Governments at all levels have been tasked on the need to put necessary laws in place in order to guarantee the rights of women for societal growth and development.
The call was made during a one-day brainstorming session titled, ‘Stakeholders’ engagement on economic justice for women in Akinyele and Lagelu local government areas of Oyo State,’ organised by Women Safe House Sustenance Initiative.
The programme, sponsored by Urgent Action Fund Africa, held recently at the Otunba Subomi Balogun Hall, University of Ibadan Conference Centre, Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, had women and men from the two council areas in attendance.
The forum, which highlighted the plights of women in the society amid the debilitating economic hardship in the land, urged the three arms of government to evolve policies that would recognize the position of women and give them the right to work and be financially independent.
Mrs. Omobolanle Adedeji, Programme Manager, Shield of Women’s Foundation, noted that some men disallowed their wives from having economic freedom for several reasons. She said that “It is a combination of many factors; sometimes it is distrust, sometimes it is just cultural or religious beliefs. To tackle this problem, I believe in awareness and sensitization.
“Women first need to know that they have the right to earn income. They first need to understand the fact that the country’s law allows them to work or earn their own income. I can suggest that perhaps we should have a law that penalizes whoever prevents either a man or a woman from working, especially females from earning income because of personal and religious beliefs or personal insecurity or biases.
“I believe that the participants have been able to pick one or two things and they would be able to go back to their communities and lead others to where they can get help.”
Mrs. Omowumi Okedare, a Volunteer Programme Facilitator with Women Safe House, said, “The structure of our society is patriarchal where men are believed to be the ones to be seen while women are not to be seen. This has contributed to men telling their wives not to work. There is also the mindset that if a woman works, she wants to take the role as the head which is wrong.”
Okedare, who is also a doctoral student from University of Ibadan, Faculty of Public Health, stated that “When a woman is working and earning an income, it is for the betterment of the husband because a man cannot do 100per cent in the current economy in Nigeria. If a woman works, the little she does would ease the man’s trouble. A man that stops his wife from working is depriving himself of the benefit. Whether she is allowed to work or not, a woman who would be insubordinate would still be.
“As a man, encourage your wife to work no matter how little. If she brings home N10 everyday, that is N70 in a week. That N70 is off your trouble. Also, when a man denies his wife the opportunity to work, he is cheating the government because if a woman is working she would pay tax. Tax is what the government uses to run the economy, so any man who does not allow the wife to work is actually an enemy of the government. So, government should look at it from that angle so that they can play their roles effectively.”
Wuraoluwa Ayodele-George, a lawyer and Founder /CEO of Women Safe House Initiative, explained that the aim of the programme, funded by Urgent Action Fund Africa, was to advance economic justice for women in Oyo State.
Ayodele-George said that “We are deploying this programme in Oyo State to look at issues surrounding economic justice for women in Akinyele and Lagelu local government areas with reference to issues of favourable environment for work, to encourage women’s businesses.
“We have been doing advocacy around this in the past six months. Today, we brought stakeholders to have conversations on how we can create policies in our local environment on the issue. We keep engaging people on policy creation which we would put into policy brief that we can use to engage the government.”
Participants at the programme described it as eye-opening and beneficial.
