Gender Equality Leading Strengths

Political participation is said to be the key ingredient of every political system, be it traditional or modern, democratic or totalitarian. It means that in every political system there must be somebody in a position to take political decisions and perform other political actions like appointment and removal of officials from time to time. 

Factors like age, sex(gender), financial status, level of education, political and economic experience, psychology, geo-political zoning, primordial factors (religion, ethnicity), and nature of government, affect political participation.

In terms of women in politics, particularly, there are few occasions you would witness women participating in any political activity, especially during elections, few contest for political positions and very few women vote. Some factors that hinder women participation are further discussed below:

Education: Not all women have acquired adequate political education and so they know nothing or less about politics generally. Although the only specification given to those contesting for any political position at times is Secondary Certificate Examination, but not all women have acquired a political degree or political knowledge hence they are not conversant with the political orientation or structure to enable participation.

The Cultural Factor: This is a major factor because it is an ethos issue. In the traditional society, women are made to stay out of politics. With the only politics they can engage in being that of the kitchen. In a traditional society, it is believed to be the duty of the man, since he is the head, participating in politics automatically bequeaths one with power; It is generally accepted that only men be allowed to wield such political power.

The Psychological Factor: This factor hinders women participation in politics by implanting various reasons or motives in the mind on why women cannot participate fully in politics. For instance, a married woman with kids would be insulted even by her fellow women, if she attends political party meetings frequently and she is hardly at home to take care of her kids, especially if the meetings are held at night, a typical husband or man, would suspect her of having extra marital affairs since his wife would be coming back very late. This psychologically discourages women from participating in politics.

The Nature of Politics is said to be very violent and for those with the hearts and minds of stone, can withstand such violence. We have witnessed and heard about the violence that transpires every election season, a woman, naturally would not want to get involved in such as she has a lot to lose, health wise and beauty wise. If most women continue to think this way, there is no way any woman would want to participate in politics, or allow any family member of hers to participate.

Poverty and Dis-empowerment: In African Countries, we can conclude that the gender who is empowered is the man, some women are also empowered but cannot exceed the number of empowered men, and being empowered attracts authority, dominance, wealth, etc. With all these factors that the male specie possesses, there is a tendency of intimidation springing up, thereby leading to the laying back in political participation by the women.