Breaking gender bias

Democracy works, but biases against women remain a major barrier to good governance.

This year’s International Women’s Day theme—#BreakTheBias—creates an opportunity to confront all structural and systematic biases that limit women’s full participation in society.

The March 8 observance honours women’s struggle for equality.

Democracy Works Foundations (DWF), which is headquartered in South Africa, is involved in several projects that contribute towards the building of resilient and inclusive democracies across southern Africa.

The projects include the Southern Africa Political Parties and Dialogue programme being implemented in Malawi, Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho and Zambia. Among other things, the six-nation programme seeks to enhance social inclusion within political parties. Under this programme, DWF has been championing the youth and women manifestoes initiatives in Malawi and Zambia:

Fannie Nthakomwa, the deputy regional director at the non-governmental organisation, provided insights into how the women’s observance aligns with DWF work.

She states: “As DWF, we purposefully initiated programmes that have a key focus on women and youth, realising that you cannot have resilient democracies without the inclusion of these groups.

“Furthermore, we believe that if we provide the spaces for women to participate in public life and empower them in terms of their capacities, then we would have solved the larger part of developmental challenges faced in the region.”

Nthakomwa occupies a senior multi-faceted role at the political think-tank.

She is one of two women who have been recently promoted to leadership positions in the organisation, where three of the five senior positions are occupied by women.

DWF implements various projects and initiatives in eight countries. The remaining two are South Africa and Tanzania.

Nthakomwa serves as part of the senior management team dealing with institutional and organisational matters that span across programme management, human resource, administration, finance as well as organisational growth.

“I also form part of the business development team where I contribute towards the conceptualisation of various projects that we implement,” she states.

Nthakomwa is also responsible for overseeing the management and operation of all country-level programmes within the southern African region for improved programme performance and coherence.

Her role also entails working with politicians from different cultural backgrounds and countries.

She shares some of the challenges balancing the act brings.

She explains: “It is not an easy role, but at the same time, it is exciting and fulfilling as I get to understand the different political systems and ways of doing things politically.

“This exposure has helped me better understand why the women’s agenda is not gaining traction in politics in the region.”

However, the status quo is not just a regional issue, but ingrained within the global community.

This validates the International Women’s Day’s call to “break the bias’.

And she is helping break the barriers.

She narrates: “In my line of work, I get to deal with some political actors who still think that the place of a woman is not in decision making, but rather a supportive role.

“This is in recognition that political actors themselves are coming from a society with these prejudices already entrenched.”

This makes her job tricky.

She explains: “In such situations, it takes one to be sensitive to the different cultural and political backgrounds as well as to be patient and yet assertive as you try to change certain perceptions through the demonstration of your technical expertise and professionalism.

“However, the male counterparts are not subjected to such scrutiny or prejudices.”

Nthakomwa agrees that urgent intervention is required to change the popular misconception of women as secondary citizens.

“The societies we come from have certain expectations as to what and how a woman should behave or conduct herself. This creates extra pressure on women— be it professional, business or politics, expected to deliver just like their male counterparts but have additional responsibilities to take care of once they step out of public life.

She further reflects on how the unequal share of responsibilities between women and men worsens the disadvantages of women in balancing public and private life.

She calls for global action in creating a different environment where women can thrive.

“As we are empowering women to claim spaces in different spheres of public life, there is a need for the world to create conducive environments that are supportive of women.

Environments, be it our communities, homes, workplaces and political institutions that are genuinely sensitive and aware of the hurdles women face, as they bear the burdens of housework, childcare, and other family responsibilities”.

Nthakomwa believes that women’s political issues are multi-faceted and complex, requiring multi-pronged approaches and long-term interventions targeting multiple stakeholders.

She explains: “We need to target internal reforms to take place within political institutions as well as to change the negative perceptions of women and politics.

“In all this, acknowledging that there have been quite some initiatives implemented within the region, there is a need to invest more in learning, build on what works, and avoid the pitfalls”, she ends.

For her, the 2022 International Women’s Day theme was a call to unlearn the skewed world views.

Nthakomwa says the root causes for biases against women are entrenched in the way various societies are constructed.

She states: “Societal and cultural norms shape how we view the world as we grow up. While currently, the target is to correct these biases through affirmative actions.

“We need to invest in today’s younger generation to not grow up with the same negative perceptions and biases.”