Women-led countries have been gaining a lot of attention amidst the Covid-19 pandemic. Countries and sectors with women in power have shown how leadership knows no gender, with caregivers, essential workers, scientists, doctors, and more handling the pandemic in inspiring ways due to women’s involvement. This article will look at some of the countries that entrusted women to lead, how that can inspire Africa on the path to gender mainstreaming and women empowerment and what we, at DBSA, are doing to play our part.
Leading Women Leading Nations
2020 was the beginning of a whole new normal for everyone around the world, and spotlights were shining on different countries for their different responses (and sometimes the lack thereof) to the pandemic. However, one of the most uplifting moments was seeing women-led countries respond to the pandemic with stern, decisive and earnest leadership. From Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel initiating tests from the get-go to Taiwan’s Tsai Ing-wen’s measures to curb the spread of the virus and New Zealand’s early lockdown, this has shown how women leaders have led with truth, strategy and heart. Qualities that are inspirational to a better future.
Behind Every Successful Woman Is Her Nation
We take for granted what can be achieved once there is a considerable amount of support. A lot of women leaders around the world have had to face bigger challenges than usual during the pandemic. Such challenges also include not being given support for their work, and for young girls in Africa, such challenges also include forced marriages and labour. Women and girls’ rights need to be at the forefront and their freedom prioritised as they often face more cultural and societal challenges. Structures supporting and protecting women and girls will help preserve our future women leaders.
Teach Girls Tech And Other Things
Education is also an important factor in arming women with the right skill sets to tackle leadership positions. If we can educate women across all borders (on culture, leadership, the economy, history, tech and more), we stand a better chance of having the sort of leadership that is selfless and aimed at protecting the rights of the people. The challenge with most education systems, especially in rural areas, is that they are not technologically advanced enough, and the children expected to benefit from them are struggling with grasping the content provided to them as it comes few and far between. Another problem is that most of these rural areas have schools and educational facilities that are far away from those that are supposed to benefit from them, making navigation to them almost impossible.
It is important to start equipping schools with the necessary technology to be able to offer our future leaders the preparation they need and deserve.
The DBSA Commitment
Not only are we committed to ensuring a world with gender equality across all sectors, but we know it’s a journey. That’s why we have our own gender mainstreaming initiatives and programmes designed to promote investment in women-only projects, adapting strategies and procedures that enable gender mainstreaming across the DBSA, and collaborating with organisations in both public and private sectors who share the same goals as us, to name a few. We believe together we can all achieve a world where more women are given the driver’s seat.
In Conclusion, We Are Getting There
With entrepreneurship being at the heart of surviving during the pandemic, a lot of women have resorted to taking their skills and putting them into businesses. Some are even pressured to build their businesses with technology in mind in order to grow and provide more people with their product or service. This means we can all support them with either investment opportunities, engagement with the product, or putting the women in spaces where they will receive more exposure and support. Anything helps in the journey of gender mainstreaming. We all can make a difference.