africa tend to continue taking centre stage where a militarized idea of a nation with people fighting and killing for what they want seems to be the preferred modus operandi. This article is the first in a five part series on gender and politics focused on political leadership and the influence that African women wield generally in the pivotal thematic areas of governance. We as people do not investigate all the tales around education, women empowerment, good governance and policies, it is high time we dissected those extensively to foster an appreciation of our true circumstances in the plot. This current article aims to address and highlight the harsh reality that we cannot talk about prosperity of young women and girls without making attempts to change inappropriate and inadequate policies that hinder their progress. One tends to discover that these same policies seemingly in place to address the above matters are hardly implementable where there is no real monitoring mechanism traceable to assure their effectiveness.

The status quo

There is generally a distortion around the concept of power in Africa whereby its citizens do not comprehend that it is a choice that belongs within their hands solely who gets power and when. There is a famous saying that "the most lethal weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed 'this serves as an emphasis on women to arise to the challenges they face because until they unite as a disempowered group they will remain eternally powerless. The life of a young woman or girl in Africa is meaningless and often its leaders do not take their safety and security seriously this is abundantly clear in the cases of terrorism we have seen sprouting that see girls being kidnapped and rape being used as a weapon of war. By any standards any decent government must see the disappearance of one girl as serious. The role of women on the other hand shows signs that proffer an illusion of change in their circumstances as they seem to be free in a lot of public life but somehow the discrimination has taken another form which mainly restricts them so that they are compelled to behave in a certain manner and present themselves with characteristics of men in public life and discourse (survival of the fittest). As much as women now exercise influence in policy spaces the issues of differences in accessing  economic resources sees these women still subject to being controlled by men because they are still less able to independently negotiate leadership positions within their political systems. These are the sort of complexities therefore that young women and girls grow up to contend with in their daily lives to become equal and meaningful players in modern society. Generally speaking discrimination against women must be known that it enables threats to peace and security thus greater gender equality should be a goal that is a pre-condition to achieve development and security policy objectives.it s with this realization that we as women must understand that for us to gain mileage in the political arena, we must be seen to be vesting interests in policy issues and be forefront runners in advocacy and lobbying.

'Young people tend to face multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination their rights always double at risk, the drives this situation is not ethnicity as purported but gender, the power men have-often in large groups, to take advantage of the most chaotic youth, meaning that policy discourse must always bear in mind saving certain subgroups such as young women and children and fight their constant enslavement in the name of extremist patriarchal ideologies. There is no demographic that has been overlooked as much as the rights and needs of adolescent girls and young women  because of their poverty, social class and invisibility, they are still largely seen in the eyes of police, governments and the international community as more disposable than others.

Has the growth of women in governance translated into real influence?

It's interesting to note how numerous surveys have come up with one conclusion that  women usually receive appointments that are less prestigious and more "feminine" portfolios like Women affairs ,Family affairs, Community development and Culture, which are nowhere close to being launching pads for greater authority .Portfolios that are highly  prestigious such as finance and defense are almost always reserved throughout the world for men and fewer women still can be given medium prestigious portfolios such as education. This in turn calculates down to them having limited influence because many a times they are not distributed across functional areas. Women continue to be appointed to less influential positions as during democratic processes often key positions are used as bargaining tools to win the support of influential politicians who are seen as potential threats to the incumbents grip on power. However what has made women continue to survive in these spaces is the pressure exerted on governments to reform and improve governance by observing international concessions and treaties which call for equal participation and recognition. Real influence might only begin to trickle in when there is an emergence of women candidates who will possess both the political capital to negotiate their way into prestigious positions and also have the required qualifications related to those policy areas. Therein lies the answers required by women to break the glass ceiling of executive power. As the numbers continue to grow we must find ways to translate our presence as women in politics into action and influence because at this stage it has become clear that gender quotas are not enough for women to amplify our voices and be heard loud and clear. Zimbabwe must therefore find ways to unlock the potential of their young women and girls because they are one of its wisest investments.