Anyone Can Do Anything

BY INESS CHILANGWE, ZIONE BOKOSI

There are many professions that some Malawians believe are male oriented, very few females do them and less are in top positions.

It has taken more than 20 years for some to accept that women can do what men can. For example: carpentry, construction work, engineering even veternary services.

Soche Technical College, which is under the Ministry of Education, is one of the schools to offer vocational courses with the help of TEVET to both male and female students.

TEVET is a non-governmental organisation that strives for gender balance in terms of education between boys and girls and making sure that their rights are exercised.

Out of 60 students that TEVET sends to the college to attend various fields of the training every year, it turns out that 18 girls graduate. It appears that some girls have a mind of white collar jobs, which also fuels to discrimination because they underestimate themselves.

Miss Chifundo Lodzeni who is the acting deputy principal of the college says that as an institution they encourage girls to do the most challenging courses.

“Girls should not be thought as people who only do light courses that do not involve technical stuff. Its high time Malawi has to realise that to educate a girl is to educate the whole nation. Nowadays you never know if you can get a job or not, but with these technical courses they are able to find a job easily and even be self employed as well,” she said.

Women and girls are striving hard for their rights especially at workplaces and in their homes to show that they are able to do what men can.

“I would urge those girls that are just at home doing nothing to go to any institution that offfers vocational courses and do them because its their right to do so as indicated in the Malawian constitution under Section 22. Their lives can change completely and in that way gender may be balanced,” Lodzeni added.

Most people seem to not understand what gender on its own means and they end up misunderstanding the whole idea of gender in the society. When gender was introduced most people took it for granted and thought it was a way of showing that they are better than others. This brought arguments on the rights of women and it is the time when home based violence came to its peak.

“Women need clear and simple jobs such as adminstrative (secreterial) but about construction and engineering they say are tough for them”, said Innocencia Nkolokosa, a painting and decoration student at Soche Technical College.

She added that most girls are discouraged at their early stages that they grow up with nothing but the mindset that they cannot do any challenging job. In a typical Malawian village they say that women belong in the kitchen and end up involved in early marriages. This is because they do not have role models and some people to encourage them on education.

“This is so because there is lack of sensitisation in technology.”

The relationship between human rights and womens equality has indeed assumed a place of prominence in the debates on globalisation and international law, including universal human norms to guide the conduct of public life, as well as private realms.

The female sex should be empowered by promoting their rights and being encouraged to do some self-supporting income generating initiatives, especially during the times we are living now because of financial struggles.

Women’s organizations and human rights groups have frequently relied upon legal approaches and rights based claims. Violence against women is now considered a proper subject for international human rights law. Indeed the issue of human rights for women has moved to centre stage of the United Nations (UN) in terms of programmes, adminstrative and methodological approaches to international relations.

So too, has the international criminal court which included both substansive protections, procedural safeguards and adminstrtive stuctures that are gender sensitive and designed to fully incorporate the needs of victims and witnesses to gender based crimes.

Women remain significantly underrepresented in various technical work places despite their rising presence worldwide.

It appears so because they are taken as people who do more on arts, entertainment and lifestyle, in this way they become discouraged and opt for these professions. Men in major positions outnumber women, while as Malawians we do have a long way to go for us to achieve gender equality and give these women and girls a chance and a voice.

Thanks to different womens organizations like Women and Law Southern Africa (WILSA-Malawi), the Society for the Advancement of Women, Association of the Empowerment of Women and indeed the Ministry of Gender for helping in fighting for the rights of women and girls in different areas of abuses, discrimination and gender based violence. The trainings and workshops they offer have helped women and girls to open their eyes and discover what they can do without fear of being oppressed by male or female stereotypes.

It is now high time men should see women as partners in development, for without them, society is incomplete.