Be Bold For Change

The change that will last starts with us.

-         By Evita Joseph Asare

IWD2017

Looking around, I wonder if I am qualified enough but the theme: “Be bold for change” does resonate so strongly with me I cannot resist sharing a thought.

The bold change we seek will not begin from our men, it will begin with us – women. It will not come from the schools, it will come from our homes. Every year we read that the statistics are against the women and truly so.  I have read that only 50 per cent of working age women are represented in the labor force globally, compared to 76 per cent of men. It also says majority of these working women are in the informal economy, subsidizing care and domestic work, and concentrated in lower-paid and lower-skilled jobs.Yet more than a third of women live in poverty in their old age than men.The statistics also says in many households across the world, girls spend double the time in household chores and care activities than boys. And in many cases, this unequal division of labor is at the expense of the girls’ learning, participation in extra-curricular and engagement in civic or community leadership.It is therefore not rocket science that these experience and exposures from the home invariably dictates where and how the girl child will later positioned in national life and what kind of work they will be skilled to do.

CEO of Evita Joseph delivering her speech for #IWD2017

I believe we hear such or similar statistics every year and if we cast our minds back for as long as we can, I am sure we can agree the stats hasn’t changed much – maybe a little bit. And it will not change significantly for many years to come if we do not change the fundamentals. And if the fundamentals are to change, then we, women, have to change. This is because the men we say are relatively more superior to us are raised by us to be more superior to us. The home we say shape women to be less privileged than our men are run by us, not the men. We are in charge, not the men. Therefore this bold change we seek will have to start from us.

To achieve the change we want, the bold steps begin from the home where we rule. This is one place where the statistics are in our favor. Most homes in the world are managed by women. This must mean something. Today, we say the economy, politics, business, corporate and digital space are ruled by men and rightly so because we raised our men that way. We pointed them to their fathers as role models whom we had raised to dominate the world outside our homes. Then we pointed our girls to us, home managers, as their role models and thought them how to raise boys to take up high paid, high skilled jobs whilst they are content with low paid, low skilled jobs. This is the fundamental issue. I therefore submit to all of us women, that if we indeed desire change, then it must start with us and from the home.We have to create a mentality for both the boy and girl child so that there are no places in a child’s environment where they will learn that girls must be less, do more yet have less, and dream smaller than boys.We should create a culture that suggests that if there is so free labor in the corporate and business world for men, then there is no free labor in the home for women.

I was fortunate to be mothered by a man – my brother-in-law(May his soul rest in peace). Ironically, fathers don’t mother like mothers. He ensured I only had my fair share of household responsibilities. He exposed me to the man’s world, the aspirations and ambitions of men and thought me to develop myself whilst at home through reading and learning hard to compete well in school. Invariably I looked up to him. Unknowingly it developed in me the edge to take my place in the so called “man’s world” of today. The little girl in me yearned and continue to yearn to be something more than a wife and a mother. It yearns to be a successful entrepreneur, to dominate the world outside my home, to be a role model to the girl child, to create a home that respects and celebrates my husband, a home that teaches my boys that respecting and giving space to women is part of becoming the best they can and a home that dignifies and challenges girls (if God blesses me with any) that they can be all they wish to be.

WomanRising.Org Celebrates IWD2017

So on a day like this, I boldly pledge myself to play my part in the drive for change. I pledge to be bold in advancing the role of women in leadership through grooming and being a role model to our young girls. I pledge to boldly support initiatives that helps to break the labels and biases against women as being less ambitious outside our homes. I boldly pledge to raise my boys into men who take their fair share of their household responsibilities and respects their women and willing to give them the space they require. Above all, I boldly pledge to continue to develop myself beyond the “home economics” of our time and take my rightful place in “world economics” that is the science, entrepreneurship, technology and public service so I can become a natural role model for today’s girl child.

These steps to reconstruct today’s woman and the new world order will be slow and hard but eventually will yield the results we need. Equality in the workplace will not happen until it is achieved in the home.

I am a bold woman. And I am ready for change.