DEAR DIARY: The challenges of womanhood in Africa and beyond

It  is an important time for women around the world though there are many challenges facing us.  There are so many issues affecting us and they vary depending on the country you live in. 

It is our hope that this world would be a better place for women and everyone else.

For some women, it all about access to education with UNESCO estimating that one out of four women in developing nations have either not set foot in secondary school or completed their primary education. And there are many factors leading to this state of affairs according to an article in Global Citizen.

For some other women it is lack of access to family planning thus they can’t make choices about their reproductive health. And for others, it is all about lack of sanitary pads making menstruation such a bad experience.

And yet for others, Female Genital Mutilation is another issue they are grappling with. In this situation, the community just decides that women don’t deserve to have sexual pleasure so they mutilate their sexual organs in very gruesome ways. Some end up dying from the ordeal.

And yet for others, it is access to water that they are struggling with. This means they are not able to stay clean during menstruation thus for school going girls, they opt to stay home during those days to avoid embarrassment.

And then we have child marriages still taking place in this era. Here, young girls are not given the opportunity to complete their education and make informed choices about their future.

Often, poverty drives families to marry off their younger daughters to get some money for survival. The value of a woman in this scenario is equated to the number of animals the family get or the amount of money the family gets in form of bride price.

And then gender based violence, which is perpetuated by harmful social and cultural expectations about gender roles typically associated with being a woman or being a man, a girl or a boy.

It includes physical assault, rape, sexual abuse, sexual harassment and intimidation at work, school domestic violence among others.

It is our hope that these issues would be addressed to ensure that women are integral part of development and enjoy various attainments ranging from education to economic.