Election fever is here again, but where are the women’s voices?
Friday September 04 2020
Tanzanian presidential candidates John Magufuli (waving) of ruling CCM and main opposition Chadema's Tundu Lissu (in black). There is no strong female candidate for the presidency in the October 2020 election. PHOTO | AFP
The General Election season has finally begun! When writing this column, all the major political parties and the minor ones, too, had submitted their choices of presidential candidates to the National Election Commission without … let me just check my social media really quickly … yes, without undue or unanticipated incident so far. So let us talk about the gender angle, that’s always fun.
I am going to resuscitate the age-old question and give it another spin here: do women make better leaders? By implication, would the world be a better place if women were the majority in charge?
It only occurred to me as I was watching the campaigns warm up that what has been missing is the revolutionary feeling of feminism really taking root and becoming a powerful tool of local politics. Or am I wrong?
After all, just a few weeks ago I was in ecstasy over the achievements of powerful women in the opposition parties who have refused to be cowed, and the emergence of the women’s wing of one party in particular for gaining voice.
This is genuine local women’s vote mobilisation isn’t it? Yes, I believe so. Is it transformative? No. One quick glance at the numbers will show you that nobody dared to put forward a strong female candidate for the presidency in this election. Somehow we have stepped behind the men, yet again, in a show of support which involves a woman knowing her place … which is not in front.
The generational transformation of my era was supposed to hit right about now, and it hasn’t. The crucial issue is not to woman-wash politics and confuse that for empowerment. After all, we have a woman as vice-President and I am not sure that times have gotten any easier for girls to attend school considering all the challenges they face. This is key.
While writing this, I thought of all the children whose wisdom I have sought over time and how many of them said with conviction that they wanted to be president when they grow up.
Boys: did it all the time, no matter how delusionally unfitting they were for the job. Girls? Almost never, in fact suggesting a career in politics is a great way of ending a conversation with any who have even a hint of talent emerging that they are aware of. Which leaves the handmaidens. The helpmeets. The collaborators, the snitches and concubines, the general mass of us who benefit from patriarchy.
How could a woman make a better leader in this situation? There isn’t opportunity. We’re not New Zealand-flavoured yet, you see.
We’re not genuine yet about our respect for the young, the non-traditional, the range of cultures we have here and the fact that women make up the majority of the votership and the population while we’re at it. But maybe we’re moving the needle, and can do so even more by voting women in where possible until that question can come around again and provide a more nuanced answer.