Punching above their weight!

Patriarchy is a structure of society or government in which the male is the head and descent is reckoned through the male line. The issue of patriarchy was and is still not practised in just the families and societies but in government too.

Women are underrepresented in politics, in Lesotho, and this is a result of patriarchy and it seems to be a global tendency. It is true that some countries may have relatively more women involved and active in politics as opposed to some countries but the eminent truth and fact that women are underrepresented remains unchanged.

This behaviour is however rapidly changing as women are being elected to participate and go in parliament all around the world.

Nevertheless, equality is still a long way off and it will be a while before more women grow confident enough to break down the patriarchy custom and throw themselves fully into politics.

Just like any other “male related” roles, politics as a set of activities associated with decision making and power has always been seen as a male field. Trends are however changing but for women to enter politics, such attitudes about womenfolk still make it harder for some to succeed in politics. This behaviour still exists all over the world up to this day.

Research shows that women’s representation in Lesotho’s parliament dropped by two percent from 25 percent to 23 percent after the 2017 general elections. The vast number of these women were or are from the urban areas and only a few of them are from the highlands. No one is strange to the fact that patriarchy is still strong and very much alive and ruling in the highlands hence the low representation of women from the highlands in parliament.

However, over the last two decades, the rate of women’s representation in parliament has incrementally increased from below 11 percent to 24 percent and we are talking globally.

In the 2017 general elections where we witnessed the 2 percent drop, the Reformed Congress of Lesotho (RCL) was the only woman-led party in the country and the first ever in the coalition government. This party is led by ‘M’e Keketso Rantšo who broke the stereotype and proved to many that women can really prosper in politics.

Today we have three more women-led parties that will be participating in the 2022 general elections.

These women surely are determined to change the trend of having only men participate and lead political parties. Although their fellowship is not really plentiful, these women are very much confident in being given a chance to represent women in parliament.

Many of them have achieved quite a number of tangible things that prove that women can take charge of affairs and are capable of making decisions that are binding to everyone.

The 2% drop of women’s representation in the 9th parliament says a lot about the need for a review of all political parties mandates. Our politicians should consider encouraging women’s representation in decision-making as the retired and the currently elected women MPs have been working effortlessly to ensure that the challenges they face as women in politics are addressed accordingly.

These challenges include discrimination and gender based violence among others.

More research shows that “Currently women MPs represent just 22 percent of the total number of parliamentarians globally, about 4 percent increase over the past 5 years. This is still falling short of the critical milestone of achieving a minimum of 30 percent female representation in politics – the target which helps to ensure the presence of a critical mass of women in politics.”

This is according to People’s Assembly blog of South Africa.

In the same South Africa, the role of women in politics has increased since the end of apartheid. The South African government says one of the success stories of e democracy is that of the representation of women in political and decision-making positions.

The promotion of gender equality, not just in politics but in all spheres of life can really help develop a lot other countries as it did for South Africa.

In August of every year since 1959, South Africa has been celebrating women who were brave and active in calling for change. These women made sure that their rights as women were re-discussed and included in the country’s constitution.

Our women politicians should really do something about increasing their number in parliament if they really want to be well represented and included when reforms are made. Also, the people in the constituencies should give these women the benefit of the doubt, give them a chance to represent them and see if they can achieve everything they set.

Political parties should also conduct a sexual category inspection that will show how assortment and the participation of women can help parties in the political arena. Special mentoring programmes should also be developed to support women with gender role reservations from more experienced women politicians.

I am talking the likes of ‘M’e ‘Mathabiso Lepono (former minister of gender, youth, and sports), ‘M’e Mamphono Khaketla (former minister of finance), ‘Me Pontšo Sekatle (former minister of Local government), ‘M’e Mphu Ramatlapeng (former minister of health and social welfare), ‘M’e Mpeo Mahase-Moiloa (former minister of justice) and more others who never feared the “big politics”.

These women proved to many that women too are capable of handling power and responsibility. These women ignored the patriarchal values that are reinforced by societies that refuse to believe that women can take charge of affairs and make big decisions.

This arrangement will help improve many women’s skills that are interested in politics but are restricted by the social norm that politics is a man’s world. In the coming general elections we want to see more women in parliament and this can only happen if we all give them a chance and remove the gender tags.

Bokang Masasa