A society is made up of it’s various components i.e. the people who live, work and interact with each other in a particular environment. The aspiration of every community is to live in harmony, joy and peace. The question then is why should there not be any of these aspirations? Most often it’s because of our inability to appreciate the contributions of the different people within this ecosystem and as such instead of creating an enabling environment for each of us to realize our potential, express our ingenuity and manifest our greatness, we subdue them. This is one of the reasons as to why we will keep advocating for gender equality, justice and fairness.

To understand human behavior is to observe their tendencies and predispositions. From ethnographic and sociological studies it’s been established that individuals relate with others based on their perceived value. Unfortunately, this perceived value is often determined from historical accounts, past experiences and memories which are suited to the circumstances of the past. These perceived value doesn’t put to context potential of the same individual or group of individuals in a different environment or setting with a different set of tools, new forms of knowledge and better comprehension on how to put these to practical use. This leads to biases and prejudices which if not addressed lead to stereotypical deductions that instead of giving room for improvement, focus on maintaining the status quo.

Women empowerment is a priority and a necessity in our societies. In most communities women are considered caregivers and home aides with little chance to advance into the corporate world to pursue meaningful employment. This was manifested in the past when women were not granted an opportunity to pursue education, further down the line with access to education, there were specific set of courses that were suited for women. This is changing and while it’s changing progression to senior level management positions is not easy. Why is this the case? It’s because women are being perceived from a historical notions of what they used to do, what they were good at and leaving it at that. If men could be viewed from the same perspective and be denied an opportunity to progress then we wouldn’t have witnessed all the advancements we are privileged to enjoy today. Imagine a man being limited to hunting and all he could be perceived for being hunting with hand held blunt tools. This would be a form of disgrace but unfortunately, it’s the same thing that the society (we) do to women every single day and expect it to be okay. It’s time to start viewing the world from a different perspective by getting to understand our needs in our different spaces, our potential and aspirations and granting each of us a platform to manifest our true potential.

Reflecting on the theme for International Women’s Day 2021, Choose To Challenge, we are challenged to make a choice and we are glad to have a program that enables us to bridge the barriers, expose & amplify the potential of women and peel the mask off the society to understand and see women for who they really are. Through our #LadiesTalk program, we host women who are leading in different spaces with an aim of inspiring, encouraging and guiding young ladies to be unapologetic in pursuit of their true North. As we do this, we welcome men to join in and learn from women and get to understand their experiences to be able to make the journey less bumpy for the ladies in our lives. As we mark International Women’s Day this week, we will be hosting Kate Kiama the Director of Programs, She’sTheFirst on 10th March 2021 as from 7:30PM EAT where she’ll be talking about Work-Life Balance. You are welcome to join us for this session as we hope to learn together and choose to challenge injustices and double standards against women.

To participate,  register here.