Remove barriers to women success in leadership

The month of March is the month of women. It normally starts on a high note with build up to International Women’s Day.

Almost always, the conversations start before the day and continue after, with events celebrating women. This year we seem to have outdone ourselves.

The events prior to this important day started on a high. There was an investment conference in Homa Bay County that was characterised by pomp and colour, politics and celebration of the G7, the group of women governors who are increasingly redefining county leadership. 

These group of governors has used any available platform, including the investment conference, to lay a marker for working together regardless of political parties.

In the midst of activities in the build up to the IWD, the Graduate School of Media and Communications at Aga Khan University launched a study on the state of women in the media which has elicited very robust conversations.

The findings, which indicate a dearth of women in media leadership and in the headline stories of newspapers and in prime time TV news, raises very germane questions.

Further, the study established that women are only given coverage when they are in national events with a conspicuous lack of coverage of women in women organisation events. In fact, most of the coverage the IWD events received is because they had national stature and top political leaders graced the events.

We must ask ourselves what the IWD means to the mama mboga in Chwele Market in Bungoma, in Awendo in Migori County or Nyikendo village in my native Suna East.

Does each year bring new hope, and do they have anything to celebrate this year?

President William Ruto, in one of the national events celebrating women, was praised by the G7 women leaders for mentorship and supporting their campaigns.

The leaders celebrated both their achievements in politics and the role men have played in their success.

The President, in his recent reconciliatory element, paid a glowing tribute to Charity Ngilu for her trailblazing role in leadership.

Ngilu became the first female presidential candidate in 1997 in what probably paved the way for NAK and Narc to happen in 2002.

While she did not win the race, she inspired a generation of solid women leaders.

You look at Governor Cecily Mbarire’s track record, Governor Anne Waiguru’s work, the undefeatable spirit of Governor Wavinya Ndeti, the inspiring story of Governor Fatuma Achani and the emergence of Governor Gladys Wanga and you realise that  we need to create more spaces and avenues that would regenerate such stoic leaders. These governors are distinguishing themselves and despite the challenges, their successes will advance the gender agenda.

Ruto’s annoucement that going forward the ruling party will gender balance in the presidential ticket is not only welcome but significant.

In Mbarire and Waiguru the ruling party has solid Kenyans who can build on the work of the women leaders before them and serve at the very top leadership positions.

However, it should not be lost on us that women still suffer the consequences of this unconscious frame that we have been socialised into. The frame that creates barriers for women’s advancement at work, socially and politically.

In politics for instance, studies have shown that women candidates are subjected to negative and gendered assessments of their intellectual ability, political expertise and communication skills, often with attacks that are personal.

Therefore the conversation needs to be wider than just having a woman running mate or presidential candidate. We need safe spaces for women and political parties that will provide them with the solid social and economic infrastructure that will allow women and girls anywhere to realise their full potential.

While the pronouncement by the President would make some politicians jittery and probably frustrate potential women leaders who they perceive as threats, it calls for deeper introspection on how we can build within our sociopolitical and economic core a system that would help women and girls realise their full potential.

—The writer is a PhD candidate in political communication