Social Democratic Party (SDP) leader and 2023 presidential candidate, Adewole Adebayo, has called for fair treatment of women in Africa, especially in respect of distribution of leadership positions.
He urged men to go beyond sentiments and platitudes and appreciate the important roles women play in society by assisting them to occupy leadership positions.
Adebayo made the call while speaking at the ‘Women in Sustainability Africa Summit and Launch’ in Accra, Ghana.
The SDP chieftain, who was a guest speaker at the event, disagreed with the notion that certain jobs are not meant for women.
He noted that some of the stereotypes do not work well, stressing that it is not enough to come out and say that women are the most perfect leaders or that they cannot perform certain jobs without first giving them the opportunity.
Adebayo argued that rather than being sentimental, women’s ability to perform certain jobs, believed to be exclusively for men, should be subjected to data analysis. He stated that once a proper system is put in place, there is no system that women cannot run successfully.
He said: “Let us use data in dealing with women, not sentiments. We did an experiment in Nigeria when we started putting ministers in places like Petroleum, Finance and all those other sectors where the men used to steal all the money. We started putting women there and they performed well, but after some time, we stopped loving these women because we started seeing the same problem.
“So, what we came up with is that when dealing with women and when dealing with men, you must set up systems that work. There is no system that a woman cannot run successfully and there is no system, if it is not well designed, that a woman cannot falter.
“So, we must go beyond sentiments and platitudes; we must give women access to leadership. We must put all the safeguards there as well and not say because someone is a woman, she can’t perform certain functions. If a system is not well designed, the person will not be able to function well, man or woman.”
He lamented that some men are still viewing women from the prism of pre-industrial age when women were asked to sit at home and take care of the domestic fronts while men went out to work in factories.
Adebayo added: “The labour laws did not recognise any work done outside the factory as work because they defined labour as how much you pay per hour, and nobody will pay for breastfeeding. Nobody will pay you for making the home conducive.”
He commended the Ghanaian President, John Dramani Mahama, for hosting the epoch event.
