Thursday, March 18, 2010

Today's Women and the Society

NEWS BANJUL, THE GAMBIA (MB)- In our world today, we see women of different societies, ways of living, traditions, norms, values and beliefs. Regardless of what civilization and modernization have shown and managed to convince women, still some women are lagging behind. An educated woman can be seen living in the heart of our cities especially in Africa with cold and hot running water gushing from the tap whenever they needs it and a generator which comes in whenever the lights go off wouldn't believe that there is another woman who thinks that her life is a fairy tale. This woman most of them are living in the slums and in a shanty house. Never in their wildest dreams some have ever imagined being educated and living a life like that other woman's. Their life is a tussle, bustle and a hustle in everyday.
Women can be found in our markets or in a produce stall, Behind piles of plump tomatoes, greenery and fruits, calling on customers to come and buy just to makes ends meet. Some even left behind their sleeping baby with them in the market, while an older child is nearby selling sweets from a tray. At dusk the woman will pack her wares, count her takings, marshal her children and set off for home. The evening meal must be on the table promptly or her husband will grumble and her mother- in -law complain.
This women are universal and timeless figures. They could live in a town or countryside, in Africa , and their lives are busy with their margins very low.
However their children's health and nutritional status are borderline, literacy is limited to vegetable prices and market labels. A serious illness or sudden loss in the family fortunes could easily plunge this woman into desperation and destitution.
Many begins their days at dawn and ends past sundown and normally occupies its hours filling many roles simultaneously. They are mothers, wives, daughter-in-law, manager of the household; they are earners, traders, stall holders.
How much family and community support can count upon, these women to access to services, the household's economic health, their participation in affairs of the wider world, and in sense of command over the forces shaping their lives.
Fellow Africans it is high time that we calculate the situation of our women in the continent, this women in their everyday lives it seems to be from bad to worst. In fact everyday we see woman at the market, when we shop or even our women relatives at home. We must have also noticed that these women do not or have little education background, but with ignorance. They even blames the inflation on sellers, incognizant of the fact that it is due to the world market price. These very woman submits to whatever their husband and kinsmen say even if what they say is detrimental to their own human rights, unknowing to them.
But to the woman walking home from the market, holding tight to the earnings of the day in their pocket and to their dawdling youngster's hand, their roles are seamless.
African women in our markets knows that it is becoming harder and harder everyday to meet the obligations of being a woman and has thrust upon them. Economic crisis has lowered their takings and threatening their husband's job on the other hand. The hours they works stretch around the clock; yet the costs of rents, fuel, water, healthcare and school fees are rising everyday in the continent.
There is less food in the household, many may face the burden of another pregnancy at any time, some at youthful age.

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