Africa-Press – Eswatini. Males and females of the human species should be equal but never identical.
From the start of mankind, they were two separate people: Adam (male) and Eve (female) in the Christian faith; but unnamed – and unrecognisable – in Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution. Those are just two examples. Males and females were built differently. The males were hunter-gatherers, chasing and then escorting wild pigs to the braai. The end-product was meat for the human race; not vital for full bodily growth, as the vegetarians will testify, but a tasty meal. The females stayed at home, producing and caring for children, as well as preparing the pot.
Cultures
For many centuries, while varying among the cultures of the world, the physical and social divide between sexes remained huge; until quite recent decades. Women became stronger and, in many sports, sought to match the physicality of men. No names mentioned, but heavy strength training has made some ladies look more like men than most men. No better example of this was the group of ‘Amazons’ – the female bodyguards engaged by Libyan despot, Colonel Gaddafi for a period in the 2000s. A liSwati, Zoro Masilela, as strong as any of the bodyguards being prepared in Libya for assignment to Gaddafi protection work, found himself flattened by one of these Amazon instructors when he was taken to task in a training session. Read the full story one day.
The physical differences may continue reducing in the human evolution of future years. There is certainly an increased blurring of gender distinctions. From the 1960s onwards men and women started confronting restrictive gender stereotypes of male dominance and female subservience. Today, ‘non-binary’ points in that direction. It isn’t conceivable that males will start producing children – well, not just yet – but existing hormonal differences may start to close, reflecting the emerging lifestyles and emotional changes of modern times. And, in any event, that great historical distinction – which sex is the one that goes to war – has gone. The ladies, when fighting in battles, are effectively as strong as men when it comes to piloting the fighter aircraft or pressing the button on big weapons.
Tragedy
In my view, it would be a tragedy to see the disappearance or merging of a number of significant differences, especially the femininity and masculinity, which are the naturally distinctive features of the respective sexes. What is perhaps the most important measurement is the rate of progress towards gender equality. But we need to start with a definition of gender equality; a suggestion as follows: Equal access to resources and to opportunities to meet aspirations; and where neither sex is privileged or prioritised over the other. So, how are we getting on? Well, it varies across the world and a couple of weeks ago the World Economic Forum’s latest Global Gender Gap Report came up for discussion. The report claims that it will take 131 years to achieve full gender parity; that’s gender equality.
More meaningful was the chart which listed the countries in order of gender parity. Iceland, a small country in the north-west corner of Europe, is the only country to close more than 90 per cent of the gap between the sexes. For half of the past 50 years it’s had a female head of State and 48 per cent of its Members of Parliament are female. But the picture gets a bit cloudy because it ranks low in female educational achievement, health and survival figures. Nevertheless, it ranks very high in other indices, being rated as one of the happiest countries and one of the most peaceful. There you see very little gender-based violence (GBV) that shames many countries of the world. Is Iceland a nice place to live? Yes, but take a thick coat and hot water bottle; and watch out for erupting volcanoes.
Poor
Eswatini has a poor record with regard to GBV, yet we should enjoy our overall gender equality ranking of 46th out of 146 countries listed (no mention of the other 40-odd countries that appear in other global indices). We have achieved a 74 per cent gender parity and moved up 12 places since last year, and now with only seven African countries ahead of us. Nothing springs to mind about the 2021-22 changes that could give rise to that but there are always time-lags in data collection and validation processes. Credit will perhaps be awarded for our new female deputy prime minister. It’s a trend to be pleased with and once we get this cowardly GBV down to minimal proportions, we will be up with the big boys. That’s one of the ways to put our country positively and productively on the world map.Interestingly, Namibia is the African country that shines in the chart, being ranked eighth with an 80 per cent gender parity, not far ahead of Eswatini, but beating the UK, Canada and the USA. Many of its Cabinet ministers are women and there is very little gender discrimination in the workplace; progress in both criteria being shared by Eswatini. But also shared is the low ranking in GBV and sexual harassment. Time to come down very hard on it, not least seeing the perpetrators publicly shamed, as they are in most First World countries.
Source: times
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