Things We Should Unlearn, Learn and Relearn about Women

Lakachew

As we investigate the mystery of nature, it depends up on polarity. It is impossible to think of existence denying opposites of polarity .There would have not been light if there was no darkness, south is impossible without north, happiness is meaningless if we have no experience of sadness and grievance. In precise terms it is a must to cognize that nature malfunctions if we have not balanced attitude between men and women. Thus it is important to understand the fact that life energy involves men and women equal contribution

In spite of the fact that women contributed a lot in producing better world men largely in underdeveloped world have snatched away all sources power from women. The word “power” in this context refers to career, profession, position, leadership, decision making and so on. In a country where men dominate over political socio-economic and psychological aspect of the society, women automatically remain to be victims and limited to exploit their potential and contribute something better in their life time. Under such conditions, too, most often women become incumbent up on hazardous works but with no or less recognition of the society. Moreover, in countries where men dominate everything, negative attitudes towards women are likely to be cemented by social institutions such as religions and cultures , which in turn result in psychological pain and stress upon women.

Howe ever, through the passage of time the world has ushered in a new outlook concerning women. The expansion of modern education has played remarkable role in raising awareness among women and the world as a whole. Of course, there are still lots of challenges to ensure equity of women in political, socio- economic and psychological endeavors. Lots of improvements have been scored   along with challenges widely absorbed in less developed world yet.

Like most African countries with diverse tradition, Ethiopian women have passed through majestically horrible way of life. Girls were subjected to early marriage, genital mutilation, deprived of economic and political participation. Thus the challenge was not easy despite several efforts underway to overcome the situation.

With the massive efforts made in recent years with the involvement of leaders, religious leaders, stake holders and all citizens to bring about attitude change, considerable changes have been observed in Ethiopia particularly in urban areas. Most of it, women have become aware of their rights and they have begun to fight for without seeking help from others.

These days it is not uncommon to see women engaged in jobs which were exclusively on the hands of or by social consent reserved for men. Considerable numbers of them are able to represent their people in their local state councils or the federal parliament. In some of the regional states, women have been made to constitute 50% of the local administrative councils. A lot of improvements have also been made to raise the level of their participation in the executive bodies of local administrations. At the federal level, three female senior Ministers were appointed this year.Women are also participating in various positions in institutions like defense force and the police.Generally speaking, the involvement of women to assume power from the lower administrative unit to the highest levelof governance has shown considerable improvement though cannot be said enough yet.

The establishment of women’s associations at all levels is also another glorious achievement made in the country. Because, the associations are currently playing an active role in promoting women causes and more importantly pressuring governments for their rights in a more formal, organized and institutionalized manner.

Concerning economic security, now a day it is common to see women taking part in all types of job, profession and occupation. They are widely observed to participate in from service delivery to the difficult construction machine operating and public bus driving; from waste product handling and coble stone production to managing big businesses and piloting.

On the other hand, theresult registered in reducing mother’s mortality rate is another area worth noting. While most of health extension agents employed at each kebele of the country are women, the general health service they deliver at household level and more importantly the devotion they pay to raise the living standards of women in each community must be applauded.

Another important measure taken by the government of Ethiopia is the emphasis given for accessibility of education for woman. In fact, the massive expansion made to school infrastructure and facilities and the various techniques applied to encourage parents to send their daughters to school across the country has proportionally rose the number of girls’ enrollment. The regular house-to-house searches to find out girls who are not attending schools and convincing their parents to enroll them in schools has all in all become effective to make education accessible to everyone in the country. According to the data obtained from Ministry of Education, the number of students who were attending school in 2016 was over 28,000,000. Moreover, the children’s parents have also been accessed to what is called Integrated Practical Adult Education Program. The number of adults who were attending the program in 2016 was about 6.5 million. All in all girls and women have become beneficiaries of the regular and extension education program.

The federal micro and small scale enterprise has played its part in mainstreaming woman in collaboration with Ministry of Woman and Children Affairs. Incentives and motivation have been adjusted for organized woman engaged in service, manufacturing, construction, urban agriculture and other sectors. Market linkage, provision of shade and display center, loan service, follow-ups is among the program adjusted for woman. For this reason, woman in urban areas have become beneficiaries of the scheme.

In spite of all these, woman in some parts of the country’s urban centers are exposed to various threats. Girls’ utilization of social Medias like face book, Viber, instagram seemed to have reached at its peak. While the technologiesare contributing their parts to make life easier, the abuse made to themappeared to have resulted in negative consequences particularly on young girls The situation paved the way for brokers to lead girls to commercial sex, addiction, human trafficking among others.

The other problem widely observed in cities associated with woman is prostitution. The scope of the problem seemed to have reached its climax in down towns of Addis Ababa, however there have been fewefforts to prevent newcomers or rehabilitate young girls dealing in sex trade. Prostitution is not limited to low income dwellers, it has become the fate of young girls with good economic security as well.

More over human trafficking is another headache for women, elders and the nation as a whole in Ethiopia. Considerable numbers of young women are trafficked and transit through Djibouti to the Arab world expecting wealth while the naked truth is enslavement.

Finally the writer of this article recommends that Ethiopia should bolster the achievements it has gained over the years and strive to tackle the remaining and emerging challenges mentioned above.