Women are trying too hard to be like men

By Laura Walubengo

Let me start by affirming that a lot of struggle and sleepless nights have gone towards ensuring that women are empowered.

Human rights activists who fought for legislation that facilitated an end to FGM and saw the introduction of the domestic violence bill can attest to that struggle and because injustices continue, they cannot afford to stop fighting.

The lengthy abortion debate and growing number of women MPs and ministers are also testament to the fact that a lot is being done to promote women’s rights.

I mean, even in Turkana, it is no longer an oddity to see girls in school uniform! But while all this is very encouraging, women need to be very careful that their actions do not negate this good work.

There was a poll carried out recently and the outcome showed that fewer women would vote in a female presidential candidate, or female leader for that matter.

Apparently, the study revealed that women had less faith in women leaders. If you look closely, you will remember that this is a very different sentiment to the time when Charity Ngilu was vying for president.

In those days, many Kenyans had faith that a woman leader would make a difference because the men were too greedy, insensitive and had no need for anything other than power play.

Unfortunately, as it stands now, females are not too far behind.

Women are trying too hard to be like men. The empowerment that started with the phrase “anything that he can do I can do better” seems to be taking an odd turn.

The same kind of ‘oppression’ that we (as women) were running away from in the days of ago, is the exact same kind of oppression we mete out, as women, to the men who now serve under us. Have we lost the plot?

Little boys are getting abused by older women, men are being beaten by their wives, female MPs are party to pointless political rhetoric and the fight for women’s rights begins to lose direction.

Let us remember as women, to emulate only the good qualities we see in men and work to correct the negative. It is similar to the role we have in our homes.

Today, on International Women’s Day, I would like to challenge all women who hold any position of power to make good use of it and not forget why they worked twice as hard for it in the first place.

Capital FM