WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP: ACHIEVING AN EQUAL FUTURE IN A COVID-19 WORLD
The 8th day of March is the day we celebrate women and girls all over the world and all their contributions to making the world a better place. This year, the focus of the International Women’s Day Commemoration is on ‘Women in leadership: Achieving an Equal Future in a COVID-19 World’ with the aim of celebrating the efforts of women and girls all over the world combatting the COVID-19 pandemic and modeling a more equal future.
Since the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, women have played very important roles in the global battle against the deadly disease. In fact, women have been in the frontline as they form the majority of health workers (doctors and nurses especially), scientists and caregivers. More importantly, countries which have been said to have efficiently and rapidly combatted the pandemic have female heads of state and government – countries like Denmark, Ethiopia, Germany, Iceland, New Zealand and Slovakia. The role of these women in their war against the pandemic in their countries has served as an eye opener that proper and effective leadership is not in the gender of a person. It is in his or her ability to simply lead.
However, women leadership is still significantly frowned at in most climes in the world today. Women are not adequately represented in government houses and legislative arenas. There are 195 sovereign countries in the world, but only 34 of them are led by women. People are still skeptical about voting women into political offices. Even after being privileged to be in those positions, people still doubt the capability of women until they deliver.
In order to achieve an equal future, even at a time when the whole world is going virtual, it is necessary to explore the human resource called woman. A woman should not ordinarily be expected to be the wife of the president or the personal assistant to the managing director. It should be a norm for people to expect women to be in leadership. It should not surprise us that a woman is making waves.
Generations past have made us believe some myths about women and leadership, and these have affected our line of thought and pattern of action till today. However, it is never not too late to make a change. The time to debunk all the myths surrounding the leadership of women is NOW! The generation to change the narrative is ours! Women are not weak. Women are not too emotional to lead properly. They are not made for only kitchen and childbirth duties. They are strong and brave. They are wise and capable to lead and lead right. The way forward is to set our mentality straight and tap into the wealth of resources resident in our women.
We join our voices with Sheryl Sandberg to express the hope that “in the future, there will be no female leaders (or male leaders). There will just be leaders” and our world will be better for it. This is the world we clamour. This change begins with the mind; your mind, my mind, our minds.