Thursday, 24 September | Sainey Darboe
Amid greater advocacy for women’s rights which has led to the toppling of notable male captains of industry around the world amid conspiracy theories of the existence of an anti-male cabal, The Sisters Show has declared feminism in its purest form doesn’t denigrate men.
Leading the charge in a heated debate over the weekend, Olay Ceesay who is a host on the controversial show which seeks to inspire people of African descent, especially women, clarified:
“I think there’s a lot of misconceptions about feminism and that’s definitely what feminism is not about. Feminism is not about women bashing men or hating men. I have seen in different areas people saying ‘oh women that are not married are the ones that are feminists, they hate men’ or feminism is a form of male bashing strategy or technique.
It’s pretty much saying we want equal rights, equal opportunity, equal access, equal pay. It doesn’t in any way, shape or form say we want to take men out of power”.
Olay who works as vice president and chief of staff in a Fortune 500 company in the U.S, enunciated while its important to win back power for women in terms of decision making, feminism should be an informed process that should have men as partners in accomplishing a worthy goal.
Helena Ngaifiwa, a guest on the show from Namibia holds a more hawkish, nuanced view,riposting:
“Women have been made to feel that there is a certain place for them in society and that’s the only place where they are. But women are saying that we are so much more and we can excel in so much more. We wanna excel in so much more and we wanna be given that opportunity. And that’s what we want the rest of the world to know”.
While cognizant of the plight of women, Dr. Jay Ceesay assessed it’s been mostly educated women with education and exposure to the West that more often than not embrace the feminist cause.
For the women in remote communities in Africa, she added, there is no recognition they are being treated less than they deserve because that’s what they have known throughout their lives.
“The people who are more into the feminism are mostly the ones that are educated, the ones that have been exposed to the West. If you go deep into the villages you still have women that are deeply rooted into their own culture, their old ways of doing things. And this is really difficult to eradicate because you’re trying to fight a battle where the person doesn’t really wanna go to war. The person believes that everything that’s going on is so perfect for them it’s what’s actually making them be a woman and you are coming to them, telling them for them to change their ways,to change their belief”.