[SPECIAL REPORT] Gender Inequality: The battles of women breaking gender norms, barriers

In this report, SIKIRU OBARAYESE writes about a world where women brush off looking pretty; their beauty is no longer defined solely by their physical attributes. It’s a world where women are showing value, energy, and grit and are breaking the barriers that were once a limitation for their predecessors. Women in this world are showing no aspect of life is exclusive to any gender. Khadijat, Tolulope and Funmilayo’s stories are evidence that even with acquiring and using hard skills such as being a mechanic, a painter or a shoe-maker.

Under the heat of the Sun, she lifts a heavy hammer in her hand and bears down unto the car’s engine; the metallic sound, vroom and honk of a vehicle being tested, dominate the air at Mechanic Village, Samonda, Opposite Aerodrome GRA, Ibadan, Oyo state, where Khadijat Ganiyu, popularly known as Car Girl or Queen of Bolt and Knots, attends to her customers who come for car repair.

Khadijat, a 25-year-old final-year mechanical engineering student at The Polytechnic Ibadan, works as an automobile Mechanic. She explained how difficult it was for her to get a tertiary education and how she motivated herself to stay committed to her passion for automobile repair.

“On many occasions, I took a cleaner job at a corporate company to sponsor myself to the polytechnic.

“I faced some challenges which discouraged me, from when I was learning till when I was on my own, but then I reassured myself with the hustler anthem. I told myself I wouldn’t study Mechanical Engineering and return to learn tailoring. I must do what I studied in school.”

Khadijat Ganiyu, a female mechanicAccording to Khadijat, discrimination against a female mechanic stops many people from patronising her.

“But they change their initial mindset about me being a woman after I work on their vehicle and see how perfect their car is.

“There’s nothing hard in it. The work is a mindset. A man alone can not lift an Engine. It can be possible with the help and support of others,” Khadijat concludes.

Despite women’s improvement, gender biases reign – UN

On June 12, the United Nations’ latest Gender Social Norms Index (GSNI) report revealed that women are more skilled and educated than ever before, yet even in the 59 countries where women are now more educated than men, the average gender income gap remains a staggering 39 per cent in favour of men. The report also sheds light on a broken link between women’s progress in education and economic empowerment but no improvement in biases against women in a decade, with almost 9 out of 10 men and women worldwide still holding such biases today.

Among men and women, “biased gender social norms are prevalent worldwide; almost 90 per cent of people have at least one bias” among the seven analysed by the UN Development Programme (UNDP).

The report further states that half of the people worldwide still believe men make better political leaders than women, and more than 40 per cent believe men make better business executives than women. According to data from the World Value Survey analysed and published by GSNI, a staggering 25 per cent of people believe it is justified for a man to beat his wife.

Social norms impairing women’s rights are more broadly detrimental to society and the expansion of human development. In fact, according to the Global Human Development Index (HDI), for the first time, there was a decline in human development in 2020 and the following year. According to Pedro Conceição, head of UNDP’s Human Development Report Office, the crux of this proposition is that everyone stands to gain from ensuring freedom and agency for women.

The woman auto mechanic, while speaking with NIGERIAN TRIBUNE, stated that her quest for success and independence does not stop her from being a girl stating that she “does what others girls too do. I do makeup occasionally whenever I have to attend a ceremony.”

Discouragement

Another 23-year-old girl painter, Tolulope Oyebamiji, told NIGERIAN TRIBUNE that her brother is her representative whenever she needs to get jobs from construction engineers.

“I told an engineer that I’m a painter and he couldn’t believe me. I told him I can do the job but he was not convinced because I am a girl adding that a woman cannot be a professional painter. So I went to my elder brother and explained things to him. I told him to collect the job for me and the man gave it to my elder brother and we did the work together. He didn’t give it to me because I’m a lady and he didn’t have trust in me but I got the job because I’m smarter.”

Tolulope, a final-year Osun State College of Education Ilesa student, said she learnt painting from her father, an operative of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC). She said her father only takes her brother alone to work, leaving her behind due to her gender.

“My dad is a painter and when I was young, he used to take my elder brother to work and teach him how to paint so I like the way he and my dad use to talk about it and whenever I see their work, I love it. I have a passion for painting but I thought I won’t be able to do it because I’m a lady. I got motivated when I saw my brother’s friend who’s a lady and into painting.”

‘Women continue to suffer injustices, marginalisation in Nigeria

While the Nigerian Constitution provides for gender equality and non-discrimination, women continue to suffer injustices and marginalisation. This is often a result of discriminatory laws, religious and cultural norms, gender stereotypes, low levels of education, and the disproportionate effect of poverty on women.

Despite these obstacles, some individual women have pushed through to hold key leadership positions in Nigeria, often to great acclaim and the benefit of society at large. But the playing field should be levelled to maximise the development of women in all spheres where they have been historically excluded and discriminated against.

Human Rights Watch has asked the Nigerian authorities and lawmakers alike to recognise women’s barriers and ensure that Nigeria’s laws and policies help dismantle these barriers and pave the way for women to thrive in society.

‘Don’t give maginalisation a chance’

The experience of Khadijat and Toluwalope is similar to 37-year-old Ondo-born Funmilayo Akaniade, a female shoemaker and a 2009 biochemistry graduate at Igbinedion University Okada (IUO).

Funmilayo recounts: “When I first started, it was challenging. People will think a woman is doing this work, are you sure she’s good. But when they get a product from me they always like it.”

“The way I joke with my customers- even if they have the intention of not patronising me, with the way I approach them, they would change.”

While encouraging other women to pursue their dream skills without fear of biases, the female shoemaker noted that entrepreneurs are key, and as an individual, you have to get something done. For a woman, either single or married, you should have your own money. You can’t rely on someone considering the economy right now. We have to help each other to put food on the table.

Funmilayo adds: “Women are a support system for men. You can make your money and be a support system to your man. So you don’t have to be superior because you’re making money. Try to be submissive and support your man financially and morally, ”

But rather encourage women, either single or married, to continue to strive and not give marginalisation a chance to undermine them.

In her words, though the barrier persists, the 23-year-old female painter also urged women to stop giving “excuses claiming nobody to help or because they need money. There are things you can do other than sell yourself because of money. There are jobs outside. It’s just that you need to push yourself to get something done.

“I want to be pampered by men too but there are no men out there that want to get married to a liability so if you’re a hard-working woman, you will find a man that will pamper you just because you’re not a liability, “Funmilayo admits.

Feeling’s same in professional cycle – Expert

Speaking with NIGERIAN TRIBUNE, A gender advocate, Executive Director of Value Female Network, Dr Costly Aderibigbe-Saba, decried the high level of gender imbalance and discrimination of women in Nigeria, which, according to her, has worsened. She highlights her experience with discrimination as a medical doctor, noting incidences of being overlooked or discriminated against, just because she is female.

“People underrate women doing men’s jobs even when they display their capability. People naturally underrate them because of their gender and when some people advocate against gender equality it is not about fighting with the men.

“I am a medical doctor, when I was working in the hospital most times I would be in my work coat and professionally dressed and patients would still see me and say nurse and I would be like what else will I need to put on? They just believe that naturally the nursing profession is just meant to be for females. They are supposed to be assisting the males.”

The Need to unify the message

Speaking about the campaign for gender equality, Dr Costly noted that asking for equal opportunity for both genders is not to say that females want to be a male.

I’m a female, and I can’t be biologically male. I’m so comfortable with the way God has created me.

While commenting on the reason gender equality is far from being achieved in Nigeria, She said gender advocate groups need to be “unified” in their message. We need to know exactly what we are advocating for and we need to take it one at a time. Those issues are complex, interconnected and interwoven but we still have to take it one at a time that we are advocating for this over this period and we are able to achieve it.”