WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP

Sometime back a friend of mine pointed out that one of Kenya's blue chip corporate entities does not have a female in its Board of Directors. I thought about this again when they started this women in leadership debate in Kenya a week or so ago.

For starters, in a country where the population of women is higher than that of men; it is just silly to argue that there aren't enough women to take up posts. Also, while the same constitution calls for free and fair elections hence arguing that everyone who wants a post should vie for it,kenyans please, open the can and smell the coffee...this is still a patriarchal society...and in a society where men rule...there is no way that they will prepare a level playing field for women to actively campaign and vie for posts. Should i go into the names that our current women in parliament have been called in that law-making house to belabor the point? Or the way they are treated?
And before you go into that rant of "anyone getting into politics needs to have nerves of steel" speech, think about it...what nerves of steel did some of our current male politicians have to enter into parliament? For most of them, they were men first...the rest followed.

Back to the blue chip firm with no women in their BOD. As we discussed the sheer shame of it all, one of my gals pointed out that its never going to be easy to find a woman in a BOD of such a firm...and its simply because she has another role to play at home..wife, mother. While the man can stay at work till midnight making his way up to the big boardroom, the woman has to think about dinner, homework and the uniforms the kids will wear the next day...not the guy...doing the graveyard shift will earn him a pat in the back...
Remember the patriarchal society i mentioned earlier? which dude is going to sit home till midnight waiting for his wife whose working and trying to make it to the BOD? No, honestly...hands up? I thought so. A lot of women sit on their potential to be madam president because of a dude whose ego could not allow him to support his wife. Borrow a leaf from Obama guys..for the longest time its Michelle who brought home the bacon...he never died because of it. I wish sometimes that guys could walk a mile in our shoes...maybe be women for a day...

I know i keep getting back to this point...i know its 2011 but its still happening...the partiarchal society thing...parents putting more emphasis on their sons education and future than their daughters..FGM..early marriages...etc. Even for those girls who do get an education..try selling the idea of wanting to be a politician or a manager..try even telling them u want to be an entrepreneur...what did dad and mom say?

For me its not so much the numbers..its just that women do not have an equal chance to do it...women leaders are there..in plenty..i remember them in SONU during the campus years..you see them in civil society and parliament...some are even in high school...give them a chance to blossom; and anyway...we have had men leading this country for 40+ years...what change has come to Kenya? Just think about how efficiently your mum runs the home...always on top of everything...imagine translating that (with the necessary added experience) to our fondly called "National Cake"?

I rest my case.