Think equal, build smart, innovate for change – International Women’s Day 2019

Every single year without fail International Women’s Day wells up emotions of joy and gladness – an overwhelming sense of celebration, bolstered with joy and triumph.

The theme of this year’s International Women’s Day – think equal, build smart, innovate for change – is uniquely fitting and especial.  Calling for us all to think equal individually, as a corporation, a government, a nation in all spheres of life, we are reminded of the need to confer socially and legally equal status to men and women.  When we think equal, we build smart.  As we build smarter institutions, smarter societies, and smarter nations.  When we recognise the humanity, capability and ability in men and women we give room for the advancement of our world

Over the past few decades, I have come to appreciate the diverse challenges women face, and have overcome, as well as the struggles of agency much more.  In so many cultures women have limited agency.  But yet many women have determined that despite having less agency they will, they must, pursue that honourable personal, professional and societal change that disrupts gender stereotypes of all forms.  Many pursue these in the business sector, in medicine, in politics, in science and technology, in the creative arts – the list goes on – and they do so in peace and quiet courage.

Others, regrettably, have to pursue these in the presence of fear and danger.  Whether in quiet peace or in the presence of danger, pioneering women have pursued their ideals, the change they want, and their personal aspirations relentlessly – very often positively impacting society, despite the fact thatno one in their family, no one in their sector or industry, may have ever done something like that before.

In the process, they liberate many tens, hundreds and thousands of other women to advocate for the voice of women, go where women have not dared previously to go, and or to pursue their own personal aspirations and ambitions despite the odds.

It wasn’t so long ago that women were legally prohibited from enjoying what are in essence universal basic rights.  In the UK, where I grew up, whilst a lot has changed in the past 100 years, it wasn’t so long ago that women couldn’t open a bank account or apply for a loan in their own name.  It wasn’t so long ago that women could not vote.  It wasn’t so long ago that women could not work in the legal profession or in the civil service.  It wasn’t so long ago that women could not inherit or bequeath property on the same terms as men, and it was not so long ago that women could not legally claim equal pay for doing the same work as men.  Yes, a lot has changed around the world in the last 100 years, but we know that even today the gender pay gap (i.e. the difference between what men and women are paid for the same or similar jobs) is still prevalent in many countries across the globe.

But for the triumphs of women, those that we enjoy today, other women fought.  Other women gathered the courage to speak up, the courage the take the risk of being the misnomer that dared to ask for respect, recognition, and equality. And that is one of the many reasons we celebrate International Women’s Day – how far we have fought for diversity and inclusion, and what we have achieved in diversity and inclusion.

The plight of women in business is of especial interest to me.   The decision to focus on supporting especially  women entrepreneurs with business and executive coaching a few years ago was one borne out of fear.  I was terrified at the thought that lack of access – whether that be to finance, professional know-how or even lack of self-belief – would deprive women of the opportunity and ability to compete competitively in an arena where they were talented and capable, but yet the prevailing infrastructure and their gender inadvertently or ever so subtly precluded them from competing at all or successfully competing.  In the long term it would be society in fact who would lose out – and that we should not allow.

I want to particularly celebrate social innovators this day, and especially celebrate all the female climate-smart entrepreneurs and the women innovators in our community – from those generating electricity from solar power for rural communities in Ghana, to those building climate-smart cattle ranches, to those ensuring that less trees are cut down to make firewood by using biomass to make smokeless, green fuel charcoal briquettes. Theirs is a sample of much needed innovations and ingenuity that surrounds us – much needed innovation that if we continue to deploy gender stereotypes and impede women from participating in all spheres of life, society loses out or delays much needed economic and social advancement through all forms of social barriers

International women’s day is for all of us to celebrate.  Men and women.  It’s a day for humanity.

Ruka Sanusi is the Executive Director of the Ghana Climate Innovation Centre (GCIC), a pioneering green economy business incubator housed at Ashesi University, funded through a grant from the World Bank.  Ruka is also the Founder and Principal of AlldensLane, a boutique consulting firm focused on providing advisory and coaching services to women-led businesses across Africa.

Source: myjoyonline.com



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