Women in Power

Sharing political power to accommodate more women have remained an unending issue in political discourse across the globe


Over the years, in Africa and across the globe, there have been an unending agitation on allocating political offices to women. Some believe that women are not as capable as men and cannot handle public offices. Some others just argue that the place of a woman is only in the home and not in politics. But gone are the days when these statements about women were true.

It’s the 21st century and women now have equal rights as the men, especially the right to vote and be voted for in politics. But unfortunately, the discrimination has persisted even with the continuous clamour as a result of the Beijing conference that situate 35% political slot for women. The questions have always been: Are the women incompetent or have they failed in the little opportunities allocated to them in the past? Or better still, don’t the women have something to offer to the society as the men do? All these are questions that needs urgent answers. But come to think of it, if a woman has so much power in the home, having the ability to transform a house into a home, then surely, there are very special abilities the women have to offer in the affairs of government.

One might argue that there is nothing unique about women leadership. But as a matter of fact, when more women are empowered to lead, everyone benefits. Decades of studies have shown that women leaders help increase productivity, enhance collaboration, inspire organizational dedication and improve fairness. Women demonstrate more transformational leadership styles. They are more likely to epitomize what’s good in the organization and inspire people to go along with its mission, compared to men.

Women are equally or competent as men. There is a general fact that states that, ‘what a man can do, a woman can do better.’ This is not just a saying to rob men off their unique masculinity. But the saying has been tested and proven to be true many times in different scenarios. Today we see women doing even better at the same tasks done by men. Team collaboration is also greatly improved by the presence of women in leadership. In two studies with 699 people, organizational psychologist, Anita Williams (Phd), and her colleagues, examined working groups of two to five people. They found out that the proportion of women in a group was strongly related to the group's collective intelligence, which is the ability to work together and solve a wide range of problems. Groups with more women exhibited greater equality in conversational turn-taking, further enabling the group members to be responsive to one another and to make the best use of the knowledge and skills of members.

Another unique thing about female leaders is that they are not merely an end. Rather, they are a means to strategically change insidious gender stereotypes and overcome the trade-off between women being perceived as either competent or likeable.

Women have been clamoring for more privileges to serve, not just to occupy public offices but to also bring something to the table. It’s true that there are the bad eggs who seek such opportunity for selfish purposes, but we can see that on both sides of genders. If we continue to use the ineffectiveness of one woman to judge the entire ability and competence of women in power generally, then we will definitely miss out on a lot. So let the women be given equal chance as the men for a healthy balance in politics and more productivity. Lastly, women leaders provide better mentorship. According to a study, 29% of women believe that their gender will limit them from life achievements and advancements. But with women in leadership positions, they stand as role models, transmitting the mindset of being whatever you desire to be regardless of your gender.