08/03/2020
GENERATION EQUALITY.
In commemoration of International Women’s Day 2020, LibraPrime Communications was at the riverine community in Oworonshoki, Lagos State to assess how the people of the community understand gender equality.
It was a house to house engagement which lasted for 3 hours 40 minutes, speaking with 32 women and 11 men. We based our conversations around access to financial services and the place of women in politics and governance.
LACK OF ACCESS TO FINANCE IS BECAUSE THEY DO NOT EXPECT TO REAP WHERE THEY HAVEN’T SOWN
The first thing which struck us was that the people do not believe or think that there is any gender imbalance. For example, when we asked Mrs. Grace Ganiyu if she has ever tried to access a loan from any bank and what her experience was, perplexed, she wondered why she would even approach a bank for a loan at all knowing she doesn’t save money in any bank.
And why is that given the fact that she works as a cleaner in Yaba College of Technology as well as engage in petty trade. She told us she formed a cooperative in the community instead which has helped members meet their needs. She reckons that is better and easier and in her own estimation, the community shares her opinion as well.
Mrs. Funke Babalola, a seamstress on the other hand believes business does not move fast enough for her to dream of accessing any financial service which isn’t a grant. “Why borrow when there is no guarantee of paying back?” she asked us.
In the Koja extended household, Mrs. Hannah Koja operates a mill, sells smoked fish caught from the river and sells fresh peppers and tomatoes. She is unbanked, she said because there is no need to. Living is subsistent. In this household we saw 11 children, the oldest being 10. Even though it was a Saturday we asked how they were doing in school and the shocking response was that none of the children were in school. Parents are hoping that someday, some good Samaritan will come along and help with the fees. Asked what the plan B was for the children’s education, and we got blank stares.
WOMEN CAN ACHIEVE WHATEVER THEY SET OUT TO ACHIEVE
The Koja men were tailors and fishermen. We met the tailors in their workstation after we moved from the family compound. Sunday and Tamin Koja said as far as they know, women in their community had always experienced some equality with men. As far as Tamil was concerned there is nothing a woman sets her heart to do that she cannot successfully achieve.
WOMEN GET LESSER PAY THAN MEN.
When we asked this question of the women and men we engaged, it was obvious they could not comprehend it. If a woman does the same job as a man they should be paid equally. There is no reason why one is paid higher for delivering same value.
This sentiment is an echo of the opinion of ‘Iya Grace’ who said the community was built by men and women. There were many women in the community who did everything men did including raising their children and building their own houses.
IS THERE EQUALITY IN THE WORLD THEREFORE?
Mrs. Aiyebogbon believes inequality exists. But her experience is that of class difference and not gender. She said she was more affected by the inequality which subjects everyone to same market prices and economic conditions even though fingers were not equal. She said the rich were naturally at an advantageous position to send their children to better schools than the children of the poor which places the former ahead of the latter regardless of gender.
IS THE FACT THAT THERE ARE FEWER WOMEN THAN MEN IN ELECTIVE OFFICES NOT A SIGN OF INEQUALITY?
Our participants agreed that political decisions had very strong impact on the economy. Asked what they thought was responsible for male domination in politics, they attributed it to the lack of strong influence of women in their party politics. In the words of Kehinde Adeyemi, the entire populace has the duty to vote for candidates. And surely if political parties present female candidates, definitely, the men in her community would vote for a female into executive position. Sunday Koja confidently said the men in the community would not discriminate at the polls on gender basis. However, candidates need more than gender as a credential. Omolabake Akerele wondered why women in political system could not be more strategic to lobby for more female candidates for various offices.
Taiwo Koja poignantly pointed out that we were ahead of the reality of her community in our mission. Her twin Kehinde Koja built on that statement by quipping “what you are asking cannot exist here. Men and women just want to survive and we all do same things and get paid to support our families”. Indeed, according to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, what members of the community see as pressing concerns are potable water, better economic opportunities to afford education for their children, clean environment, and affordable healthcare. This perspective tallies with that of Mr. Segun Kolawole who was the first person we engaged with on arrival. As far as he was concerned, development knew no gender afterall in his words “hunger knew no man or woman”.
REALITY INFORMS EXPERIENCE
The outcome of our community engagement starkly differs from the result of the online survey conducted by LibraPrime Communications. Of 137 respondents comprising 59.3% female and 40.7% male, there is considerably high awareness on gender based pay disparity with a total of 66.6% of respondents who said they were aware against the 22.2% who said they couldn’t be bothered by the reality. 11.2% were not aware that women earned lesser than men on same job.
Interestingly, 15 people or 11.1% of respondents said they disagree it was unfair for women to earn less than their male counterparts while another 11.1% simply shrugged the reality off. 77.7% consider a discriminatory pay practice unfair.
Asked if government should enact laws that criminalise discriminatory pay policy in private employment, 92.6% agree while 7.4% are unsure if there’s any need for that.
The following recommendations were made by respondents to change this trend;
- Policy on equality at workplace should be made and implemented;
- Women should acquire more technical skills
- Enshrine Justice and fairness, as well as enact enabling laws
- Government should put in place a policy to address the issue of unequal pay
-Both gender should be given equal access to discharge their duties and women should be allowed to aspire to reach the peak of their career without being slut-shamed.
-Women should have equal education opportunity with men.
- Laws should be enacted for equality of men and women at the workplace.
Etc.
Over 60% of the recommendations center on asking government to make laws which criminalise discriminatory wages.
CONCLUSION
Although we had set out to Oworonshoki on Saturday to translate the online survey to community engagement, the focus and tone of discussion shifted based on the reality on ground.
What was consistent however is that both outcomes set the tone for further engagements with change makers and policy makers on the overall theme of this year’s IWD which is and to pursue a generation of equality transcending gender to reducing socioeconomic inequalities based on social stratification to the minimum.
It is achievable. It is doable.
Happy International Women’s Day.
Petra Akinti Onyegbule
LibraPrime Communications.
Photos: Dewunmi Lagos
