On leadership, feminism and gender equality

We sat down with Patience Poni Ayikoru, a young female leader and the Guild Speaker at Uganda Christian University to talk about leadership, feminism, and gender equality.

First off, who is Patience Poni Ayikoru?

Patience Poni Ayikoru is a final year student of Law at Uganda Christian University. She proudly hails from Koboko District in West Nile region of Uganda. Patience is passionate about leadership and has been a participant in many leadership spaces. She is also a champion of women and girls’ rights and access to equal opportunities and resources that they very well deserve.

Many have faulted young people for their disinterest in nation-building let alone any civic affairs. As a young person who is deeply invested in leadership, is this a right indictment?

I’d say yes and no.

No, to a greater extent because many youth are actually willing to participate in civic space. However, the conditions and circumstances that surround the opportunities to their engagement in civic space is shrinking. Most youth have often shown interest in nation-building by coming up with new technologies, engaging in political and non-political spaces, and passionately doing so; however, the platforms are not independently theirs as youth. Many spaces are populated by older people for example workplaces and the youth end up toiling around.

Even on some platforms for engagement on youth ideologies; sometimes the panels are filled with so many older people. Lastly, the cost of engaging in politics and the bureaucracy at the Electoral processes most times deprive youth of their ability to yield their potential.

Participating at the 2020 Transformational Leadership Training by Action Aid and Global Platform Uganda at Rose Villa Hotel in Arua

Would it be safe to say then that the civil uprisings we have witnessed across the continent in recent times are a result of the shrinking space for political engagement of the youth? A case in point was the #EndSars movement in Nigeria which threatened to end Buhari’s reign or the more recent upheavals in South Africa to mention but a few?

Partly it would be safe to say. These civil uprisings have been there before and sometimes not as a result of youths' shrinking space for political engagement.

Political freedoms are not a luxury in a democratic state; they are a necessity. A democratic society cannot be built or preserved if freedom of assembly and freedom of association are not guaranteed, encouraged and respected. Freedom of assembly and freedom of association are key building blocks of democratic security.

Some of these uprisings have been a result of the checks on democracy across the globe.

Talking about democracy which plainly put would be 'rule by the people'. In other words, people decide how they are governed. As a young female leader, what are some of the systemic challenges you have noticed stifle female participation in leadership?

The challenges that women face are numerous. For starters, there is a feminization of poverty in developing countries. Women face the disproportionate burden of poverty, hunger, illiteracy, and lack of access to essential services including shelter, water, sanitation, health, and energy which are most inclined towards women. And it’s even worse for those in the rural areas as they lack collateral security to back their access to financial aid or to own property which in turn would elevate their participation in leadership. Somewhat all these circumstances and challenges work alongside each other and stifle women’s ability to take up leadership positions easily.

Although women's contribution to economic growth and development of countries - both developed and developing - is substantial, the majority of women are in vulnerable jobs and gender wage gaps are still large. Across all regions and sectors, women are paid between 10 and 30 percent less than men. They constitute two-thirds of the world's illiterates and continue to be discriminated against in their access to education. Gender-based discrimination is further compounded by disability, race, and ethnicity. All these drastically stifle their participation in leadership.

In many countries including democracies, women's voice, participation, and leadership in all areas is stifled under the burden of social, cultural, religious taboos and prejudices, and societal stereotypes against their participation. A clear description of this is in Dr. Sylvia Tamale’s book When the Hen Begins to Crow.

So far, only 28 countries have achieved or surpassed the 30 percent critical mass for women's representation in parliament and in other political and governance forums. Women are Heads of State and Government in only 21 countries, despite the strong case that their leadership makes for more inclusive decision-making and more representative governance.

What ought to be done to redress this?

Having programs on leadership and participation guided by a history of international commitments to women’s representation. The UN Women I saw has always been at this; pushing hard and with emphasis on The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women upholds women’s right to participate in public life, while the Beijing Platform for Action calls for removing barriers to equal participation.

Another way is to provide training for women political candidates to help build their capacities and offer voter and civic education and sensitization campaigns on gender equality as well as backing gender equality advocates in calling on political parties, governments, and others to do their part in empowering women.

Other initiatives should encourage young men and women to engage in advocacy around making gender equality measures central to public policymaking.

Additionally advocating for legislative and constitutional reforms to ensure women’s fair access to political spheres—as voters, candidates, elected officials, and civil service members and working with communities to challenge and change attitudes towards women.

These redresses are not new in the face of Generation Equality however it is important to emphasize them and put to action most of them not only in urban areas but also in the rural areas. And this can be easier by collaborating with various civil society organizations and governments.

In Uganda, I have seen most recently the Forum for Women in Democracy conducting training to newly elected Women Members of Parliament on the same and Akina Mama Wa Afrika and the UN Women collaboratively empowering younger women in leadership.

Let’s talk about feminism for a bit. If there’s any philosophy - if I can term it that way - which has drawn as much heat to itself in the recent past, this must be it. To begin with, what exactly is feminism?

Feminism is the belief in full access to social, economic, and political equality for women. Feminism largely arose as a movement in response to Western traditions that restricted the rights of women, and there are a number of feminist ideologies that fall under its school of thought like liberal, radical, African, black feminist perspectives. All in a bid to achieve the aim of equal access to opportunities in the social, political, and economic sectors for women.

Briefly tell us about the key tenets of African feminism and distinctions from its parent ideology?

African feminism is a type of feminism innovated by African women that specifically addresses the conditions and needs of continental African women and strives to create a new, liberal, productive, and self-reliant African woman within the heterogeneous cultures of Africa.

Feminism in Africa, ultimately, aims at modifying culture as it affects women in different societies.

Generally, Western feminists disagree with the view that men are equally oppressed under patriarchy, while African feminists agree that men are similarly oppressed and that gender equality means oppression of neither gender.

African feminism set off in the early twentieth century with women like Adelaide Casely-Hayford, the Sierra Leonian women’s rights activist referred to as the “African Victorian Feminist” who contributed widely to both pan-African and feminist goals, and Charlotte Maxeke who in 1918 founded the Bantu Women’s League in South Africa and Huda Sharaawi who in 1923 established the Egyptian Feminist Union.

By all measures, feminism seems to be hinged upon a pertinent and moral foundation - upholding of women’s rights - which for all intents, is a worthy cause. However, there’s been a breed of feminists that have incessantly made vehement attacks not on patriarchy as a system but menfolk as if saying that the raison d’être of feminism is to pit men against women. Do we want to say the gospel of feminism has been lost in translation?

Feminist male-bashing has come to sound like a cliche — a misogynist caricature. Feminism like I described is about fighting for equality. The man-hating label is either a smear or a misunderstanding.

I know, a lot of feminist rhetoric today does cross the line from attacks on sexism into attacks on men, with a strong focus on personal behavior: the way they talk, the way they approach relationships, even the way they sit on public transit. Male faults are stated as sweeping condemnations; objecting to such generalizations is taken as a sign of complicity. Meanwhile, similar indictments of women would be considered grossly misogynistic.

This gender lashing does nothing to advance the unfinished business of equality. If anything, the fixation on men behaving badly is a distraction from more fundamental issues, such as changes in the workplace to promote work-life balance, fronting laws that protect women’s dignity, and our equal access to opportunities and resources.

What’s more, male-bashing not only sours many men — and quite a few women — on feminism. It often drives them into Internet subcultures where critiques of feminism mix with hostility toward women.

Fair enough, finally, if you had one opportunity to say something to the powers that be, what would that be?

I choose to say those in authority either political or in hierarchy as in various societies and organizations because power sounds so hyped negatively.

To those in these leadership positions, I want you to know that the relevance of all you do is not in the positions held, but the impact on the people you serve. The impact emanated from your servanthood leadership. Leaders need to adopt humility and understand that to truly choose to love is a heroic act. You should be conscious of power in society and the way it operates.

Thank you for choosing to speak to us!