WOMEN AND LEADERSHIP
According
to Rosen Bach and Taylor (1993), Leadership is a process of getting individuals
to co-operate for the success of something which wouldn’t be possible without
the leader’s influence. Lussier and Achua (2007), states that leadership is a
process of mutual influence that between a leader and his followers to achieve
organizational objectives through making changes. Meanwhile, Coffey, Cook and
Hunsaker (1994) start leadership is the capacity to inspire confidence and
support among individuals to achieve organizational goals.
Today
the Female Population National and Global alike have made enormous strides in
leadership, politically, economically, socially and even in the Religious dock.
Women have become a force to be reckoned with as the environment has changed
enabling women to transcend and become leaders in their own right. The change
in the political atmosphere enabled a change in ranks for women; with more
opportunities for women to transgress the Gender normative. Among the
opportunities are; [1]Friendly legislative framework that
provides for affirmative action in the Uganda Constitution of 1995 but also
allows women to contest for leadership positions outside affirmative action
seats— currently Uganda’s 9th Parliament is comprised of 35%
women. A number of other African countries like Rwanda have adopted
affirmative action to increase the number of women in leadership. Despite the controversies
surrounding affirmative action, it has increased the numbers of women in
leadership in countries that have adopted it and also created an environment
that is more accepting of women in leadership. The laws and policies in Uganda have
provided more opportunities for women to run for elective office.
More mentors for women aspiring for
leadership for example, Hon. Rebecca Kadaga the First Female Speaker in Uganda,
more women heading Ministries like Hon Jessica Alupo, who are playing a role in
encouraging more women to run for different offices.
There are more women in leadership.
This is important for women aspiring for leadership because they already have
those whom they can look up to for guidance as they aspire for elective office
and when they get elected. More gender sensitive population that is beginning to
appreciate the positive roles that women are playing in leadership. This has
been enhanced by good female role models in leadership e.g. the Speaker of
Uganda’s 9th Parliament, Executive Director KCCA-Jessica Musisi.
[2]This
has led to milestones in policy such as gender sensitive legislation for
example the Female genital mutilation Act, Domestic violence Act, Uganda Gender
Policy, 2007 that promote gender mainstreaming in all government ministries and
districts local governments are making it mandatory to have women in positions
of leadership, influencing the National
budget to be gender sensitive especially on the issues of health such as the
introduction of Mama Kits to encourage women to give birth in hospitals/ health
centers. The women legislators have also influenced leadership within
parliament committees and 40% of heads of the Parliamentary committees are
women.
Notwithstanding these milestones there are a number of
contagious challenges to the full participation of women in leadership. For
instance, the Political party affiliations which suffocate women’s ability to
comprehensively participate, limited financial resources, low literacy levels,
lack of self confidence in the women to stand for political posts or engage in
public activities due fostered notions of women belonging to the kitchen, and
public being a men’s world, poverty, corruption, media has some gaps in
depiction of women, Apathy towards
politics. This has affected the quality of women particularly in local
councils, limited
civic education thereby denying some citizens an opportunity to gain
information on different candidates, the issues they should look out for when
making their decisions.
[3]Uganda
has made tremendous progress towards gender equality over the last 20 years.
The country has one of the most gender sensitive constitutions in the world,
has many laws and policies in place to address gender imbalances and women’s
empowerment. The challenge remains at the implementation level. Because many
government bureaucrats do not really appreciate gender issues, planners do not
adequately provide for interventions that specifically address women‘s needs in
sector policies, in sector plans and budgets. The result is that the
well-meaning laws and policies largely remain on paper. Government priorities
for post-conflict areas continue to focus on physical infrastructure even as
the dignity and bodily integrity of the woman continues to be violated.
My personal assertions would be to
create a breeding ground for women leaders in all spheres from the political as
fearless decision makers in the Parliament so as to influence the legislative
process; to Economic sphere as Entrepreneurs and Business moguls. The
affirmative action and inclusive policies have been most effective strategy and
broken ground for entry of women into the public sphere, 50/50 representation
on the other hand will be more effective other than 30%; it will not only
ensure numerical representation but representation beyond numbers. There should
be an increase in the dissemination of information to the Population so as to
create a gender sensitive population with less bias towards female engagement
in the public sphere— ignorant minds are breeding grounds for fallacies and
such lead to an infringement of women’s rights, hence education becomes
paramount. There is a necessity to empower women especially economically so as
to provide women with a strong financial base to enable them have power over their
circumstances like political elections, community development, or economic
sphere.
The Budding Nation of Uganda is a
forefront for a women to transcend into Leaders, shall we have such a Change,
will women further transgress the norms or will we have a continuous hold over
women. Leadership is the first step to this needed Change and the female race
is all but ready and willing to take on the Challenge.
[1] Women’s Political
and Civic Participation in Uganda: Opportunities and Challenges to the Full
Realization of Democracy
[2]The African Women's Voice; Taking
African Women's Stories and Concerns to the World
https://loycek.wordpress.com/2013/07/18/making-a-difference-women-and-political-leadership-in-uganda/
[3] WOMEN’S
POLITICAL LEADERSHIP IN EAST AFRICA WITH SPECIFIC REFERENCE TO UGANDA By The
Rt. Hon. Rebecca A. Kadaga (M.P), Speaker of the Parliament of Uganda
