GENDER EQUALITY; A NEEDLESS AGITATION

When a topic such as gender equality is raised, the question a lot of people ask is, can women be equal to men?

There have been several tussles as regard passing the bill into law in Nigeria, the most populated black nation. However, a lot of folks do not understand what Gender Equality entails.

What is Gender Equality?

Gender is the classification of sexes, while equality means being equal, in a nutshell; it means equal rights for the sexes.

The Feminists argues it is equity and that takes us to the meaning of equity, which according to Oxford Dictionary is:

1. Fairness.

2. Principles of justice used to correct or supplement the law.

3. A value of the shares issued by a company. b (in pl.) stocks and shares not bearing fixed interest. [Latin aequitas: related to *equal].

In all of the above definitions of equity, we can only pick the first two, which is fairness and principle of justice used to correct or supplement law.

It will therefore mean that the feminists are seeing some unfair treatments of the female gender under the law and want it corrected. If this is true, then what are these unfair treatments?

Anybody that agitates for Gender Equality should therefore be able to point out unfair treatments they want to be corrected.

Before anyone agitate for the right of women to be equal with men, they should check the psychological make-up, physiological  make-up, social responsibilities, religion and the culture, not just the law, because these are things that must have been put into consideration before the enactments of the law, which are now seen as unfair to the female gender.

Some time ago, one of my female Facebook friends raised the topic and got several backlash from a section of guys, who asked her the above questions.

Most of them went back to their scriptures to support their claims, they believe women are just helpers to men and not equals.

These guys might be right, both the Bible and the Quran made the positions of women very clear.

They are seen as helpers of men. But does that make them inferior to men?

Can a helper be equal to the person she helps or even be superior?

I also questioned payment of dowry; a cultural practice as one of the reasons why men will never see women as their equals. No man will pay his hard earned money to marry any woman and still want the woman to be seen as equal to him.

Regardless of how you choose to see it, this is embedded in the subconscious of every man and it shows in their dispositions. Dowry is just a packaged name for selling ladies as properties, just as several other commodities and services has a name for money paid to get them.

Psychologically, the ladies tend to be more emotional and only a few of them have the resilience to move on as most men will do in the face of danger. How many ladies go to war?  Most of them melt at seeing pictures of war zones or blood.

Most of them can’t take certain decisions as men will take.

They are easily influenced and changes their minds much too easily.

Physiologically, they are not as strong as men too, there are only few exceptions.

Sometime ago, due to how a lady mishandles power, just as a WhatsApp group administrator, I said I won’t vote women into power. Was that a discrimination against women? NO.

Her decisions are influenced by the owner of the group. She does what he tells her to do, so far it agrees with what she wanted, just like Eve did in the Garden of Eden. She wasn’t able to think it through just like most men will do.

This is a psychological weakness that often differentiates women from men and any man that behaves like that is regarded to as woman, because it is a woman’s thing.

When I hear guys complain of their babes, wives being snatched” I begin to wonder if the lady in question is a Robot and do not know what she wants.

Was she forced? Was she raped? Was she charmed?

If none of these happened and she ended up with the other guy, it tells a lot about women’s inability to make decisions and stand by them.

They get easily convinced; that’s not a fault, it is their psychological makeup and it shows their difference from men.

Having stated all the differences, there is no need to put the blame on the women for wanting to be equal to men in everything, because their uniqueness has been made look like faults by men and obnoxious cultural beliefs.

They are not appreciated; they are seen as the weaker vessels. While the later could be true, making their uniqueness look like faults make them to fight for relevance, in what look like men’s world.

Often times, men undermine the duties of women, calling them common cooks and baby factories; this makes them fight for the place of men.

I think the problem is men’s inability to put themselves in women's shoes.

I believe if God switches the roles and men does the home keeping, and carry babies in their bellies for nine months, they will start respecting the roles of women and stop asking them for more.

Most of the things the women do well are not appreciated and the exceptional thinkers among them believe they should take up men’s roles maybe they will be appreciated. But the question is, can women do all that men does? Are they built for such tasks? Well, there are exceptions.

Some women are now doing what men do, but can they do it the same or even better?

I have seen ladies become presidents of nation, I have seen them fight wrestling, I have seen them in several sports, but if you look at all these, it seems men do them better, but it does not mean they can’t do them too?

Imagine if a lady becomes the president and all the Governments officials are females and they are to go to war with another nation, what do you think will happen? Will they do it better?

Checking the psychological and physiological makeup of both sexes, everything points to the fact that men are made different from women.

Does this difference mean superiority? NO.

The uniqueness of both sexes are important and most fitting for tasks they are designed for, we just need to appreciate them and stop opting for what the other has been designed to do, except our psychological makeup gives room for that exception.

It the Bible, it is written that God created man before woman and made man the head, while the woman is to be the helper, this we say, makes man the natural leader, but we have also in the scripture, how Deborah led a war where men failed.

Did that make God author of confusion or make women natural leaders?

NO! Those are just exceptions and of course they don’t happen all the time.

By making man the head and woman the helper does not make one superior and the other inferior, it is just to prevent anarchy in the family.

God is not the author of confusion.

Taking it back to the family, where it all starts; men are to be the Figure Head Leaders and the women are to submit to their leadership, regardless of the position they hold outside home. This however does not make women inferior to men. They are built to influence the decisions of men and this makes them the ultimate leaders.

The devil knew this and that is why, according to the story of how sin came alive, he didn’t meet Adam, probably because he knew Adam will turn him down immediately, but he went to Eve, knowing she was the only one that can make Adam do his wish.

Now tell me, between Adam and Eve, who is more powerful?

However, certain cultural, traditions and religious believes have reduced women to mere properties without brain, thus, most of them are no longer considered capable of influencing men’s decisions or even making them.

No gender is superior to the other; both are uniquely designed for certain tasks, so no need to fight for gender equality.

All we need to do is to recognize and appreciate the uniqueness of each gender and appreciate them just as much. The exceptions should also be respected for their abilities, not let down because of their gender.

If it is true that the women are unfairly treated, and their uniqueness is devalued, well, I believe certain cultural and religion’s beliefs should be done away with, to bring about the desired change. But with these cultures and beliefs in place, Gender Equality is a dream that can never come true.

Written by Soul’e Rhymez.

This was a discussion on SRAF WhatsApp group, if you’d like to join the group, send “SRAF” to +2348163800077 via WhatsApp.

If you think this article is worth sharing, please kindly share, you are also free to publish on your blogs and websites, without further editing or remover of the writer’s name.