Nigeria is a country with diverse cultures and ethnic groups. These ethnic groups each have their norms and beliefs.
That one thing in my country I believe needs to be changed is Gender Inequality.
According to the dictionary, gender inequality is the unequal treatment, opportunities and rights of individuals based on their gender.
Most times, gender inequality is caused by different cultural beliefs that a particular gender is superior to the other. I have seen a situation where a man and a woman went for a job interview and the man was given the job which he was not qualified for. But he got the job because of his gender, while the lady who was more qualified was disregarded.
In some parts of my country, women are considered subordinates to their male counterparts. We need to change our mentality about this. Women should not be pushed to the back. I do not always feel happy when I see a woman with good qualities who are not ambitious because they believe top positions are meant for men.
Gender inequality is one of the biggest issues we face in my country. There are some cultures which do not allow women to mingle with the men, they believe the women are unclean and are not supposed to come into their midst.
Some cultures believe that the woman's role ends in the kitchen and taking care of the children. They are also limited by the kind of occupation they do, giving a woman's hand in marriage without her consent and all that. Some societies do not allow women to move around especially the married ones but the men will do that freely.
In the traditional aspect, women are not even allowed to attend traditional meetings, talk more of giving them positions in the council.
You see a woman contesting for a political office in my country, and they will not vote for her just because she is a woman. They believe the woman will override the men.
We have women with great ambitions and tactics to move the country forward but they are handicapped because of this gender inequality issue. Women have been denied so many positions in the country that would have been helpful to the country and beneficial to the citizens.
There was this instance where a woman was contesting for a counselor position in her Local Government Area and she had all the necessary requirements for the position and her opponent who happened to be a man, did not have all the required documents but the position was given to him.
I strongly believe if we women are allowed to handle some affairs in the country, there will be a great change. We should do away with this gender inequality because it is not helping us and is really telling on the country.
Though good governance is the foundation on which a solution can be established, I strongly believe we all need to change to tackle this problem. If we have time to complain about something, then we should have time to do something about it. With this tackling of gender inequality the society will be conducive for the women to live in.
Thank you for reading.
Images used are mine.