The rights we want: We want to choose our husband We want to own the land We want to go to school We don’ t want to be cut anymore We want also to make decisions We want respect in politics, to be leaders We want to be equal
- Rebecca Lolosoli
Simple words.
Too simple it seems to somebody like me, sitting in a western country where many of the above come easily, almost as a birth right stemming from being a citizen of a country where the fight for Women’ s Rights started in the 19th Century and were largely won in the mid-1970’ s.
It would be easy to draw a conclusion that African countries lag behind many western countries in the area of women’ s rights and in doing so feel a level of superiority as a civilisation. However, you wouldn’ t have to dig too far into the geographical and political history of the continent to understand how direct comparison is a futile and unhelpful exercise.
To take just a small example, most African countries didn’ t achieve independence from colonialism until the 60s and 70s. In comparison the UK took a little over 700 years to progress from small mentions in the Magna Carta( 1215) to achieving the right to vote( 1918). Furthermore, it wasn’ t until 1975 that the Sex Discrimination Act was passed and still to this day the fight continues to protect victims of
Perspective: Africa- June 2016
Gender Equality Plural Systems Betray Women’ s Rights
by Angela Turner, Perspective London Correspondent
8 rape, close the gender pay gap, improve employment rights for mothers, etc. We are arguably further along but still far from being an equal society.
On 15 June 1215, King John met with angry barons at Runnymede, England to negotiate terms and sign the Magna Carta. For the period of time it was written in, the Magna Carta was and is still seen as somewhat of a revolutionary document, establishing the principal that everyone, even the King, is subject to the law, guaranteeing the rights of the individual, the right to justice and a fair trial. Two clauses address a woman’ s right when widowed, meaning for the first time, a woman had the freedom to make a choice for herself. Clause 7 enables widows to gain inheritance after the death of her husband and to remain in the house of her husband for 40 days after his death. Clause 8 permits a widow the choice to not marry as long as she wishes to remain without a husband. This did, however, place her under the protection of the King or Lord, whoever owned the land, to whom she must gain consent should she wish to marry later on.
These may seem small steps now but these clauses caused respected mediaeval historian and expert on the Magna Carta, James Holt, to describe the document as“ one of the first great stages in the emancipation of women offering widows a direct route to freedom from a forced marriage”.
After decades of campaigning, women over 30 in the UK were given the right to vote in 1918 with the Representation of the