By Theriyeh Koroma
For quite too long this presumption has been hovering about women being more powerful than men. Often, the famous assertion is referenced to make credence for women’s supposed power, while questioning the relevance around the equality call anyway.
As easy as it may sound, arguments are quick to be dismissed with this idealistic construct in efforts to paralyse any iota of belief that women are not as powerful as emphasised.
For ages now, I feel society has been lost in its assumption about women’s unlimited power over the male counterpart by not essentially, objectively setting a score against the existing reality.
Well, apart from the established definition of power to mean the ability to exercise one’s will over others, it also affects more than personal relationships; It shapes larger dynamics like social groups, professional organisations and organisations (Weber 1922).
To start with, are we protected to say women are more powerful in a case where society has not acknowledged that through equal representation? An analysis of Sierra Leone’s gender representation will reveal the statistical imbalance of women and men on leadership frontline.
In these contemporary times, the Sierra Leone Parliament plays host to 17 women members of Parliament of 146 overall representatives. Since the establishment of the said statutory pool, the country has yet struggled to absorb up to 20 female members of Parliament in a row.
This stack reality seems to record a thread in the country’s political pattern for as long as its history goes. However, in the 2018 election period, it was going to get better or at least hit over the normal threshold of less than 20 female representatives therein. This was deemed so in the light of organised and committed efforts by human rights groups to have, though with no vision to typically strong-arm, political parties validate and domesticate a memorandum of understanding, vouching that at least 30 percent of political symbols go to women. The journey to an impressive start was dreamt of to begin! I need not say this expectation was overtly disappointed.
Against this backdrop of time, it is worth noting that in 2017 - under the then President Ernest Bai Koroma-led Government, there occurred a boundary delimitation which gave a cause to territorial splits, especially in the northern part of the country. Two more districts (Karena and Falaba) were added in the concluding total of four regions: North, north-west, south, east. Thus, the rise in parliamentary seats from 124 to 146 (both figures are inclusive of 12 seats reserved for Paramount Chief).
Meanwhile, in percentage progress, if we are to compare current parliament representation with previous ones, we will realise that we have just been head-bumping in the same place with little to show in an era of the highest gender rights groups.
Reminding the state that Law makers are integral to societal functioning is an overstated attempt.
The House of Parliament is a sacred ground that determines the basic welfare of citizens through laws enacted and probably this is the outstanding reason why this article places much emphasis on it.
On health, the inability of women to make decisions about their personal health challenges the assumption of women being more powerful. As much as we have made some progress in reducing the maternal mortality rate from 1,360 deaths per 100,000 live births to 1,165 deaths per 100,000 live births (MIC Survey 2017), the conception space, however, is still not safe, noting the surrounding illegality on abortion practice. In 2015, the Sierra Leone Parliament went as far as enacting same, but the previous government failed to do the women of Sierra Leone justice by accentuating it.
More so, being perpetual victims of gender based violence and social injustice only makes a laugh to say women are practically more powerful. Just in 2018, according to Rainbow Initiative, the state recorded about 2,900 rape cases and in 2019 about 3,870 cases, many of which were either denied justice because of the absence of forensic laboratory to track down evidences of rape or out-of-court settlements. Though human rights activists finally succeeded on rallying parliamentary action to review the Sexual Offences Act of 2012, especially on the minimum sentence term for perpetrators, rape incidents keep happening in steady flow. The first lady’s well-meaning ‘Hands off Our Girls Campaign’, which was launched in 2018, has been considered by many as losing its relevance to existentially threaten the prevalence of the sexual violence in Sierra Leone as the numbers are still high.
Quite recently, a 55 year old woman was reportedly raped in Bonthe in early January - barely three months after the Sexual Offences Act had been reviewed.
At this point, we want to unlearn the idea that women are more powerful when in modern reality they really are not. We have to understand one cannot be considered as powerful if the state fails to assure his or her safety or interest. Therefore, to say there are laws protecting women appears as a faulty speculation, especially when existing structures give way for those very laws to be compromised in line of justice.
Are you still of the belief that women are more powerful than men in Sierra Leone? Well, I hold a strong conviction that we should have a rethink and do the needful of promoting the equal chain as the inequality and discrimination against women are so conspicuous and deepen by day.
At this point, permit me to say Feminism is a call to track tangible progress of equality on social, economic and political platforms of both sexes. Many feminists believe that as the situation is, even a constitutional principle of non-discrimination is not sufficient by itself to ensure women’s de facto equality. There is more to be layered in the process. Time for affirmative action! Not as a mere promise as with the pending 30 percent quota but as a will in full enactment and implementation.
Theriyeh Koroma is an unapologetic Feminist, a communications professional and an awardee of the 100 Most Influential Sierra Leonean Youth Award 2019. She dreams of a society where both men and women have equal rights and opportunities to thrive.
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