Gender-Disparity: The Need For Equality Among Male And Female Children -By Abdulrafiu Temitope Maryam

All children deserve to grow up and achieve their dreams regardless of their gender. Tragically, inequitable social norms rob millions of girls of their childhoods and risk their futures. Often, these damaging expectations directly contribute to the violation of children’s human rights.

However, it is pertinent to understand the words that coined the topic which are socialization and Norms. Socialization can be seen as a process of learning, whereby culture is transmitted from one person to another. Through socialization, society can convince its young ones to accept the rules and expectations that make up its act. While Norms; can be defined as essential elements of culture. They are implicit principles for social life, relationships, and interaction. It can also be viewed as a detailed and specific rule for specific situations.

Social norms influence nearly every aspect of daily life, including how we interact with each other, and Norms provide order in society. Human beings need norms to guide and direct their behavior, to provide order and predictability in social relationships, and to make sense of and understand each other’s actions. These are some of the reasons why most people, most of the time, conform to social norms even if they are not happy with them.

From time immemorial, Nigerian societies have assigned gender roles across the sectors and sections of the country. Unfortunately, this thought pattern plays a massive role in the underrepresentation of women in several fields, especially in politics: Nigerian women make up about 49 percent of the Nigerian population, but only 4 percent of them are lawmakers.

Nigeria has the lowest number of female parliamentarians in sub-Saharan Africa, sitting at the 133rd position in the global ranking of countries with female political representation. Such a figure begs the question; where are the women in Nigerian politics?

The political elites are a significant obstacle to women’s participation and involvement in politics. The ruling class is heavily dominated by the men, who work as a cartel, eliminating competition and bolstering the position of their friends and allies to maintain power.

Evidence from countries like Rwanda and South Africa shows that gender equality in politics is a near-impossible achievement until we nominate women at the party level. The mostly male elite holding power in this country makes such achievement unlikely at best and impossible at worst. Unsurprisingly, the disparity in education between men and women in this country also plays a vital role in the gender disparity of politics.

Because of the aforementioned gender roles, traditional families remain hesitant to send their girls to school, especially in the Northern region.

Women’s pressure groups remain limited in power until more is done at the institutional level to secure political positions for Nigerian women. Political quotas, for example, have proven successful in creating the world’s first female President in Rwanda in 2008. Most importantly, we must call for an end to gendered thinking.

These norms are based on shared beliefs and expectations about how people should behave. They include male entitlement, domination, and control over the bodies of women. The social norms on education are what are part of what is affecting the growth of the county. Because of the aforementioned gender roles, traditional families remain hesitant to send their girls to school, especially in the Northern region.

More specifically, most of the Yoruba tribes believe that women can not contribute greatly to the development of society, but they see them( girls) as the only agent by which society can maintain its population(reproduction). This belief is entrenched in the minds of the parents whose daughters are very ambitious to be good representatives in the global world of today. What do they take the girl for? The girls are just seen as a machine; to maintain the House, to raise and nurture the children, to satisfy the urge of the men whom they are married to. All these are the beliefs that were attached to them through the social norms of each society. Is this dogmatic inclination justifiable in third-world countries?

This reduced access to education has long-term consequences for the future of girls. Inequality cuts girls’ futures short, when girls are excluded from receiving an education, their ability to earn a living and become independent is drastically limited. Without equal opportunities to learn, income inequality and dependence on men to provide keep girls in a cycle of poverty and confinement to their homes to perform unpaid domestic labor. Lack of outside opportunities limits the ability of girls to reach their ambitions.

In conclusion, the social norms of this society have contributed immensely to the development and realization of the girl’s potential and talent. This must be washed away, and the parents must see the girls as useful as men. Even, more preferable than men. The federal government can and must do more to end the exclusion of almost half of the Nigerian population from active political participation. We must put an end to gender disparity in politics.

The female’s voices must be heard!

ATM is a 400-level student of English language at UDUS.