Deepening desire for parity
On May 26, nurse Emmie Chanika does not just celebrate sharing a birthday with veteran gender activist Vera Chirwa, a lawyer once detained along with her deceased husband Orton Chirwa on accusations of treason.
Chanika—who founded Malawi’s Civil Liberties Committee (Cilic) a year before the country’s shift from Kamuzu’s 31-year dictatorship to multiparty politics in 1993—also rejoices in seeing her dream for gender equality and women empowerment take root in a society that once ridiculed her for safeguarding widows and orphans from property grabbing.
“Our quest to break the silence made activists a laughing stock. During the transition period, people were calling us prostitutes, confusionists and anything they wanted,” recalls Chanika, whose organisation has almost folded up after six years of no funding.
The lamented derision reflects a male-dominated nation that only passed a Prevention of Domestic Violence Act after Dowa resident Marietta Samuel had her arms chopped by her husband Herbert Mankhwala in 2005.
However, Chanika, thankful for attending school while many girls were dropping out and marrying early because many parents thought education was meant exclusively for boys, says Joyce Banda’s ascendency to presidency last year was a big leap towards achieving gender parity.
“When I ventured into gender activism, dreaming that a woman would rise and rule this country was as inconceivable as thinking that founding leader Kamuzu Banda, whom we had grown up knowing as the life president, would leave the seat,” she explains.
Joyce Banda was promoted to the presidency after the death of Bingu wa Mutharika, who, along with the civil society, trumpeted as a “breakthrough in the battle for women’s empowerment” her appointment as his running mate ahead of 2009 polls.
Still, the overbearing perception of women as lesser beings was widespread when Banda fell out of favour with Mutharika’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) with regional governor Noel Masangwi saying: “Malawi is not ready for a female president”.
With the bigoted verdict spectacularly discredited, the country enacted Gender Equality Act in February this year.
Now, it faces the task to further eradicate disparities by increasing the number of women in key decision-making positions.
President Banda usually cites gender parity, women empowerment and uplifting of women’s rights as prerequisites to poverty reduction and sustainable development.
Since her enthronement, government has launched a haul of documents—including Acceleration Framework and Country Action Plan to speed up the attainment of gender equality and women empowerment in line with Millennium Development Goal number three as well as the White Paper for strengthening the national gender machinery—which provide a road map for the country to move even faster in its strides towards the desired parity.
Like the gender equality law, the thickening paperwork is nothing without the action they stipulate.
Last month, President Banda told Parliament that she has promoted more than 100 women to decision-making positions. These include nine ministers and deputy ministers, Chief Secretary to Government Hawa Ndilowe, the Acting Chief Justice Anastasia Msosa, two deputy Reserve Bank governors, the solicitor general, the deputy police inspector general and 18 principal secretaries.
The appointments may testify to the leader’s commitment and political will to achieve the gender balance stipulated by the country’s Constitution, Sadc Gender Protocol and other instruments. However, electoral results show adult population’s lingering apathy towards electing women into decision-making position.
In 2009, intensified senstisation, code-named 50:50 campaign, only managed to ensure that women constitute 22 percent of those elected to the 193 Parliament.
In view of next year’s tripartite elections, the President says her government will intensify activities to increase participation of women in politics by raising their representation in Parliament to the preferred 50 percent.
Chanika says the country is still struggling to entrust women with power 20 years after the restoration of democracy.
She said: “It’s gratifying that we have a female president, but sad that most Malawians still analyse women as women, not human beings. This is why we hear things as boma la amayi [a woman’s rule] or ng’ombe sikoka ngolo (a cow cannot pull an ox-cart).
“Elsewhere, one would be arrested and prosecuted for insulting the modesty of women and profiling people according to sex, race or tribe. But this is Malawi, where more and more people now know the evils of property grabbing, but some continue depriving widows and orphans in full view of law enforcers.”
Her impression reflects what activist Jessie Kabwila said at the launch of United Democratic Front (UDF) Jubilee Movement this month: It is 50 years since independence, but there is need for change of mindset to bridge gender gaps.
The country must build on increasing awareness to ensure gender equality flourishes beyond the golden jubilee of Malawi’s nationhood.
