Attention is being given more and more globally to the subject of having women participate and be significantly represented at the highest levels in various spheres of social life. The reasons are that research is showing that having women in leadership positions confers great benefits to organizations, institutions, communities and societies. In business, firms with more women in top management were found to experience 35 per cent higher returns on equity, according to a four-year study of 353 Fortune 500 companies. It has also been shown that having more women in government in low and middle-income countries ensures that more resources will be invested in public goods such as health services, roads, sanitation, water, and violence-reduction efforts. This is clearly in line with the general knowledge that women tend to invest more of their personal earnings in caring for their families’ needs. Indeed, some have suggested that Liberia being the first to be declared Ebola-free of the three West African countries worst hit by that deadly virus might not be a mere coincidence; Liberia is being led by a woman. Women are increasingly becoming the focus of development initiatives.
The recently appointed President of Yale University, Professor Peter Salovey, announced an Africa Initiative while delivering his inaugural address, and a central part of that initiative concerns the promotion of women in leadership positions. It is in that regard that ten women leaders (ministers, parliamentarians and other civic leaders) from five African countries (Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Morocco and Nigeria) were invited to Yale University to participate in a week-long programme tagged “Leadership, Governance and Globalisation Forum for Strategic Impact”. This was done in partnership with the Women for Africa Foundation, established by the former Deputy Prime Minister of Spain, Mrs. Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega, and with the financial support of Banco Santander. The objectives were for them to reflect together on the latest global issues confronting the world, develop a grand strategy for elevating the status of women around the world, and to hone their own leadership skills and determine effective ways to sustain themselves in their leadership roles.
One is tempted to wonder at the resistance that societies around the world, developing and developed alike, have manifested regarding the status of women in general and their acceptance as credible partners in leadership in particular. While advances have been made in the sphere of education, for example, this has not translated into parity for women in many other areas, especially that of political leadership. Professor Elizabeth Bradley, coordinator of the African Women’s Forum and Director of the Yale Global Health Leadership Institute, gave the following summary in her article published in the Huffington Post:
Look around a college classroom today and many of the faces you see will be female. Globally, women now outnumber men in universities. But women’s achievements in the classroom have not translated into gains in boardrooms, C-suites or government offices. Women make up less than 5 per cent of Fortune 500 CEOs and less than 20 per cent of board members. With women holding less than 20 per cent of congressional seats, the U.S. ranks 72nd in representation of women in congress or parliaments, placing it behind Kenya, Pakistan and Eritrea.
Nigeria, of course, still has a very long way to go, with just about seven per cent representation at our National Assembly. Furthermore, an important challenge on the part of the public arises from the fact that some of the women who have occupied leadership positions have been embroiled in scandals, just like their male counterparts, so that people then wonder what difference women in government make, after all. However, it is important to bear in mind that appointments have often been based not on considerations of merit. It is hoped that the incoming administration will make a clear departure with this untoward practice and appoint into positions of leadership individuals with integrity and who have the competence required to perform the duties with which they will be charged.
There is no doubt that age-old cultural and traditional practices which have kept women down will be difficult to overcome. Some men will equally imagine that women acceding to leadership positions will be achieved at their own expense, and it will cause a certain amount of resistance. However, this need not be the case. When viewed in terms of the total well-being of society, it should be clear that a bird which attempts to fly with only one of its wings will not go very far. Women have specific abilities, often quite different from men’s, which ought to be contributed for the development of their societies. It is said, for example, that Japan pays dearly for keeping half of its population from participating in running its affairs at the highest levels – among the more developed countries of the world it suffers lower productivity and lack of competitiveness. It simply does not make sense for any nation which aspires toward development to confine half of its population to the backyard.
More importantly, however, women themselves must begin to see their participation in their nations’ affairs as their duty, as a responsibility they cannot continue to shirk. They owe it to themselves and to their children to make their contribution in building societies that are stable, secure and prosperous. Just as they play their part in seeing to the well-being of their families, so must they do for the larger society as well.
