Steemit Engagement Challenge S8-W2 | Gender visibility and enquality

Hello everyone, it is good to be a part of this challenge, as this is my second steemit engagement challenge post and my first in this community. I must commend the team of this community for coming up with this topic, and as a lady, this is one topic we love to see in the media, in blogs, in magazines, and in papers because we are still trying to get the world to become a gender equal place. I will be writing this post in a holistic manner looking at all sides of the table rather than with a biased understanding. Before I continue, let me share an experience of a friend who has been expecting a promotion for the past 3 years in a company in Nigeria but has been denied every time she is on the list. She thought it was because her contributions weren't enough but sincerely this friend of mine is a workaholic and I often tell her to take a rest so it doesn't affect her work. As a salesperson, she is always hitting her targets and exceeding them at her route but then the promotion doesn't seem to be hers. One day, she went to her boss and demanded why she hasn't been promoted, and her boss said how would she cope when she get married, that the business would be affected when she gets married. I will draw the curtain there with that story and will like to hear your own opinion on such a comment.

^{Max Pixels}

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How can you help your community forge a gender-equal world?

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Back to the challenge, let me quickly say a happy international women's day to myself and every woman in the world. Gender inequality is something that is predominant in many nations especially in Africa seeing the way her forefathers and parents characterized women. They saw women as baby factories and kitchen staff, and so didn't attribute any importance to the female gender. In the past, sending a girl child to school was a big deal and a lot of parents who had the courage to do so were stigmatized. Thank Goodness we are far beyond that era, but even when we are, there are still a lot of roadblocks and limitations towards women, such as differences in wages and salaries compared to men, discrimination when it comes to holding certain positions both executive and political, and so on. In a world where both males and females can add immense value, it is very wrong to discriminate against one over the other because of their gender.

While there are a lot of organizations that fight for the cause of women's equality, a good way to forge a gender-equal world in our communities is by helping to educate men and females alike about the importance of having a gender-equal world, and showing them the advantages of living together as equals instead of one being superior and the other being a subordinate.

Writing articles that will facilitate gender equality and correct the wrongs of inequality, and publishing them on platforms like Steemit, and other blogs, so people can be educated, will help drive equality in our world. Another place where I really will be touching is educating women. Remember I wrote at the beginning that I will be discussing this in a holistic way rather than a biased manner. In other to help with gender equality, women need to be educated. You see, many women see the man as the one who is supposed to shoulder the entire responsibility of the home, such as paying the mortgage, child support, and so on, and then expect the male gender to give them the respect they deserve, this wouldn't work. In other, for gender equality to occur, males and females alike need to understand that everything needs to be equal and not one-sided responsibility on one gender while the other clamor for equality.

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Can celebrating Women's International day increase visibility and equality?

To a reasonable extent, it can increase the visibility of women's awareness but you see in Africa, we celebrate anything women with respect to how they endured and suffered in their homes. For instance, if you ask a person why their mother's picture is on their Display Picture on International women's day, the response you would receive is, she is a virtuous woman, and if we are to look deep into this, it is because the mother was always there for them while the father was out there making the money to feed the family, or because the mother was able to endure the hardship in the home. This will not fully help eradicate inequality in gender because of the mindset people put into celebrating such events rather, educating the general public will help increase equality. In the rural part of Africa, some people do not have access to the internet and are still slaving away women, celebrating these types of events will give them a sense of appreciating the women's struggle in their lives but will not change the way their brains have been wired unless they are educated properly.

Do you think the boss of my friend doesn't celebrate international women's day, or do you think he doesn't celebrate mother's day? He does, and so do many men but until they are educated, and in worse cases sanctioned if it is an organization, equality will not set in. Also, until the females learn to take away most of their responsibilities on the men, which makes them feel like they are above, equality might be difficult to achieve.

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Are the Feminism fight and the Women’s Rights fight the same?

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The literal meaning of Feminism and Gender equality is basically the same being that according to the Cambridge dictionary, feminism is;

the belief that women should be allowed the same rights, power, and opportunities as men and be treated in the same way.^cambridge

While fighting for women's rights and the literal meaning of feminism work hand in hand, a lot of groups and women have taken feminism to the extreme where they have seen it to be the extreme hatred for men and the fact that a man shouldn't have right to live or own anything. I always say to myself that most of the recent feminists in the world are practicing witchcraft, as they are not fighting for women's equal rights in society which is the basis of the Women's rights fight, but rather they fight with hatred towards the opposite sex which is usually triggered by the previous experiences they have had in their past relationships or as a result of what their fathers did to their mothers who were in abusive relationships. The truth is, in literal meaning based on the dictionary and the code of conduct of many international bodies, feminism would mean fighting for women's rights but in reality, it has become a witch hunt word to attack the male gender.

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What do you say about women in top positions? Give possible examples in your country(community)

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It is very impressive to see women in positions of power and authority. Although it isn't predominant yet gradually the feminine gender is holding top positions. As a young lady, I have women I look up to in my country like Abike Dabiri Erewa (who is a Renowned journalist, and the Chairman, of Nigerians in Diaspora Commission), Obiageli Ezekwesili (the Chair of the Women Political Leaders Board), and Folorunso Alakija (Chairperson of Famfam Oils, and the second richest women in Africa) to mention a few.

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What makes a Good Leader (Gender or merit)?

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Good leadership should never be based on Gender, it should be based on Merit. My friend's promotion was based on gender, and she decided to drop her resignation letter only to be employed by another firm that placed her in the position she truly deserve. A lot of women have become a strong force to reckon with and their successes were based on merit and not gender. They worked hard all day, every time to achieve success.

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Conclusion

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Gender equality is possible, Closing the gap to achieve this is what we should look towards on a daily basis, and educating both men and women alike will help make this reality come faster than expected.

At the end of this post, I will like to invite @steemdoctor1, @lavanyalakshman, @doopley, @talktofaith, and @ruthjoe to participate in this challenge.