Aman and his son are driving in a car one day, when they are involved in a fatal accident. The man is killed instantly. The boy is badly injured, but he is still alive.

He is rushed to hospital, where it is decided he needs immediate surgery.

The surgeon walks into the emergency room, looks at the boy, and says...”I can’t operate on this boy, he is my son.” How is this possible?

The riddle, used to illustrate the high prevalence of gender stereotypes in society, has many intelligent minds mystified, until the solution that—the surgeon is the boy’s mother — is revealed to them.

The stereotypes may be with us for a while yet.

Traditionally, women have been underrepresented in certain professions, as well as in leadership positions in business and in government.

East Africa, too, has lagged behind in the representation of women in government, despite key leadership skills unique to women that indicate they could well be the answer to the region’s advancement.

Under-representation of women in government is very much a global phenomenon afflicting developed and developing nations alike.

For instance, in Europe, Greece has only two women ministers and one woman deputy minister compared to 41 men in those positions; in the Middle East, Qatar has only one woman minister and 20 male ministers; and the United States of America, the self-proclaimed leader of the free world, has only three women members of cabinet, compared with 17 men.

But times are changing as the number of women in government leadership positions increases slowly but surely.

Women now hold about 20 per cent of parliament seats worldwide, compared to about 11 per cent in 1995.

In September 2010, the election of Simonetta Sommaruga to the seven-member Swiss federal council brought the number of women to four, forming the first executive consisting of more female ministers than male in that country and joining the ranks of Finland and Norway, the only other countries with a majority of women in ministerial positions.

Africa has not been left behind. In South Africa 46 per cent of cabinet ministers are women, and closer to home, in Rwanda 25 per cent of cabinet ministers are women.

Their representation in government is vital to ensure that issues of particular concern to women such as water, land, family and youth issues, and gender equality are not neglected.

While some have scoffed at such issues as sideline feminine agendas, they are more often than not, issues that not only concern the half of the population that are women, but the East African economies and societies as a whole.

In East Africa, women leaders have had some successes.

In 2001, Ethiopia revised the family code to include a minimum marrying age of 18, a weighty issue afflicting many girls in the region who are forced into marriage at a young age, cutting short their education and putting them at risk of physical and psychological harm through childbearing while they are still children themselves.

In 2009, Uganda’s parliament passed the Domestic Violence Bill as a result of efforts by the Uganda Women Parliamentary Association.

The Bill, which forbids injury or endangerment of the health of a domestic partner, was finally enacted in March 2010.

Domestic violence is an issue of gravest concern to women, who are, after all the majority victims of the crime.

Kenya’s new Constitution, which also came into law in 2010, guarantees women the right to equal opportunities in political, economic, cultural and social spheres; forbids discrimination on grounds, including gender, pregnancy, and marital status; and guarantees women greater representation in government.

For Southern Sudan, at the dawn of a new beginning, issues such as the education of girls and healthcare are of particular concern, and are highly pertinent in a country that has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world, and high levels of illiteracy among women, with three times as many boys as girls are enrolled in primary schools.

Women in Southern Sudan have been vocal in asserting their right to equal representation.

Perhaps because of their experiences through the lengthy war period, Southern Sudanese women have a high level of political awareness.

They know first-hand the toll that war takes on its most innocent victims, the children.

Through the South Sudan Women Union, which has branches across the country, women discuss political and societal issues and pass on their grievances to their women representatives in government.

But issues of particular concern to women, while important, are only half the story.

The truth is, women have unique leadership qualities that are critical to turning the tides and leading the region to peace and prosperity.

It has been a few years since a study conducted by Caliper, a Princeton, New Jersey-based management consulting firm, and Aurora, a London-based advocacy organisation, women proved that women leaders are more assertive and persuasive than their male counterparts, have a stronger need to get things done, and are more willing to take risks than male leaders.

Observation also reveals that women leaders are generally not tethered to ‘old boys’ networks and allegiances.

Take for instance Kenya’s Martha Karua, leader of the Narc Party and; a stalwart and fearless reformist who resigned her Cabinet position as minister for justice , on ethical grounds.

Finding her hands tied in her quest for judicial reform from the inside, she chose to continue as a Member of Parliament only, a role that, as she said, would allow her “to totally disagree with anything that is anti-reform.”

Ms Karua, who has declared her intention to run for “CEO of Kenya” as she refers to the presidency, is a woman who is not afraid to take a stand on issues.

No fisticuffs

In Tanzania, Anna Tibaijuka, the recently retired executive director of UN Habitat is back in parliament, and her history of bringing women from all political persuasions together around their common interests is not forgotten, nor is her devoted campaign for women’s land rights.

According to the Caliper study, women leaders are also more empathetic and flexible, as well as stronger in interpersonal skills than their male counterparts, enabling them to read situations accurately and evaluate information from all sides.

In other words, women tend to find means of resolving disputes that don’t involve fisticuffs.

The value of this cannot be gainsaid at a time when disagreements have meant both internal and external strife for the majority of countries in the East African region, to the detriment of our economies, our social development and our dignity.

Maria Mutagamba, Uganda’s Minister for Water and the Environment, undoubtedly needed these qualities in her two-year role as president of the African Ministers’ Council on Water to promote peaceful co-operation in the competing uses of water, particularly in the case of trans-boundary water resources such as the Nile, which is shared by 10 countries.

Besides, Mutagamba has been active in Women Leaders for WASH, an initiative promoting women at the centre of water supply, sanitation, and hygiene activities at both national and international levels.

When it comes to government leadership, women are slowly breaking through the “glass ceiling”, that invisible barrier that has historically prevented the rise of women into leadership ranks; but with the glass ceiling gone, the “glass cliff” is taking its place.

The “glass cliff” concept refers to the discovery that in a corporate setting, women are most likely to be placed in leadership positions when there is a downturn in company performance.

This is tantamount to placing them on top of a “glass cliff’, because of the precarious position in which they find themselves.

The glass cliff phenomenon applies equally in a political setting, and a casual look at the circumstances under which women are appointed to leadership appears to prove it true.

It seems an unlikely coincidence that South Africa and Rwanda, the two African countries with the highest representation of women in government, coming out as they were from a period of extreme turmoil, would within a short space of time appoint a large number of women to leadership by chance.

South Africa, coming out from the horror of apartheid just three short decades ago, and Rwanda, having suffered one of the worst humanitarian crises of all time less than two decades past, now have representation of women on their governments that is remarkable, not just on the continent, but in the world.

South Africa has 13 women Cabinet minister and 10 women deputy ministers alongside the 15 men Cabinet ministers and 11 men deputy ministers.

Rwanda has nine women cabinet ministers serving alongside 22 men.

Is this the result of recognition of the qualities women bring to the table, or merely the glass cliff phenomenon playing out?

The “glass cliff” can be seen in action elsewhere in the East African region.

For instance in Kenya, following the bungled 2007 elections, women have been appointed to hotspot ministerial positions tantamount to a glass cliff.

Martha Karua was appointed minister of justice and constitutional affairs at a time when confidence in the judiciary had hit an all-time low.

Naomi Shaban was appointed minister of special programmes at a time when thousands of Kenyans were displaced by violence following the elections; and later Esther Murugi was appointed to the same ministry with drought on the horizon and thousands of IDPs yet unsettled.

In both Rwanda and Southern Sudan, observers have suggested that the appointment of women to government in large numbers is merely window dressing to fulfil a legal quota requirement and put in place women who are easily manipulated in favour of the male perspective.

An alternative point of view could be that, like in other settings, women are willing to cede the appearance of power if necessary to accomplish more important objectives.

The accomplishments of these women will speak of their strengths louder than a rallying call to feminism ever could.

Close gender-based gaps

The affirmative action quota system is not an end in itself but a necessary means to kick-start the process, which is why the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China, in 1995 called for at least 30 per cent representation of women in national governments.

In September 2000 at the UN Millennium Summit in New York, world leaders pledged to “promote gender equality and the empowerment of women as effective ways to combat poverty, hunger and disease and to stimulate development that is truly sustainable.”

At that meeting, the goal of gender equality was added to seven others that make up the Millennium Development Goals.

The Eastern African Sub-Regional Support Initiative for the Advancement of Women, a women’s rights organisation with headquarters in Kampala, is leading the campaign to have the EAC countries establish a single binding legal instrument to close gender-based gaps in government decision-making.

The aim is 50-50 representation of the genders as specified in the Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa

Men certainly have their strong points as leaders, but the East African region seems to be crying out for women leaders as well.

We have seen the passion which some women leaders have put into advocating for judicial reform, development of water resources for the region, land reform and universal education.

Where women in the region find themselves appointed to “glass cliff” positions to fix situations that have already gone off the track, they have the tenacity to maintain their balance, precarious as it may be, transcend the circumstances, and lead their countrymen and women to greater heights.