Leaving women out of the gender train

When lawmakers passed the Gender Equality Bill last year, they envisaged its enactment ensuring equal numbers of male and female Malawians in all spheres of life. In their reasoning, the framers of the long-awaited law found it fitting to insert stipulations towards achieving gender parity in both training institutions and workplaces.

However, the country must overcome overwhelming disparities in vocational and entrepreneurial trainings, especially those related to achieve parity in the informal world of work. For example, the emerging Zayed Solar Academy in Nkhata Bay, has only four girls in a 28-strong group undergoing a six-week training in solar energy.

“We will never achieve gender equality in the world of work until more girls are encouraged to take training opportunities on offer,” says Gladys Banda, one of the four girls.

At 21, she could be a personification of young ladies studying for white-collar jobs elsewhere. During the meeting, however, she was wearing a blue overall and gumboots, the garb most young women reportedly shun in preference for jobs that guarantee them executive suits matched with exquisite hairdos and high-heels.

Unlike many young people, the girl, who reverted to the village after failing Malawi School Certificate of Education (MSCE) examinations at Royal Private School in Mzuzu five years ago, sees nothing wrong with doing all the dirty work required by the training which has rekindled her chances in life.

Looking back, she recounted the rare escape from the city: “When I failed the examinations in 2009, I went to live with my sister in the village, thinking my life was over. My hopes of going to the university were blown to pieces. I could not afford fees for courses offered in various technical colleges. However, the solar energy training has rekindled the lights and I can no longer understand why girls shun jobs that have to do with overalls, boots, wires, pliers and hammers.”

Looking forward, she sees the training brightening her future tremendously.

“I am getting a skill that will enable me to get a job or become self-employed,” she says.

Her self-belief and career path contrasts sharply with those of her peers, says Technical Entrepreneurial and Vocational Education and Training Authority (Teveta) executive director Wilson Makulumiza-Nkhoma.

Established in 1999, Teveta is a State-run training authority constituted by an Act of Parliament to help lessen the country’s unemployment levels through skills development.

In an interview, Makulumiza-Nkhoma confirmed the low uptake of vocational training among women and girls. He reckons the gap has forced the authority to lower the gender ratio to three girls for every seven boys.

“Ideally, we are supposed to be vying for a 50:50 ratio, but where will we find the female trainees if they are failing to find candidates to satisfy the 30 percent quota?” he asks.

Having women occupying 30 out of 100 positions in public offices was the ration Sadc heads of State and government settled for when they met in Blantyre in 1997 and elevated the Declaration on Gender and Development to the most binding of the regional organisation’s instruments.

A global first, the declaration was hugely criticised for fuelling disparities and it birthed a campaign which saw the heads of State and government adopting the Sadc Protocol on Gender and Development which prescribes equal representation of women and men in all echelons of life.

Gender equality is a fundamental human right. Malawi ratified the protocol last year and its Constitution embodies stipulations of Sadc treaties which require member States not to discriminate against any person on the grounds of sex or gender, among others.

The country is also party to the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (Cedaw).

In line with domestic and international instruments, the Gender Equality Act requires gender parity at all levels, making it a crime for training and employing institutions to fill 60 vacancies with members of one sex or recruit less than 40 of the other.

Clearly, Teveta has crossed the line.

But experience seems to favour the notion that the disparities could be a sign of graver and widespread cultural stereotypes where women are made to believe they are meant for the kitchen and vocational works are for men.

In April, Teveta organised a bakery training at Choole in T/A Malaza and only three out of over 20 trainees were men.

“The fact that we have more women in bakery and fewer electricians, bricklayers, carpenters and motor vehicle mechanics, seems to show some Malawians are growing up in homes where parents define roles according to gender,” says Makulumiza-Nkhoma.

Teveta officials say they are working together with teachers and primary education advisers to help girls know the indiscriminate nature of vocational training and appreciate its value while they are young.

But low representation of female learners is not confined to vocational training alone, but also the teaching and learning of science.

In April, about 150 teachers of mathematics and science gathered for a training in Mzimba and there were only eight women in attendance. These included one mathematics teacher, seven biology teachers and none for physical science.

Most of the teachers approached said they were not up to the task, said lone female trainer Fides Manda-Msowoya of Luwinga Secondary School.

“If we are struggling to get teachers, how are we going to motivate school girls to pursue careers related to science and mathematics?” asked the head teacher of Luwinga Secondary School.